Pedestrian accidents involving Uber and Lyft drivers can raise legal and insurance questions that differ significantly from those in an ordinary collision. In Schaumburg, rideshare vehicles regularly travel through busy commercial areas, shopping centers, restaurant districts, apartment communities, hotel properties, parking lots, and heavily traveled roads such as Golf Road, Higgins Road, Schaumburg Road, Meacham Road, Roselle Road, and Barrington Road.
Drivers working through rideshare applications may be searching for passengers, watching their phones for ride information, looking for unfamiliar addresses, pulling toward curbs, or attempting to make quick turns into parking lots and pickup areas. A moment of distraction in one of these environments can result in a pedestrian being struck by a moving vehicle and suffering serious injuries. When I investigate a pedestrian accident involving an Uber or Lyft driver, one of the first issues I want to determine is exactly what the driver was doing through the rideshare application when the collision occurred.
Illinois law requires motorists to exercise appropriate care around pedestrians, and the state’s pedestrian right-of-way rules provide important protections at crosswalks. Under 625 ILCS 5/11-1002, a driver must stop and yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk under circumstances specified by the statute. The same law also imposes responsibilities on pedestrians, which means insurance companies frequently examine the pedestrian’s actions when attempting to contest liability. When an Uber or Lyft driver causes the collision, an additional layer of investigation becomes necessary because the amount and source of available insurance can depend heavily on whether the driver was offline, waiting for a request, had accepted a request, or was transporting a passenger.
Rideshare driving requires drivers to divide their attention between operating a vehicle and interacting with technology. A driver may need to view a navigation map, recognize an upcoming turn, identify a pickup location, confirm a passenger’s location, or respond to information appearing through the rideshare application. None of these activities excuse unsafe driving, but they can become important evidence when determining how a pedestrian accident happened.
The risk can become particularly serious in areas where pedestrians and rideshare vehicles frequently interact. Shopping centers, restaurants, entertainment venues, hotels, apartment complexes, transit locations, and crowded parking lots can place pedestrians only a few feet away from moving rideshare vehicles. A driver who is concentrating on locating a passenger may fail to see someone walking through a marked crosswalk or crossing a parking-lot travel lane.
Pickup and drop-off activity can create additional hazards. Rideshare drivers sometimes stop in unusual locations when trying to meet passengers quickly. They may pull toward a curb unexpectedly, make sudden turns, stop near an entrance, back into a pickup location, or travel through a parking lot while concentrating on finding a passenger rather than watching the path ahead.
If one of these actions results in an accident, I investigate both the immediate driving conduct and the rideshare activity occurring at the time.
One of the most important questions after a rideshare pedestrian accident is whether the driver was actively using the Uber or Lyft platform. Illinois’ Transportation Network Providers Act establishes different insurance requirements depending upon the driver’s status.
When a participating rideshare driver is logged into the platform but has not yet accepted a passenger request, Illinois law requires automobile liability insurance of at least $50,000 for death or personal injury to one person, $100,000 for death or personal injury per incident, and $25,000 for property damage. The law also requires contingent coverage from the transportation network company when the driver’s policy excludes the activity or does not provide the required limits.
The insurance situation changes significantly after the driver accepts a ride request. From the time the driver accepts the request until the transaction or ride is completed, Illinois law requires primary automobile liability insurance in the amount of $1 million for death, personal injury, and property damage.
That distinction can have enormous consequences after a pedestrian suffers catastrophic injuries. Establishing the exact moment of the collision and comparing it to Uber or Lyft’s electronic records may therefore become a central part of the case.
A rideshare driver does not need to have a passenger physically sitting inside the vehicle for the higher insurance requirement to potentially apply. Under Illinois law, transportation network company services begin when a driver accepts a request through the company’s digital platform.
Suppose an Uber driver accepts a passenger request and begins driving toward a restaurant in Schaumburg. While searching for the restaurant entrance, the driver turns through a crosswalk and strikes a pedestrian. The passenger has not yet entered the Uber, but the driver has already accepted the ride.
That fact is important because Illinois law requires the $1 million primary automobile liability coverage to apply from the time a rideshare driver accepts the request.
For that reason, I would not simply accept an insurer’s characterization of the driver’s status. Electronic rideshare records, timestamps, trip information, GPS records, and other digital evidence may help establish precisely what the driver was doing.
Many Uber and Lyft pedestrian accidents involve ordinary forms of driver negligence made more dangerous by the driver’s attention to rideshare activity. A driver may fail to yield while turning, roll through a stop sign, enter a crosswalk without looking carefully, back out of a parking space, or become distracted by navigation information.
Left and right turns can be especially dangerous. A driver concentrating on finding an opening in vehicle traffic may look primarily toward approaching cars while failing to check the crosswalk before completing the turn. A pedestrian may have the signal and already be several steps into the roadway before the driver notices them.
Parking-lot accidents can also cause severe injuries. Pedestrians walking between stores and parked cars may have little protection when a rideshare vehicle backs up or accelerates toward a pickup point.
Drivers still have an obligation to watch where they are going. The fact that the driver was working, looking for a passenger, or following an application does not make a preventable pedestrian collision acceptable.
Illinois pedestrian laws often play an important role in determining liability. Under 625 ILCS 5/11-1002, when traffic control signals are absent or not operating, motorists must stop and yield under specified circumstances to pedestrians crossing within a crosswalk. The statute also prohibits a pedestrian from suddenly entering the path of a vehicle that is so close that it creates an immediate hazard.
Insurance companies frequently focus heavily on this second part of the law. An insurer may claim that a pedestrian appeared suddenly, crossed outside a designated location, was distracted, or failed to observe approaching traffic.
I look beyond those allegations and examine what actually happened. Vehicle speed, visibility, crosswalk markings, traffic signals, witness accounts, video recordings, vehicle damage, phone records, app activity, and the driver’s statements may all help establish whether the driver had sufficient opportunity to see and avoid the pedestrian.
A pedestrian claim should not be evaluated based only on what the driver tells the insurance company.
A pedestrian has no seat belt, airbag, steel vehicle frame, or other meaningful protection from the force of an automobile. Even a collision at a relatively modest speed can produce significant injuries.
I frequently consider the possibility of traumatic brain injuries, concussions, skull fractures, broken hips, pelvic fractures, leg fractures, knee injuries, shoulder injuries, spinal injuries, internal bleeding, organ damage, facial injuries, and significant soft-tissue trauma. A pedestrian may initially be struck by the front of the vehicle and then suffer a second impact with the windshield, pavement, another vehicle, or a fixed object.
Some injuries require surgery and months of rehabilitation. Others produce permanent mobility problems, chronic pain, cognitive difficulties, scarring, or an inability to return to the person’s previous occupation.
When a pedestrian accident results in death, the surviving family may also have rights under Illinois wrongful death law. These cases require careful examination of both financial losses and the losses suffered by surviving family members.
Rideshare collisions create forms of evidence that may not exist in an ordinary car accident. The driver’s activity through the platform can establish whether the driver was online and whether a ride had been accepted.
Trip records may help establish timestamps, pickup information, route information, and the status of the ride. The driver’s phone may contain navigation activity, calls, messages, or other information relevant to distraction. Depending on the location of the accident, nearby stores, restaurants, apartment buildings, parking facilities, homes, or traffic cameras may have captured video.
Dash-camera footage may also exist.
Evidence preservation is important because video can be recorded over and electronic information can become more difficult to obtain with time. I prefer to investigate these cases early rather than assume that critical evidence will remain available indefinitely.
Pedestrian claims can involve aggressive attempts to place fault on the injured person. The insurer may argue that the pedestrian crossed against a signal, stepped between parked vehicles, was looking at a phone, wore dark clothing, crossed somewhere other than a crosswalk, or failed to pay attention.
Those allegations can affect compensation under Illinois comparative negligence rules, which is why the circumstances must be investigated carefully.
An allegation of pedestrian fault does not automatically eliminate a claim. Liability may be shared, and the driver’s conduct still needs to be evaluated independently. A motorist who was speeding, distracted, making an unsafe turn, or failing to maintain a proper lookout may still bear substantial responsibility.
I examine the entire sequence of events rather than allowing an insurance adjuster to define the case based on a single allegation.
A serious pedestrian accident can create financial losses that continue long after emergency treatment ends. Depending on the circumstances, compensation may include emergency medical expenses, hospitalization, surgery, rehabilitation, physical therapy, follow-up medical treatment, lost wages, diminished future earning capacity, and anticipated future medical care.
The claim may also include compensation for pain, disability, disfigurement, loss of normal life, and other legally recognized harms.
The amount of available insurance can be particularly important when injuries are severe. That is another reason determining the driver’s rideshare status at the exact time of the collision matters. A pedestrian should not assume that the rideshare company’s insurance does or does not apply until the underlying trip information has been investigated.
When an Uber or Lyft driver strikes a pedestrian, I do not treat the case like an ordinary automobile insurance claim. I want to know what the driver was doing immediately before the collision, whether the rideshare application was active, whether a passenger request had already been accepted, what electronic records exist, and which insurance policies may provide coverage. Those questions can become especially important when a pedestrian has suffered a traumatic brain injury, fracture, spinal injury, permanent disability, or another serious injury requiring substantial future care.
At SJ Injury Law, I represent people injured because of negligent drivers and pursue compensation for the medical expenses, lost income, pain, disability, loss of normal life, future treatment, and other damages caused by serious accidents. If an Uber or Lyft driver struck you or a family member in Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, Northbrook, Palatine, Prospect Heights, Wheeling, Park Ridge, Rosemont, Glenview, Chicago, or anywhere in Illinois, I can review what happened and explain the legal options that may be available.
Contact our Schaumburg pedestrian accident attorney at SJ INJURY LAW by calling (847) 434-3555 to receive your free consultation. I serve injured clients in Schaumburg, Chicago, the surrounding suburbs, and throughout Illinois, and can investigate the rideshare driver’s status, preserve available evidence, identify potentially applicable insurance coverage, and pursue the compensation supported by the facts of your claim.
Client injured by a distracted driver who was texting at the time…
Student was injured and fractured several bones and required surgery to…
While at work operating a piece of manufacturing equipment, the safety…
Woman was bitten on her face by what she believed to be a vicious…
Our client suffered a back injury and will undergo spine surgery…
Client's vehicle was forced into oncoming traffic, colliding with a semi-truck...
We are highly experienced personal injury lawyers. We know how to help accident victims receive the full financial compensation they deserve. Our Winning Team is focused, dedicated, and sensitive to each of our client's needs. We are here to help you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.