Maybe, maybe not. For most traffic accident injuries, $1 million in coverage is plenty. That is not always true, of course. Further, many smaller ridesharing services don’t provide their drivers with insurance, and just require them to have commercial riders on their personal auto liability policy. Coverage requirements differ and could easily be inadequate.
Even for the big three rideshare companies that provide their drivers with liability insurance, many types of serious injuries typical in automobile accidents can be long-term or even life-long and result in medical costs that could easily exhaust a $1 million policy limit.
Among the kinds of injuries that could result in care requirements sufficient to exceed a $1 million policy limit are:
- Brain and head injuries are extremely common in traffic accidents, and they can be among the worst possible injuries in a car crash. Traumatic brain injuries can range from relatively minor concussions to serious injuries that result in the need for expensive lifelong continued care and permanent disabilities.
- Neck injuries, also a frequent result in traffic accidents, can range from generally minor muscle strains or whiplash all the way to disc damage or dislocation. Such disc injuries often are more severe and could require specialized treatment.
- Spinal cord injuries also are a common traffic accident injury. Such injuries can lead to paralysis or other long-term disabilities. These injuries also have the potential for requiring extensive—and expensive—treatment.
- Internal Injuries – Car accidents are violent events, even at relatively low speeds, and the human body is a fragile thing. Even with seat belts and airbags, your body will get tossed around in a car accident, and you are unlikely to have airbags in the back seat of a rideshare vehicle. Broken glass and other objects can take flight, parts of the vehicle can be crushed into you by the impact, the vehicle in which you are riding could go into a roll or even be forced into further impacts with other vehicles. The injuries that can result from such a violent event are myriad. You might get away with a little soreness, or scrapes and bruises. You also could lose limbs, wind up in a coma, or suffer internal injuries, among a long list of injuries that could be life-threatening or result in long hospitalizations and major surgeries. A million dollars can disappear pretty quickly under such circumstances.
Ridesharing traffic accidents aren’t special. They come with no magic protections. Just as can happen with any other accident, you could suffer major injuries so serious that your medical care and other damages exceed the limits of any liability coverage the rideshare driver has available. If that coverage is not enough to cover your damages, you should contact an attorney to explore your options.
