Jed Dietrich Discusses What to do After an Uber or Lyft Injury Accident in Buffalo

Our friend and attorney Jed Dietrich is back and Jed brings up a really good point this morning. What to do and know if you are in an accident while riding in a Lyft or an Uber vehicle and again, it is something I have not thought of until now.

Good morning and welcome back. Linda, a pleasure always. Great to have you here. Good to see you again. Now Jed, I would always assume if you get into a car like that you would have the same situation as if you were in a bus or a taxi, no? It is a little different. When you are in an Uber or Lyft, what do you do after a personal injury accident in Buffalo? The first thing you have to do is get to the doctor, you have got to get to the emergency room and get checked out. You do not know if these injuries are going to come about the next day or in two hours or five minutes after the incident. So, the first thing you have to do is document that injury. After you document that injury, then, the question is, you go home, the doctor says follow-up in a couple of days, how are you feeling? If you are not feeling up to par you need to contact an attorney. You need to reach out to preserve your rights and the reason you need to do that is because when you are in an Uber of Lyft, there are different rules that apply. The insurance company for the Uber or Lyft, if you are a passenger, is responsible to pay for your medical bills. Which it again, is strange in New York because it is a No-Fault state, which means that no matter who is at fault, the car you are in, that insurance company is responsible for your medical bills. So, I have so many people that come to my office and they say, “well I got hit from behind, why does my insurance company have to pay my medical bills?” And I say, “the law has been changed and it is to a certain extent good because you do not have to worry about who is at fault in the beginning.” So, in an Uber or Lyft, when you are involved in a collision and you are a passenger, the Uber or Lyft insurance company on that car is responsible to pay for your medical bills. They are also responsible to pay for your lost wages. So, if you have come out of work and you cannot work and the doctor writes you a disability note, you come to my office, we submit that to the No-Fault company and then they send you a check every month to reimburse you for your wages.

Does the Uber or Lyft driver know this? The Uber or Lyft driver may or may not know, but most of them do not. They do not know the rules. So, if you get into an accident and you say to the driver “who is going to pay for my medical bills?” most likely they do not know. Right. So, the best thing to do is contact us at (716) 839-3939. We are available for you.

Now, another question is – and we have represented many people who were involved in Uber and Lyft personal injury accidents in Buffalo – is if the driver of the Uber or Lyft is injured. So, you can be in an Uber or Lyft, you are sitting on Main Street in Buffalo and you could get rear-ended by another vehicle. Let’s just say you were rear-ended by a City of Buffalo garbage truck or something. Again, the medical bills are paid for the driver, through the Worker’s Compensation carrier for Uber or Lyft, which again is a little confusing because there is the No-Fault carrier which goes with the car and there is the Worker’s Compensation carrier. So, one of the things that happens very frequently in my office, Linda, is people are driving for a living. Let’s say they drive for W.B. Mason or Office Max or whatever and they get rear-ended. The question is “who pays for their medical bills?” Well, actually, two organizations pay. The Worker’s Compensation carrier for the organization the person works for and then the No-Fault company for the car or the automobile that the person was in. So, many questions when you are rear-ended or in a car accident in Buffalo, New York. We are here to help you at (716) 839-3939.

Wow. That is very important to know because, like I said, I had not even thought of that. So, if you are going to hire an Uber or a Lyft, should you also make sure that you have their number and I mean do they have information in their back-seat like a cab does so you can write down who their insurance is? Well, what they try to do is they do it through the website. They try to keep everything as stream-lined as possible in terms of running all that information through the website. However, I have represented a number of people who were involved in Uber accidents, they were passengers, and ironically, the Uber driver in these particular cases was not at fault. It was another driver that hit the Uber car. So, then the question is “where does the money for the pain and suffering come from because the medical bills and lost wages go through No-Fault,” but you can just call us at (716) 839-3939 and we get you reimbursement for your pain and suffering. That can come from the other car that strikes the Uber vehicle but if the Uber driver is partially at fault then it can come from two institutions, which is the Uber driver and then the other car. In New York we are lucky because you have the opportunity to have multiple defendants and make a recovery from multiple defendants and we are here to help.

Remember, call Jed – take pictures if you can – and call Jed in a timely manner. You do not want to let a lot of time go by, that is very important with something like this. It is, you have to preserve the evidence. That is right. So, listen, now you know. The Dietrich Law Firm, Jed is there and he knows this, make sure you are going to an attorney who understands the law when it comes to Uber and Lyft. The Dietrich Law Firm, they are right there on John James Audubon Pkwy in Buffalo, give them a call at (716) 839-3939 or simply go to www.calljed.com.