You requested a ride. Your driver picked you up. A few minutes later, another car runs a red light and crashes into your Uber or Lyft.
Or maybe your rideshare driver caused the accident.
Dealing with injuries, medical appointments, missed work, and insurance claims can be overwhelming. Rest assured, understanding your options can help you feel more supported and confident as you navigate the process.
Who pays?
That’s where rideshare accidents can get complicated. Depending on what happened, the claim could involve the rideshare driver’s insurance, insurance maintained by Uber or Lyft, another driver’s policy, your own coverage, or some combination of them.
Fortunately, Ohio law provides clear insurance requirements based on what the driver was doing when the crash occurred, which can help you feel more confident about your rights and options.
Understanding Ohio’s rideshare insurance requirements is essential for legal awareness and helps you know your rights in an accident.
Ohio Rideshare Insurance Changes Depending on What the Driver Was Doing
Ohio law divides rideshare driving into different periods, and the required insurance coverage changes with them.
When a driver is logged into a rideshare app and available to accept a request but isn’t yet engaged in rideshare services, Ohio requires primary automobile liability coverage of at least:
- $50,000 for bodily injury or death to one person in an accident.
- $100,000 for bodily injury or death to two or more people in an accident.
- $25,000 for property damage in an accident.
Once the driver is engaged in transportation network company services, Ohio requires at least $1 million in primary automobile liability coverage for bodily injury, death, or property damage resulting from an accident.
For a passenger already riding in an Uber or Lyft when a crash happens, that distinction matters.
Ohio law doesn’t rely solely on personal auto policies; it clarifies when rideshare coverage applies, distinguishing between the two for better understanding.
Under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3942, the driver, the rideshare company, or both can maintain the required coverage. If the driver’s personal automobile insurance doesn’t provide the liability coverage Ohio requires, the transportation network company must provide the required coverage beginning with the first dollar of the claim.
That’s very different from saying you must exhaust the driver’s personal policy before rideshare coverage becomes available.
Why the Driver’s Personal Auto Insurance Still Matters
Personal auto policies often exclude rideshare activity.
Ohio law expressly allows personal automobile insurers to exclude coverage while a driver is logged into a transportation network company’s network or providing rideshare services. That can include liability coverage, collision, comprehensive, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and other forms of coverage.
So if you’re injured, you may hear that the driver’s personal insurer isn’t covering the crash.
That doesn’t automatically mean there’s no insurance.
Ohio’s rideshare insurance law was designed to address exactly this situation. If the driver’s policy doesn’t provide the required liability coverage, the transportation network company must provide the coverage required by state law.
The real questions are which policy applies, what coverage is available, who caused the crash, and what damages resulted-understanding these can help you feel more in control of your recovery process.
What If Your Uber or Lyft Driver Caused the Crash?
Suppose your rideshare driver runs a red light, follows another vehicle too closely, makes an unsafe lane change, or otherwise causes an accident while you’re a passenger.
As an injured passenger, you may have a claim arising from the driver’s negligence.
When a driver is actively providing rideshare services, Ohio law requires at least $1 million in liability coverage per accident, highlighting the scope of protection available.
That doesn’t mean an injured passenger automatically receives $1 million.
An insurance limit tells you the maximum amount of coverage potentially available under the policy. Compensation still depends on issues such as liability, the nature and severity of the injuries, medical expenses, lost income, other damages allowed by Ohio law, and the circumstances of the particular claim.
It’s an important distinction.
A $1 million insurance policy isn’t a $1 million settlement.
What If Another Driver Caused the Accident?
Now change the facts.
Your Uber driver did everything right, but another motorist runs the light and causes the collision.
The at-fault driver’s liability insurance may become an important source of recovery. The claim can involve that driver’s insurer just as it would in another Ohio automobile accident.
But being a rideshare passenger can add another layer.
What happens if the at-fault driver has no insurance? What if the driver’s liability limits aren’t enough to cover the injuries? Is uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage available from another applicable policy?
Those questions depend on the policies and circumstances involved.
That’s why you shouldn’t assume the rideshare company’s $1 million liability limit automatically covers every injury just because the accident happened during an Uber or Lyft trip. Liability coverage and uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage address different risks.
An attorney reviewing a serious rideshare accident should identify the potentially applicable policies rather than stopping after finding the first one.
What If an Uber or Lyft Driver Hits You?
You don’t have to be a rideshare passenger for these insurance rules to matter.
You might be driving your own vehicle, riding a bicycle, walking through a crosswalk, or occupying another car when an Uber or Lyft driver causes an accident.
In that situation, what the rideshare driver was doing at the moment of the crash can affect the required coverage amount.
Was the driver offline and using the vehicle personally? Logged into the app and waiting for a request? Was the driver on the way to pick up a passenger? Already transporting someone?
That status can change which insurance applies.
Evidence showing the driver’s app status and activity around the time of the crash can therefore become important.
The Timing Isn’t Just a Technicality
Rideshare insurance laws recognize that drivers move between personal driving and commercial rideshare activity.
That means timing matters.
Ohio defines when a driver is engaged in transportation network company services, and that status affects the required coverage. If an accident happens around the time a driver accepts a ride, travels to pick someone up, completes a trip, or logs off, rideshare platform records may help establish which period applies.
If you’re the passenger, your trip history can also help.
Save the ride receipt. Screenshot the trip in the app. Keep emails or notifications showing the driver, pickup location, destination, and trip times. If possible, don’t delete communications related to the ride.
Those records can help establish that you were an active passenger when the collision occurred.
Don’t Assume the Insurance Company Will Calculate Your Losses for You
Identifying available insurance is only part of an injury claim.
You also need to understand what the accident has actually cost you.
That can include medical expenses, future medical needs supported by the evidence, income lost because you couldn’t work, and other damages available under Ohio law. Serious injuries can affect someone’s ability to work, participate in everyday activities, or live without ongoing pain long after the vehicle damage has been repaired.
An early settlement offer may arrive before the full extent of an injury is clear.
That’s one reason to be careful about signing a release simply because an insurer has offered money. A settlement release generally ends the claim covered by that agreement. If you need additional treatment later, you don’t want to discover too late that you’ve already resolved the claim.
You also don’t need unsupported claims about insurers always making “20 cents on the dollar” to understand the point.
Know what you’re resolving before you resolve it.
What to Do After an Uber or Lyft Accident
The immediate steps after a rideshare crash aren’t dramatically different from those after another serious Ohio car accident, but preserving rideshare-specific information matters.
Get medical attention when you need it. If police respond, make sure they properly report the accident. If you can do so safely, photograph the vehicles, visible injuries, road conditions, traffic signals, and anything else that may help document what happened.
Get identifying and insurance information for the drivers involved.
Then preserve the digital evidence.
Keep your Uber or Lyft receipt. Save screenshots showing the trip and driver. Preserve messages with the driver or platform. If the app lets you report the collision, document what you submitted and any response you receive.
Be careful about detailed recorded statements or settlement documents when you don’t yet understand the extent of your injuries or which insurer is responsible for what.
Most importantly, focus on your medical care. Don’t delay necessary treatment while insurance companies sort out which policy applies.
Ohio Gives Injury Claims a Deadline
Waiting too long can create a problem no amount of insurance coverage can fix.
Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2305.10, you generally must bring an action for bodily injury within two years after the cause of action accrues. Exceptions and other rules can affect particular cases, so you shouldn’t assume every claim has the same deadline.
Two years can sound like plenty of time immediately after a crash.
It can disappear quickly while you’re undergoing treatment, dealing with insurers, and trying to get back to normal life. Evidence can also become harder to obtain as time passes.
You don’t have to wait until a deadline is approaching to find out where you stand.
A Rideshare Accident Can Involve More Than One Insurance Policy
The difficult part of an Uber or Lyft accident isn’t that Ohio has no rules governing rideshare insurance.
It does.
The complication is figuring out how those rules apply to a real accident.
Who caused the crash? What was the rideshare driver doing at that exact moment? Which insurance policies apply? What coverage does each provide? Is another driver responsible? Are the available liability limits sufficient for the injuries? What evidence documents your medical expenses, lost income, and other damages?
Those are the questions that matter.
Attorneys Bruce Taubman and Brian Taubman represent people injured in Ohio motor vehicle accidents and can investigate the insurance and liability issues surrounding a rideshare crash.
If you were injured while riding in an Uber or Lyft, or an Uber or Lyft driver caused your accident, contact Taubman Law to discuss what happened and what options may be available.
