Las Vegas locals and tourists appreciate getting around town with Uber rides. Summoning a ride with a phone app is easy, but, if you end up in an Uber accident, then the situation quickly becomes complicated if you need compensation for your injuries. Depending on what happened, you might encounter insurance issues on steroids. A Vegas injury lawyer will work hard to overcome your challenges and pursue damages.

Unless you are badly injured, you can take action to protect your financial position in the minutes immediately following the accident. Checking yourself and others for injuries will of course be your paramount concern. After that, any information you gather could supply injury lawyers with valuable evidence for your insurance claim.

Uber drivers and passengers should:

• Check themselves for injuries
• Call 911 to summon police and medical aid
• Take pictures of insurance cards for the Uber driver and any other drivers involved
• Save screenshots about the ride on their phones
• Report the accident through the Uber app
• Take pictures of the accident scene and damage
• Collect contact information from witnesses

Even if people at the accident scene do not want to call the police, you should still do so. Insurers want official police documentation of the crash.

Just because emergency medical technicians did not transport you to the hospital does not mean that you have received a thorough medical exam. As soon as possible, you should go to an emergency room or clinic and ask for an exam because you were just in a car accident. You might have a musculoskeletal injury or head trauma that was not immediately apparent. Ask the physician to note in your records that you were in a motor vehicle accident. This way your medical records will create a paper trail should you need to work with a car accident lawyer to make an insurance claim.

If you were the Uber driver in the accident, you should inform your insurer about what happened right away. You may need to make a claim on your insurance or the other driver’s insurance. Either way, your insurer requires notification of an accident.

Unless you have already spoken with an injury lawyer Las Vegas, you should only give the insurer the basic facts about the crash. Often this can be done through an insurer’s phone app. The insurer will likely contact you quickly, but you should refrain from making any statements unless you have received advice from an accident attorney first. You do not want to have your words twisted into an admission of fault.

Uber and Lyft accidents add an extra layer of insurance because the rideshare companies have policies in place that cover passengers and sometimes drivers when other insurance coverage is insufficient.

The typical rideshare accident will involve:

• The Uber driver’s personal insurance policy with a rideshare rider
• The auto policy for other driver in accident
• Uber insurance

Nevada law obligates rideshare companies, known as Transportation Network Companies, to supply insurance coverage whenever drivers provide transportation services. The TNC policy must provide minimum coverage of $1.5 million for bodily injury or death or property damage.

Although this is generous coverage, do not expect the insurer for the TNC to acknowledge your need quickly. Uber will want the insurer for the Uber driver or another at-fault driver to pay your damages. Uber’s insurance is meant as a contingency and is only applicable when other sources of compensation fail.

As you can imagine, multiple insurers might give you the run around as each one hopes that the other will accept liability for your injuries. The services of a personal injury lawyer in Las Vegas could help you find out who is responsible for paying your damages.

Uber has established different phases of a rideshare ride that influence the status of the TNC insurance coverage and its amount. Phases are the most important for Uber drivers because it affects their coverage considerably. Uber passengers should only be present in the vehicles during maximum coverage. However, it remains important that passengers save screenshots about the ride to prove their presence during the accident.

Phase 1 – The rideshare driver is logged into the rideshare app and is waiting to accept a call for a ride. Coverage for the Uber driver during Phase 1 is only $50,000 per person and $100,000 per collision.

Phase 2 – The rideshare driver has accepted a request for a ride and is en route to pick up the passenger. Full $1.5 million coverage is in effect.

Phase 3 – The passenger has entered the rideshare vehicle. This phase lasts until the passenger exits the vehicle completely. Full $1.5 million coverage is in effect.

Fault is the essential component for determining who pays damages for accident victims. Fault may or may not be clear. Even if it is clear to you, insurers have an interest in trying to question conclusions about fault to avoid paying a full settlement.

Unfortunately, the cause of an accident is not always clear cut, which introduces opportunities for the parties involved to dodge responsibility. This is exactly the type of situation when you need a car accident lawyer Las Vegas. The pain and stress of your injuries will interfere with your ability to argue with insurers or collect compelling evidence. A Vegas injury lawyer can scrutinize insurance policies and launch an accident investigation. The investigation could uncover facts about who was at fault and strengthen your legal demand for compensation.

Fault in a car accident can arise from many sources, such as:

• Reckless driving
• Intoxicated driving
• Distracted driving
• Unsafe vehicle

An unsafe vehicle could be the culprit in an Uber accident. Rideshare drivers sometimes operate on a shoestring budget that undermines their ability to pay for essential car maintenance. They might be driving with bad brakes.

The only thing worse than dealing with one insurance company is having to deal with two or three of them. If you have been hurt through no fault of your own, especially due to riding in an unsafe vehicle, then Las Vegas injury law is on your side. However, any missteps when communicating with an insurer could place your settlement in jeopardy.

Consulting a car accident lawyer at Moss Berg Injury Lawyers will allow you to make decisions based on unbiased information about available insurance coverage. We will protect your best interests and work hard to build a well-documented insurance claim that is difficult to dispute. Ask us your questions during a free consultation. Contact our office today.