Car accidents are very common and at one point in your life, you will probably be involved in one. When it does happen, if you happen to be in a rideshare with Uber or Lyft or some other service, it can be a quite complicated process to deal with after the fact.
Things can be complicated enough when you are the driver yourself, even when you are not at fault. But in a rideshare situation, it takes on a whole other level of complexity. Whether or not your driver is at fault, you have to understand what your rights are and what you need to do to be made full afterward.
In this article, we will go over the things that you need to do immediately following an accident when you are a passenger in a rideshare.
Get medical help first
For the sake of this section of the article, let’s go with the assumption that you don’t have any serious injuries. If you are seriously injured then you likely are not able to make any phone calls to an auto accident lawyer or the police.
Make sure that you do not deny any medical care at the time of the accident. Even if you think you feel fine, you may have an internal injury that will manifest itself later on. The best thing to do is to get in the ambulance and have them take a look or bring you to the hospital to make sure nothing is broken.
If you don’t seem to have any major injuries then call the police and wait for them there before you do leave the scene to go seek medical help.
Make a thorough documentation
If you are in good enough shape to take pictures then take as many as possible. These pictures will help you later and possibly even your driver if they were not at fault. Make note of the time and the exact address where the accident took place. Get pictures of the license plates of all the vehicles that were involved.
Then, try to talk to any witnesses and ask them what they saw. Write it down or record it and then get their information so they can be called to testify later on. The police would also like to know the witnesses so you can pass on the information if they leave the scene before the police get there.
What can you recover?
You will surely be able to settle with the insurance of the responsible party for any medical bills associated with the accident. Plus any loss of future wages that come about because you were not able to work.
You will likely be asked to settle out of court if your rideshare driver was at fault for the accident. Make sure that a lawyer looks over the settlement so you are not signing away too many rights that will hurt you down the road.
