So Uber and Lyft don’t require proof of insurance (i.e. proper insurance for this kind of passenger hauling) before they accept a driver? If so, that would be another good reason for not using them, but I’d really like to see some cite about that one way or the other.
Even so, my own auto insurance should at least cover my medical bills in a case like this, no?
Every state is different. So is every policy. Read what yours says.
it also depends on whether you’re imagining being the driver of some other car the Uber/Lyft car hits, a passenger in that other car, or a passenger in the Uber/Lyft car. Three very different circumstances, probably three very different answers.
If indeed most Uber/Lyft drivers lack commercial insurance, than the vast majority of Uber/Lyft drivers are effectively uninsured. In many states there’s already a crisis level of uninsured drivers crashing into people& things. Adding umpteen percent additional can’t be a idea good.
Not necessarily. First it would take a catastrophic accident (like death or loss of limb), not just a fender bender. Second, insurance rules in one state aren’t necessarily the same as in another. State A might require the insurance company to payout anyway, in which case this would never make the news. Here’s a case that’s tangentially related. Student is hit by a school bus& loses a leg in accident. However, state law caps liability because they are a government agency, reducing a $14 mil verdict down to $500,000, which is less than her medical costs alone, let alone any housing modifications (wheelchair ramps, wider doorways, etc), pain & suffering or punitive award. This might not happen in another state.