An accident caused by a rideshare or delivery driver can have serious consequences. In these cases you will want to work with a lawyer who has successfully handled complex rideshare claims in the past. Contact us today to discuss your next steps.
Rideshare Accidents in Visalia
There’s no denying that rideshare and delivery companies have made many of our lives easier. Requesting a ride across Central Valley on your phone or ordering up a week’s worth of groceries and finding those bags on your doorstep can be a safe and affordable convenience.
It may all seem like a win for everyone, but if you take to the road yourself you may soon notice the drawback. You could find yourself driving alongside a fleet of delivery vehicles, all adding to traffic congestion, and adding to the risk of accidents on local streets.
Visalia Rideshare Options and Hazards
A big part of the rideshare and food delivery revolution began right here in California with local companies like Uber and Postmates making their start in San Francisco. That means Visalia residents have had many delivery and transportation options for a while now.
Drivers for Lyft and Doordash have regular customers at this point and zip along Walnut Avenue and Highway 198 day and night. These drivers are on-the-clock, behind the wheel and their duties can make them some of the most distracted drivers on the road. A reach for their phones or a glance at a text can lead to a mistake on the road and that’s a danger to any other motorists just trying to get to work or school.
Delivery Driver Accidents in Central Valley
Rideshare accident rates are very hard to pin down because transportation companies don’t like to release figures related to their drivers who cause collisions. What’s more, these companies often keep their names out of accident reports because they try to keep employees as independent contractors. That means the drivers are responsible for any accidents they cause and the company often gets let off the hook.
Forbes Magazine did examine a recent study that looked at accident rates in cities before Uber and Lyft arrived and then after they both started operations. The numbers showed that the arrival of Uber and Lyft drivers on the road led to a two to four percent rise in traffic accidents involving a fatality. Factoring that into national numbers, those percentages could mean around a thousand extra lives lost a year.
Rideshares Endangering Other Drivers
Delivery drivers of all types meet the demands of our many orders and requests and work hard doing it. They don’t intend to put people at risk with their actions, but they do operate under certain pressures and distractions that other drivers don’t generally deal with.
A driver working from behind the wheel can be under pressure to make deadlines, either in delivering warm food, cold groceries, or making sure a passenger arrives on time. This stress can tempt a rideshare or food delivery employee to speed.
These drivers use their phones as a partner in their workdays and that can lead to risk for any motorist. A glance down to see a new rider request on a phone, or to confirm special instructions on a food order can prove extremely dangerous.
Drivers can be fatigued, exhausted from too little sleep, or be a bit dazed because they are working for several different rideshares at once. It all adds up to an increased chance for a careless accident that could land you in the hospital and beginning a long recovery from injury.
Food Delivery Driver Accident Risks
An accident with a food delivery driver will usually mean that you’ll be dealing with the employee’s personal auto accident insurance to try to get help with expenses resulting from the crash. The catch is that many insurance companies won’t cover their policyholders if they find out they were driving for a delivery job.
Many food and grocery delivery services don’t back their drivers with insurance coverage in the event they cause an accident. The companies simply take no responsibility for their drivers, but there are factors an attorney can investigate that might force a company like Instacart or Postmates to provide compensation. A check of hiring records and the employee’s driving records might convince a jury that a company is liable in the accident.
If you’re injured and neither the driver’s policy nor the company will cover your damages, a claim can be filed against your own policy under your uninsured/underinsured coverage. A rideshare accident attorney will be helpful in these cases as well because your own insurance agent can treat you like the enemy and try to get you to accept a lowball offer for your physical, emotional and financial losses.
We are prepared to stand up against the big insurance companies, especially when it comes to:
Rideshare Drivers In Accidents
Victims of serious accidents caused by rideshare drivers must also be careful to make sure they don’t get stuck with the financial damages leftover from a collision that wasn’t their fault.
Uber and Lyft both provide up to a million dollars in coverage when their drivers cause accidents. But this insurance only kicks in during certain situations. The driver’s own insurance would still be called upon first, but if they fail to offer help to injured victims Uber or Lyft may be held accountable. But beware, Uber and Lyft coverage only covers certain parts of their driver’s shift.
Here’s more information you’ll need to know if you are in an unfortunate crash caused by a rideshare driver.
Micromobility Accidents in Visalia
The options for getting around Visalia seem endless at times and now rideshare services can include vehicles that utilize two wheels instead of four. Micromobility is a term for many alternative means of transportation like normal and electric-boosted bicycles, scooters, hoverboards, and skateboards.
A trip on an electric scooter or an e-bike can be a fun way to travel the city, but you’ll soon notice how little attention motorists pay to anyone smaller than their vehicles. They can miss spotting or just simply neglect to check at all for a bike rider, pedestrian, or someone on a scooter.
If a careless driver strikes you while you’re using a micromobility machine, you can hope to be compensated for things like ambulance and hospital bills, missed time from work, and emotional trauma. An attorney will be a helpful resource in this process of filing a claim for damages because some insurance companies like to deny these types of claims thinking they can ignore a victim on a bike or scooter.
Here’s more information on some of the laws and insurance options that apply in a micromobility accident.
- Scooter Accidents
- Bikeshare Accidents
