Hit by an Uber or Lyft Driver in California? What Now?

If an Uber or Lyft driver hit you while you were walking, cycling or driving your own car, your claim works differently from a passenger’s. You never agreed to Uber’s terms, and you have no way of knowing what the driver’s app was doing at the moment of impact. That one fact decides whether the coverage starts at $50,000 per person or $1,000,000.

Key Takeaways

• Available coverage depends on the driver’s app status at impact: logged off, logged on and waiting, or on an accepted ride.
• California requires $30,000 in property damage coverage while a driver is logged on and waiting. Most other states require $25,000.
• Uber’s arbitration clause almost certainly doesn’t reach you if you’ve never had an account. If you have one, even an unused one, tell your lawyer right away.
• Rideshare uninsured motorist coverage protects people inside the car, not you. Your own auto policy may cover you as a pedestrian or cyclist.

Which insurance applies after an Uber hits you?

It depends on what the driver’s app was doing. California sets the minimums in Public Utilities Code section 5433.

Driver’s status at impact	Coverage available to you
App off	The driver’s personal auto policy only
Logged on, no ride accepted (Period 1)	$50,000 per person, $100,000 per incident, $30,000 property damage, plus at least $200,000 per occurrence in excess coverage
Ride accepted, heading to pickup (Period 2)	$1,000,000
Passenger in the car (Period 3)	$1,000,000

The rideshare coverage doesn’t depend on the driver’s personal insurer denying the claim first. If the driver’s required policy has lapsed, the company has to cover the claim from the first dollar. These amounts are minimums, and Uber’s and Lyft’s actual policies may provide more.

California’s $30,000 property damage minimum is higher than most states’, which follow a model law setting it at $25,000. Virginia is one example.

Does rideshare uninsured motorist coverage help you?

No. Section 5433(b)(2) requires that coverage only applies “from the moment a passenger enters the vehicle until the passenger exits.” It protects people riding in the Uber when an uninsured driver hits them.

You’re making a liability claim against the company’s policy, so the uninsured motorist limit doesn’t apply to you in any period. California cut it from $1,000,000 to $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident on January 1, 2026, under SB 371. That change doesn’t affect a pedestrian, cyclist, or other driver’s claim.

Your own auto policy is a different story. If you carry uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, it often follows you when you’re walking or cycling. That’s a separate claim against your own insurer, and it can matter if the rideshare coverage turns out to be the lower Period 1 tier.

Does Uber’s arbitration clause apply to you?

Almost certainly not, if you’ve never had an account. Arbitration clauses bind people who agreed to them, and you were crossing a street.

Uber would have to rely on one of three legal theories to pull in someone who never signed. Third-party beneficiary requires that you be trying to enforce the contract or benefit from it. Equitable estoppel requires that your claim depend on the agreement. Agency fails for similar reasons. Your negligence claim would exist exactly the same if Uber had no terms of service at all.

In August 2026, the D.C. Circuit held in Walker v. Uber Technologies that even a guest rider couldn’t be forced into arbitration, though he rode in the car on a trip booked through his wife’s account and had been texted the terms. A pedestrian is further removed still.

The closest California case is Jensen v. U-Haul (2017), which rejected the same three theories against a non-signer in a vehicle injury case. No published California appellate decision has addressed a non-user hit by a rideshare driver.

If you have the Uber app, the answer may change

Uber’s arbitration provision covers “any dispute, claim, lawsuit, or controversy in any way arising between you and Uber,” including disputes that arose before you accepted the terms. It isn’t limited to disputes about a ride. If you have an Uber account, even one you opened years ago and barely used, Uber may argue you agreed to arbitrate.

In a 2024 New Jersey case, a couple injured in an Uber crash were held to arbitration based on terms accepted during an Uber Eats order their daughter placed on the family account.

California plaintiffs have a strong counterargument. In Revitch v. DIRECTV, the Ninth Circuit applied California contract law and refused to enforce an arbitration clause against a claim unrelated to the original agreement. The panel split, so the question isn’t settled.

If you were hit by a rideshare driver and have the Uber or Lyft app on your phone, tell your lawyer in the first conversation.

How do you prove what the driver’s app was doing?

Uber and Lyft hold the only complete record of whether the driver was logged off, waiting for a request, or on a trip. When the company tells its insurer which period applied, that’s the company’s position. It can be challenged with the app data.

Ask at the scene. Ask the driver directly whether he was on a trip or waiting for one, and ask the officer to note the answer in the report. App status isn’t a standard field on California collision reports, so it only appears if the officer writes it into the narrative. The insurance card the driver hands over is often his personal policy.

Photograph the vehicle. California requires rideshare cars to display company trade dress visible from the front and rear. The decal identifies the company but not the period, and drivers sometimes remove it. Photograph the windshield, the rear, the plate, and the whole car before it leaves.

Send a preservation letter early. California has no separate lawsuit for destroyed evidence. Instead, under Evidence Code section 413, a jury can be told to draw an unfavorable conclusion when a party willfully suppresses evidence. That only works if the evidence was requested before it disappeared. A preservation letter to Uber or Lyft should ask them to keep:

• Driver and vehicle account status logs around the time of the crash
• GPS and telemetry, including speed and heading
• Trip requests received, accepted, declined, and canceled
• In-app messages between driver and rider
• The driver’s account history, complaints, safety flags and any deactivation
• Any internal incident report
• The company’s notice to its insurer
• The driver’s background check and onboarding file

Then discovery. If the claim goes to litigation, app status is established through document requests for the account logs and telemetry, the driver’s deposition, a subpoena to the company if it isn’t a defendant, and the trip history on the driver’s own phone.

Rideshare companies do report collisions to the California Public Utilities Commission, but those reports are aggregated, redacted and years behind. You can’t look up your own crash in them.

Can Uber itself be held responsible?

There are two routes, and they work differently.

Vicarious liability asks whether Uber answers for the driver’s negligence because of their relationship. Proposition 22 comes up here. It classifies app-based drivers as independent contractors for wage and benefit purposes, and its text says a driver is “not an employee or agent.” It has never been held to give Uber immunity from injury claims, and whether it limits vicarious liability is unresolved in California courts. Our Prop 22 explainer covers the measure in more depth.

The California Supreme Court upheld Prop 22 in Castellanos v. State of California (2024). That decision resolved a workers’ compensation question and didn’t address injury liability.

Direct negligence targets Uber’s own conduct: negligent hiring, supervision or retention of a driver, or negligent entrustment of a vehicle. These claims ask whether the company put an unfit driver on the road when it knew or should have known better. Prop 22’s classification language doesn’t affect them.

Under Diaz v. Carcamo, a plaintiff usually can’t pursue negligent hiring claims when the employer has admitted vicarious liability. Uber contests vicarious liability, which leaves the direct negligence claims open.

What to do in the first week

• Get medical care and keep your appointments. Gaps in treatment are the first thing an adjuster looks for.
• Report the crash through Uber’s or Lyft’s own channel. It creates a claim number and usually prompts the company to state which coverage period it thinks applied.
• Write down what the driver said about whether he was working, while you remember his exact words. Get the officer’s name and report number.
• Check your own auto policy for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
• File within two years. The deadline is set by Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, with much shorter limits if a government vehicle or employee was involved.

If you were a passenger, the rules are different and usually simpler. See our guide on suing after an Uber accident.

Talk to someone about your rideshare accident claim

What your claim is actually worth depends on your injuries, the evidence you’re able to gather about the driver’s app status, and which insurance policy ultimately applies, questions a table can’t answer for you.

If you were hurt in a rideshare accident in California and want to understand where your claim stands, call DK Law for a free consultation.