Last updated on November 9th, 2024
Most people know about rideshare options like Uber and Lyft. You can find these services in most major cities. If you’re traveling and have the Uber or Lyft app, you can use it to get a ride if you don’t want a taxi or to take public transportation.
However, what happens if your Lyft gets into an accident? What happens if a Lyft driver hits your vehicle? Who pays for that?
In this article, we’ll discuss these scenarios. We’ll use New York as an example. New York has contributory negligence laws, and we will talk about those as well. Get ready for a deep dive into the often murky waters of who pays for the damages following a Lyft accident.
What the Lyft App Allows
First, let’s make sure you know about what we mean when we talk about Lyft drivers and vehicles. The Lyft app came into prominence several years ago. Like Uber, the idea seemed revolutionary. Basically, anyone could become a chauffeur, of sorts, without needing a cabby medallion. All you needed was a driver’s license, the Lyft app, and a relatively new model car.
Lyft seemed like a godsend for some people. It allowed them to drive on their own time and make money doing it. Meanwhile, the customers had a new option. Some cities didn’t have many taxis, while others had very little public transportation. It seemed like a win-win situation. However, Lyft and similar rideshare apps come with their share of problems.
For one thing, Lyft can vet its drivers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean some won’t engage in reckless or downright dangerous behavior. They’re largely unsupervised. Just because an individual has a clean driving record, that doesn’t mean they might not do something unsafe on the road. They can also do something that’s not traffic-related but that still might make their passenger feel uncomfortable or even threatened.
What Happens if Your Lyft Driver Causes an Accident?
This leads us to what you must do if your Lyft driver causes an accident in NYC. New York City sees accidents all the time. You always see renegade cabbies flying down the road, intent on dropping off their passenger in record time. Lyft drivers often do the same thing.
If your Lyft driver causes an accident, in many ways, you must follow the same procedures you would if you rode in a noncommercial vehicle that caused a wreck. You must wait till the police get there and give them a statement. Then, you must get medical attention if you need it.
If you sustained an injury during a Lyft accident, you may also want to consider hiring an experienced car accident lawyer. However, you should also make sure you get one that does rideshare accident cases.
These cases resemble regular car accident cases, but they can have some subtle differences as well. You need a lawyer who knows about these differences and can navigate them with no issues.
What Do You Want from Your Lyft Accident Lawyer?
When you hire a Lyft accident attorney, you want the following. You want someone who can investigate to find out the accident’s cause. You want an attorney who can get data indicating the Lyft driver’s status when they caused the wreck. They should also communicate with all the insurance companies involved on your behalf. These companies can sometimes get pushy or even aggressive, and it’s far better if your lawyer does your negotiating.
You want a lawyer who can work with doctors or other specialists to determine your best course of treatment if the crash injured you. There’s something even more vital, though. You must have an attorney who can defend you if the Lyft driver claims you did something that caused the wreck. Maybe they’ll claim your talking distracted them or something similar. These situations happen more than you might think.
Contributory Negligence Laws
Earlier, we mentioned contributory negligence laws. New York City has them, and they often come into play in these Lyft accident instances. Basically, contributory negligence means that different or multiple parties might share financial obligations if they partially caused a car wreck. That applies with Lyft car crashes just like with noncommercial ones.
In NYC, if your Lyft driver wrecks, maybe it’s entirely their fault. If so, you might collect money from them if you sustained a serious injury and have medical bills or must miss work for a while.
However, maybe a bike messenger darted in front of your Lyft driver and helped cause the wreck. Perhaps a pedestrian jumped off the curb suddenly, and your Lyft driver slammed on the brakes, giving you a whiplash injury. A bus driver, another car’s driver, the transit authority, or some other person or entity might bear partial blame.
This is another instance where you will certainly need an experienced lawyer on your side. They can sort out the details and figure out who you should sue, if anyone. Usually, a good lawyer will have investigators. They can look into the accident and collect as much information about it as possible. That might include eyewitness testimony, video evidence, police reports, medical reports, etc.
Hearing all this might make you feel like you should avoid Lyft rides from now on. However, just because you might face complications from a Lyft accident, that does not mean you should always avoid this transportation option going forward.
Whether you’re trying to get somewhere in NYC or some other city, you can get into a wreck in a taxi or some other form of conveyance just as easily. Then, you will need to determine where the blame lies, just like you would with a Lyft accident.
You must simply buckle your seatbelt and hope that the driver knows what they’re doing and that nobody around you tries some dangerous maneuver that causes an accident. You must roll the dice every time you leave the house every morning. That’s just part of life.