Chattanooga Lyft Accidents

After a car accident, at least one party will end up being held responsible. This could be your Lyft driver or someone driving another vehicle involved in the collision. In order to determine responsibility, negligence must typically be established. As an experienced Lyft accident lawyer in the Chattanooga area can tell you, negligence is determined by establishing the following elements:

1. Defendant owed plaintiff a duty to drive safely.
2. Defendant breached that duty to drive safely, such as exhibiting road rage.
3. Direct and proximate causation – for the accident and the plaintiff’s injuries.
4. The plaintiff suffered actual damages.

Accidents involving Lyft vehicles have several different levels of recovery. If the Lyft application was not turned on at the time of the crash, the Lyft driver’s personal auto insurance will be primary. If the application was turned on and the Lyft driver was at fault, then Lyft provides liability coverage up to $50,000 per person and up to $100,000 per accident. Lyft does not provide any uninsured motorist coverage when the application is only turned on. If the application was activated and a ride had been accepted, Lyft provides up to $1 million in liability and uninsured motorist coverage.

For example, let’s say you are traveling in a Lyft car from the Tennessee Aquarium to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. As soon as your Lyft driver stops to turn into the Railroad Museum, a car that was following too closely rear-ends you. Assume the at-fault party only had Tennessee’s minimum insurance limits of up to $25,000 per injured person. If you suffered a broken arm that required surgery, incurring $40,000 of medical bills in the process, you could assert an underinsured motorist claim through Lyft’s coverage since you were actively being transported as a paying passenger. A Lyft accident attorney in the Chattanooga area can investigate all sources of insurance coverage on your behalf.