Waking up in Ventura you may be a tourist, a student, or an employee late for work locally or in Santa Barbara or Los Angeles. When you’ve got somewhere to be you might turn to a Lyft driver for a fast, economical ride to anywhere you can point to on a map.
Those quick pick-ups are lifesavers, but each request on the Lyft app means another driver pulling out on local freeways and streets. The addition to local traffic is noticeable to observant motorists and pedestrians and the quality of driving may not be all that impressive and perhaps downright dangerous.
If a distracted or careless Lyft driver rams your vehicle or you while your walking or biking, you’ll want to talk to a rideshare accident lawyer serving Ventura and Ventura County. You should never face off against Lyft and its insurance agents and lawyers alone even when there’s no doubt of your innocence. Protect your rights by letting a local attorney take up your case and making sure your injuries can’t be ignored by a giant corporation.
Lyft Distracted Driving Accidents in Ventura
Ventura is named for the Mission Basilica San Buenaventura. The centuries-old Catholic Parish is a local landmark that drivers around down main street may pass often. Busy motorists will also use the Ventura Freeway to get across town. These roads are also business routes for dozens of Lyft drivers who may sometimes be paying more attention to their phones than the cars in front of them.
Rideshare employees depend on their phones for request notifications, mapping help, and getting paid. This reliance means many glances at a screen while behind the wheel. Besides being illegal in California, this behavior is also dangerous for everyone else on the road. Even taking your eyes from the road for two seconds can double your chances of getting into an accident.
Lyft Accidents and Insurance Issues
If you’re struck by a Lyft Vehicle or injured while a rideshare passenger, at some point you’ll have time to wonder just who can be held liable for your recovery. You could be dependent on the Lyft driver’s insurance provider for support.
You may also have to call upon Lyft’s insurance coverage if the driver’s insurance rejects your claim. They carry a million-dollar insurance policy that’s supposed to be supplemental to the driver’s personal car insurance coverage. However, there are many restrictions on access to Lyft’s insurance to protect the company from blame.
Even if your accident does meet all of the criteria for Lyft insurance support, Lyft will be using its agents and lawyers to help shield the company. They will do their best to reduce their liability and rob you of the compensation you need in recovery.
There are two main strategies Lyft representatives will use to chip away at the money you can expect:
- Low Settlement Offers: Insurance agents can extend a “lowball offer” to see if you’ll accept it. Without an attorney working on your side, you might not be able to tell it’s an unfair offer. Agents can also make you wait for months before responding so that as your bills grow and grow, any offer they make might look good to you.
- Shifting Blame: Lyft’s lawyers could pull up your driving record and past injury charts to weaken your claim. They may say that a past accident means you’re a bad driver. They could say that your injury is just a flare-up of an old injury and that the Lyft driver’s accident didn’t cause it. Any recorded statement you gave to a representative of Lyft may also be turned around on you as alleged proof that you were partly responsible for your accident. That’s why you should never give a statement to Lyft before talking to a lawyer.
Comparative Negligence in Lyft Accidents
In California, two or more drivers can share part of the blame in an accident. This is called comparative negligence. Lyft might try to force you to accept 25% of the blame for a collision. It means that any compensation award you would receive from Lyft would be reduced by a fourth. It may not seem like much, but it can save Lyft a lot of money.
Having a lawyer working on your case is your best defense against these shady insurance practices. A lawyer will threaten to take Lyft before a judge and jury if they continue to try to diminish your accident claim with unrelated circumstances from your past.
Contact a Lyft Accident Lawyer Serving Ventura
You may be in your car, on foot, on a bike or motorcycle when you are hit by a distracted Lyft driver. You could be a passenger in the backseat of the rideshare vehicle during an impact. You might be a Lyft driver injured and seeking help from an employer that seems to want to avoid you. When you feel vulnerable after an accident, it’s a good time to discuss your options with an experienced rideshare accident attorney.
If you or a loved one sustained a serious injury and the accident involved Lyft contact us for a first evaluation free of charge with no obligation to you. You should be focused on recovery and getting your life back on track. It’s time to let Lyft worry about the costs of their driver’s mistake.
