Injured Rideshare Driver Lawyer: Coverage Gaps and Claims for Uber and Lyft Drivers

What happens if you are hurt while driving for Uber or Lyft?

If another motorist caused the crash, you can claim against that motorist's liability insurance for your injuries, lost earnings and pain and suffering, just as any other driver could. Your own medical bills are where rideshare driving changes things: Pennsylvania lets personal auto insurers exclude all coverage while you are logged on or on a trip, and the required rideshare medical benefit for the driver is just $5,000 (66 Pa.C.S. § 2603.1).

So the first two facts in any driver claim are what the app showed at the moment of impact and what your personal policy says about rideshare use.

Your personal policy and the rideshare exclusion

Pennsylvania expressly allows insurers to exclude any and all coverage under a personal auto policy for losses that occur while the driver is logged on to a rideshare app or providing a prearranged ride (66 Pa.C.S. § 2603.1(b)(1)). The exclusion can reach:

• Liability coverage for injuries and damage you cause.
• Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
• Medical payments and first-party medical benefits.
• Comprehensive and collision coverage for your own car.

What the rideshare coverage does and does not provide

The statute lets an insurer sell a rideshare endorsement that covers these periods (66 Pa.C.S. § 2603.1(b)(2)). If you bought one, that endorsement may be your most useful source of benefits, so find your declarations page.

While you are logged on and waiting, and while you are on a trip, the required rideshare coverage includes first-party medical benefits of $5,000 for the driver (66 Pa.C.S. § 2603.1(a)(2)(ii), (a)(3)(ii)). That is a small amount after an emergency room visit and imaging. The statute's required coverage lists liability limits and first-party medical benefits. It does not list uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, so whether you have that protection while logged on depends on the actual policy, which the company and insurers must describe on request after a crash (66 Pa.C.S. § 2603.1(b)(5)).

For damage to your car, Uber's driver help pages say its contingent comprehensive and collision coverage applies only if you carry comprehensive and collision on your personal policy and were en route to a pickup or on a trip, with a $2,500 deductible. Lyft's help center offers a post-collision inspection form for drivers after a crash has been reported to Lyft.

Workers' compensation for rideshare drivers

Pennsylvania's rideshare chapter in Title 66 sets insurance and licensing rules, but it does not say whether drivers are employees for workers' compensation purposes. Under the Workers' Compensation Act, that depends on whether an employment relationship existed, which turns on the facts of how the work was controlled and paid (77 P.S. § 1 et seq.). It is a contested question, not an automatic yes or no.

Company programs do not fill the gap in every state. Lyft's help center says its occupational accident insurance covers trips originating in California, Massachusetts and Minnesota, which does not include Pennsylvania. If a workers' compensation claim might be available to you, report the injury in writing right away: the Act protects benefits from the first day when notice is given within 21 days and bars benefits when no notice is given within 120 days (77 P.S. § 631).

Report the crash the right way

A rideshare driver must give proof of the rideshare insurance to others involved and to police, report the accident to the company, and report it to the rideshare insurer and, if the policy requires it, to the driver's personal insurer (66 Pa.C.S. § 2605(b)(5)). Uber drivers report through the Safety Toolkit in the Driver app by choosing Report a crash, according to Uber's help center. Lyft drivers use Lyft's online accident report.

Photograph your app screen showing your status, save your trip or earnings screen for that shift, and keep records of the fares and hours you lost while hurt. Those records support a lost-earnings claim against the at-fault driver.

Deadlines and help

Injury suits generally must be filed within 2 years (42 Pa.C.S. § 5524), and your recovery is reduced by any share of fault assigned to you (42 Pa.C.S. § 7102). Warren I. Siegel, Esq. reviews rideshare driver claims from our Upper Darby office, including how your personal policy, the company's policy and any workers' compensation claim fit together. We work on 100% contingency: no attorney fee unless we recover, with all case costs advanced by the firm and repaid only from a recovery. Call (267) 412-4601 or send the free case review form.