Uber & Lyft Accidents
How much insurance exists after a rideshare crash depends on what the driver’s app was doing at the moment of impact. Arizona wrote three different answers into the statute.
What The Statute Requires
- App on, no ride yet
- $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident
- On a trip
- $250,000 per incident, minimum
- Passenger in the car
- $1,000,000 per incident, minimum
- Deadline
- Two years, and 180 days if a government is involved
The same crash, the same driver and the same injuries can sit behind a $25,000 policy or a $1,000,000 one. What separates them is whether the app had matched a ride.
Three Phases, Three Very Different Policies
Arizona put rideshare insurance in A.R.S. 28-4038, and it splits a driver’s shift into stages. The money available to an injured person tracks those stages, not the severity of the crash.
These are floors, not what the companies necessarily carry. A policy can be larger than the statutory minimum. It cannot be smaller.
Logged in, waiting for a request
$25,000 for injury or death to one person, $50,000 for two or more, $20,000 for property. The same numbers as any Arizona driver.
Providing the ride
Primary commercial liability of at least $250,000 per incident, plus commercial uninsured motorist coverage.
Passenger in the vehicle
The minimum rises to $1,000,000 per incident. That layer follows the incident, so it is not only the person in the back seat who can reach it.
App closed
An ordinary crash under an ordinary personal policy. Which is why the driver’s app status is the first question, not a technicality.
The Phase Is A Fact, And Facts Fade
Nobody at the scene of a crash knows which phase applies. The driver may say they were between rides. The passenger’s phone says something more specific, and so does the company’s own record of the trip.
If you were the passenger, your trip receipt and ride history are yours and they are worth keeping. Screenshots of the ride in progress, the pickup and drop-off times, the driver’s name and the vehicle are all ordinary things to save in the first week, and they answer a question that becomes contested later.
If you were in another car or on foot, you may have none of that. Photographs of the vehicle, any rideshare decal in the windshield, and the plate give a starting point.
If You Drive For The App, Your Own Policy May Not Cover You
This is the part of Arizona law that catches drivers out, and it is written plainly in 28-4038(C). Unless a policy expressly says so, or carries an amendment or endorsement that says so, neither the driver’s personal policy nor the vehicle owner’s personal policy is required to provide coverage while the driver is logged in to the app or providing rides.
Subsection D allows insurers to offer coverage for that period. That is what a rideshare endorsement is, and it is something a driver has to ask for and buy rather than something that comes with an ordinary policy.
The company was required to tell you. Under A.R.S. 28-9558, before a driver may accept a request, the company must disclose in writing the coverage and limits it provides, and must state that the driver’s own policy might not cover them while they are using the app. The same section requires a warning that using a financed vehicle for rideshare work may violate the lienholder agreement. Those disclosures belong in the terms of service you accepted.
What that means after a crash
A driver who was logged in but had no ride may be looking at the smallest coverage tier at the exact moment their personal insurer declines.
Both things can be true, and neither is obvious from the paperwork.
Before that happens
Ask your own insurer, in writing, whether your policy covers you while the app is on, and what an endorsement would cost.
It is a five-minute question with a large answer.
If You Were In The Back Seat
A passenger is almost never at fault, which removes the argument that dominates most car accident claims. What is left is a question about which policy responds, and that depends on who caused the crash.
If the rideshare driver caused it, the trip was in progress with a passenger aboard, so the $1,000,000 minimum layer under 28-4038(B) is in play. If another driver caused it, their policy comes first, and Arizona’s minimum for an ordinary driver is $25,000 per person.
That gap is why the commercial uninsured motorist coverage in 28-4038(B)(2) matters. It has to be at least $25,000 per person and $75,000 per incident, or the minimums in 28-4009, whichever is greater. When the at-fault driver has nothing, that coverage is often the case.
If You Were In The Other Car, Or Walking
The statutory layers attach to the incident, not to the seat you were in. A person struck by a rideshare vehicle that was carrying a passenger is looking at the same $1,000,000 minimum as the passenger.
The hard part is that you have no app data and no receipt. Establishing that the vehicle was on a trip is work, and it is the difference between two very different numbers.
Two Years, And Much Less Against A Government
A.R.S. 12-542 gives two years for injuries to the person. That is the deadline people know about.
The one that ends cases quietly involves a public entity, a public school or a public employee. A city bus, a county vehicle, a police cruiser. A.R.S. 12-821.01 requires a notice of claim within 180 days after the cause of action accrues, containing facts sufficient to explain the basis of the claim and a specific amount it can be settled for. A claim filed late is barred. Any action must then be brought within one year under 12-821.
Partly At Fault Is Not The Same As Barred
Arizona applies pure comparative fault under A.R.S. 12-2505. A share of fault reduces a recovery in proportion to that share. It does not end the claim.
In rideshare cases the fault argument often runs between two drivers, with the injured passenger watching two insurers point at each other. The percentage matters. Whether you have a case does not turn on it.
Questions People Ask
Do I file against Uber or against the driver?+
The claim is against the people and companies responsible, and the policy that answers depends on the phase the app was in. Arizona’s statute lets the coverage be carried by the driver, by the company, or by both, so the honest answer is that it is a question of fact rather than a choice of target.
The driver says they were not on a trip. How is that checked?+
Through the trip record. A passenger’s own ride history is the fastest version. Where there was no passenger, the company holds the data, and getting it is part of the case rather than something a driver’s memory settles.
I drive for the app. Am I covered?+
It depends on your policy and on what you were doing. A.R.S. 28-4038(C) says a personal policy is not required to cover you while you are logged in or driving for the app unless the policy expressly provides it.
Check for a rideshare endorsement. If you do not have one, that is worth fixing before your next shift, separate from any claim.
Does my own car insurance matter if I was just a passenger?+
Sometimes. Uninsured and underinsured coverage reaches the people a policy insures, and that is a question of policy language rather than of which seat you were in. It is worth reading your own declarations page before assuming the answer is no.
What if the other driver caused it and had no insurance?+
While the rideshare driver is providing services, the statute requires primary commercial uninsured motorist coverage of at least $25,000 per person and $75,000 per incident, or the ordinary minimums, whichever is greater. That coverage exists for exactly this situation.
Is the case different because a large company is involved?+
The law is the same. The practical difference is that the record of what happened lives in a company’s systems, and the insurer handling the claim is a commercial carrier rather than a neighbourhood agent. Neither changes what you are entitled to.
I was hit while walking. Does the rideshare coverage reach me?+
The statutory minimums attach to the incident, so a pedestrian struck by a vehicle that was providing a ride is within the same coverage as the people inside it. What has to be established is the phase the app was in.
How long do I have?+
Two years for most claims. Six months to file a notice of claim if a public entity is involved. Waiting to the edge of either is a bad idea for a different reason, which is that app data and vehicle evidence do not wait.
