Fact-Checked: Why Trust Rittgers Rittgers & Nakajima Rideshare apps have become part of everyday life in Ohio. A ride home after a night out, a trip to the airport, a lift when the car is in the shop.
When a rideshare trip ends in a crash, the scene looks like any other collision. Damaged vehicles, possible injuries, insurance information exchanged at the roadside. What happens next is where a rideshare crash stops being ordinary. Which policies apply, and how much coverage sits behind them, can turn on what the driver was doing in the app at the moment of impact.
If you or a loved one has been hurt in a rideshare crash, here is what you should understand about how coverage works in Ohio.
Who Can Be Injured in a Rideshare Accident
Rideshare accidents affect more than the people in the back seat. Injured parties commonly include:
- Passengers riding in the rideshare vehicle
- Drivers and passengers of other vehicles struck by a rideshare driver
- Pedestrians and cyclists hit by a rideshare vehicle
- Rideshare drivers themselves, when another driver causes the crash
Each of these situations raises its own coverage questions. But in every one of them, the starting point is the same: what was the rideshare driver’s app status at the moment of the crash?
How Rideshare Insurance Coverage Works in Ohio
Ohio’s rideshare insurance law, in place since 2016, ties the required coverage to what the driver was doing in the app. In practice, that creates three distinct periods, and the available insurance changes as the driver moves from one period to the next.
Period 1: The app is off. A driver who is not logged in to the app is simply a private driver. The rideshare company’s coverage does not apply, and the driver’s personal auto policy is what is left.
Period 2: The app is on, and the driver is waiting for a ride request. Once the driver logs in and is available for rides, Ohio’s rideshare coverage requirements apply. The coverage must provide at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $25,000 for property damage. In practice, that coverage usually comes from the rideshare company’s own policy. It is meaningful coverage, but it can fall well short of what a serious injury actually costs.
Period 3: The driver is on the way to a pickup, or a passenger is in the car. From the moment a driver accepts a ride request until the last passenger gets out of the car, the required coverage rises to at least $1 million, and the rideshare company’s liability policy generally provides it. This is the broadest coverage in the rideshare framework. When the rideshare driver caused the crash, it is typically the coverage available to injured passengers and to people in other vehicles.
One more piece of the framework matters. Many personal auto policies exclude coverage while a driver is logged in to a rideshare app, and Ohio law expressly allows that exclusion, including for the driver’s own UM/UIM coverage. When the driver’s personal policy does not provide the required coverage, the rideshare company’s insurance must provide it from the first dollar of the claim, and it cannot require the personal insurer to deny the claim first.
Seconds matter. Whether the driver had accepted a ride request before impact can be the difference between a $1 million policy and a policy with a $50,000 per-person limit. In a serious injury case, establishing the driver’s app status at the moment of the crash is often one of the first and most important steps.
Ohio law puts part of that burden on the driver. After a crash, a rideshare driver must provide proof of the rideshare coverage to everyone with a claim on it and, on request, must disclose whether they were logged in or on a trip at the time. If you are able to at the scene, ask, and write down the answer.
What Happens When the Driver Who Hit You Has No Insurance?
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage (“UM/UIM”) protects you when the at-fault driver has no insurance, or not enough insurance, to cover your losses. It is some of the most important coverage a person can carry.
Here is what many people do not realize: since a 2001 change in Ohio law (Senate Bill 97), insurers are not required to offer UM/UIM coverage. It is optional for the insurer to offer and optional for the customer to buy. If you are not sure whether you have it, look for a UM/UIM line on the declarations page of your auto policy.
Ohio’s rideshare law does not require Uber, Lyft, or similar companies to carry UM/UIM coverage for their drivers or passengers either. As of this writing, Uber’s own insurance page states that it maintains UM/UIM for rideshare in states where the law requires it, and that it does not maintain UM/UIM in every state. The same page points riders to their own insurance for UM/UIM benefits.
Here is what that looks like in practice. Imagine you are a rideshare passenger and another driver runs a red light and causes the crash. If that driver is uninsured or carries only minimum limits, the rideshare company’s $1 million liability policy may not help you, because your rideshare driver was not at fault.
In that situation, your own UM/UIM coverage through your personal auto policy, or sometimes a household member’s policy, may become the most important source of recovery. Identifying every policy that might apply, and in what order, is often a central part of the legal work in these cases.
Common Issues That Come Up in Rideshare Cases
Even when coverage exists, rideshare claims rarely resolve as smoothly as a standard car accident claim. Issues we commonly see include:
- Disputes over which insurer is responsible: the driver’s personal carrier, the rideshare company’s insurer, or both
- Delays while insurers point at each other, each waiting for the other to accept responsibility
- Disagreement about the driver’s app status at the moment of the crash, sometimes over a matter of seconds
- Injuries that do not fully present themselves for days, such as concussions, soft tissue damage, or internal injuries
- Requests for recorded statements from multiple insurance companies, each protecting its own interests
The rideshare company has records of the precise times the driver logged on and off the app, and of when a ride was accepted. In a claims investigation, Ohio law requires the company and its insurer to cooperate in sharing that information with the directly interested parties, including the exact log-on and log-off times for the 12 hours before and after the crash and a clear description of the coverage in place. In our experience, injured people rarely see any of it unless someone demands it for them.
None of these issues means a claim cannot succeed. But each one is a place where an unrepresented injured person can lose ground without realizing it.
What This Means for You
A rideshare accident claim often involves more than one insurance policy, and the policies do not sort themselves out on their own.
An injured passenger may have coverage available through the rideshare company’s policy, the at-fault driver’s policy, and their own UM/UIM coverage, all in the same case. Knowing which policies apply, in what order, and how to preserve each claim is not something most people should try to navigate alone while recovering from an injury.
An experienced personal injury attorney can send preservation demands so trip data and vehicle records are not lost, obtain the records that establish the driver’s app status, identify every layer of coverage, and handle the insurers so the focus stays where it belongs: on your recovery.
The Bottom Line
Rideshare travel is a normal part of daily life for many Ohioans, and that is not changing. But the convenience has a cost. A peer-reviewed study of ridehailing’s arrival in U.S. cities, published in the Journal of Operations Management, found it was associated with roughly a 3% increase in fatal traffic accidents, for vehicle occupants and pedestrians alike. And when a rideshare crash does happen, the insurance picture is more complex than in a standard car accident.
If you have been injured in a crash involving an Uber, Lyft, or other rideshare vehicle, do not assume the coverage picture is what it first appears to be. The personal injury team at Rittgers Rittgers & Nakajima can help you identify every layer of coverage that applies to your situation and pursue the full value of your claim.
Educational content, not legal advice. Every case turns on its facts.