Hayward residents wake up with lots of places to be. Anywhere across the North Bay, East Bay, and South Bay can be in the plan. You may be heading for Southgate Park for some exercise, or just be looking for a ride down Hesperian Boulevard to find some lunch.
Lyft drivers can get notifications from all over Hayward and then the rush is on to pick up customers and get them to their destinations quickly. Sometimes the speed of the trip can seem more important than safety. That’s the issue when dealing with rideshares. Their business adds a lot of cars to local lanes and their drivers can be tempted to be careless or reckless dozens of times over the course of a normal shift.
Finding Support for Hayward Lyft Vehicle Accidents
If you are hurt in a collision caused by a Lyft vehicle as a pedestrian, a motorist, or as a passenger it’s important to seek the help of a Hayward rideshare accident lawyer. Lyft is a giant corporation with lawyers of its own. They pay those lawyers to do their best to help the company avoid blame when their drivers cause collisions and injuries.
You may be the injury victim who is left with thousands of dollars in medical bills that you can’t even begin to pay. Allow one of our attorneys to take up your fight and make sure you get what’s fair after being the victim of a Lyft driver’s mistake.
Hayward Lyft Distracted Driving Dangers
You don’t have to take a Lyft ride to be put at risk of a rideshare accident. Hayward drivers can be in their own vehicles when a rideshare driver takes his or her eyes off the road and is suddenly colliding with nearby cars.
Lyft drivers can’t make it far without the Lyft app on their phones. They may not even go a mile between their glances at their phones to check ride request notifications, to accept those requests, and map those journeys. You have to wonder how many minutes their eyes can be off the road during an average shift.
Distraction isn’t the only threat to your safety. Drivers can also be drawn into a race to get to a passenger, or to get them to their destination in the shortest amount of time possible. This pressure to get a good rating can lead to reckless driving involving high speeds and aggressive lane switching. These decisions behind the wheel can threaten the well-being of passengers, other drivers, motorcyclists, pedestrians, and anyone on a bike.
Does Lyft Have Liability Insurance for Accident Victims
Hayward drivers could be on the interstate or on a tiny backstreet when they get struck by a careless Lyft driver. The consequences can be severe and injuries can range from concussions and other brain injuries to broken bones and wounds that threaten mobility.
The costs of recovery can be enormous and you should not be on the hook for those expenses when a driver and the company he or she drives for were to blame.
After an accident caused by a Lyft driver, victims may have to seek compensation from three different insurance companies:
- Rideshare Driver’s Insurance: Lyft drivers carry their own car insurance and that’s where you’ll be required to start your injury claim. This may prove fruitless though because insurance firms can refuse to compensate victims in accidents when their policyholder was driving for Lyft. If your claim is rejected or you are awarded only enough to cover a portion of your expenses you can then proceed on to the next step of calling upon Lyft for help.
- Lyft’s Insurance: Lyft offers up to one million dollars in liability insurance for victims, but only in specific situations. Drivers must have been logged into the Lyft App and working when the collision occurred. If they had a passenger in the car or were on the way to get a passenger at the time of the crash, the one million dollar policy can be drawn upon. If the accident happens while drivers are logged-in but don’t have a ride request (cruising without a customer), the coverage is capped at $100,000.
- Your Car Insurance Coverage: If neither the driver’s insurance nor Lyft will offer support, you could have to depend on your personal car insurance policy. Compensation would come from your underinsured motorist coverage. You should know that just because you’re dealing with your own insurance company, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the compensation you need to cover all of your expenses. You may need an attorney on your side just to make sure your own agent treats you fairly.
How Can I hold Lyft accountable for my accident?
It’s a sad fact that you can have multiple insurance providers turn their backs on you when you’re injured in an accident involving a rideshare. Having a legal representative in your corner can give you a much better chance at keeping insurance companies and Lyft from ignoring your accident.
If you can’t get assistance from Lyft there are factors your rideshare lawyer can investigate that might encourage Lyft to step forward and do what’s fair for its victims.
Your attorney can highlight Lyft’s hiring and training practices to show that they can do more to protect everyone on the road. A lawyer can also go over the Lyft worker’s driving background to see if they should have been hired in the first place. The driver’s car may have also been unfit for the road.
Even the big profits that Lyft collects every year can be brought up to show just how much they make off the use of our residents and our streets. It shouldn’t be too much to ask that they take responsibility when their rideshare operations cause accidents.
Contact a Hayward Lyft Accident Lawyer
After an accident involving Lyft, a member of their team may contact you for a statement. Speak to an attorney before giving any statement of any kind. These recorded statements can serve as evidence for Lyft to use to dismiss your case.
If you or a loved one sustained a serious injury and the accident involved a Lyft vehicle, contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation. Whether you were hit by a Lyft driver, injured as a passenger, or injured while working for Lyft we can help you find the compensation to get you through recovery.
