Hit by an Uber or Lyft driver

You were not in the car and you never agreed to anything with the platform. That makes you the person with the strongest position on fault and the weakest position on information — because whether substantial coverage exists depends entirely on what an app you cannot see was doing. This is general information, not legal advice.

Why the app status decides your claim

California requires a transportation network company to carry commercial coverage that varies by period: nothing while the app is off, a lower level while the driver is logged in and waiting, and the highest level from accepting a ride through completing the drop-off. As an outsider, you inherit whichever period applied.

The difference is not marginal. The same crash can be answered by a minimum personal policy or by substantial commercial coverage, and nothing about how the collision happened changes which.

Sources: Pub. Util. Code, § 5433 (insurance requirements by app period); § 5431 (definition of a transportation network company). § 5433 last amended Stats. 2025, ch. 314 (SB 371), effective January 1, 2026.

The three periods in detail: rideshare insurance periods.

Establishing it from the outside

At the scene, before anything is tidied away:

• Ask directly whether they were working, and whether they had a passenger or were on the way to one. Write down what they say, with the time. It is not binding, and it is useful when it later changes.
• Photograph the vehicle including any placard or decal in the windscreen or rear window.
• Photograph the phone mount and screen if it is visible. The app screen shows the state, and it is the clearest contemporaneous record there is.
• Note whether anyone else was in the car and get their details. A passenger is an independent witness whose own app history corroborates the period.
• Get the plate and the driver's details as you would in any crash.
• Tell the officer if you believe it was a rideshare vehicle, so it goes in the report.

After that, the platform's records are the answer, and they are obtainable. A preservation request early is worth more than a request months later.

The personal policy denial

A common sequence: you claim against the driver's personal insurer, and it denies coverage because the vehicle was being used to carry passengers for compensation. That reads like the end of the claim and is usually the opposite — it is the personal insurer confirming that the driver was working, which is the fact that brings the platform's coverage into play.

Keep the denial letter. It is evidence.

If you were on foot or on a bike

The legal framework is the same. What changes is practical. You had no vehicle and no dashcam, you may not have been in any condition to note a placard, and your injuries are likely more serious for the same impact speed. That puts more weight on witnesses, on nearby camera footage requested quickly, and on the collision report.

Pedestrian injury claims · bicycle accident claims · hit-and-run crashes.

Deliveries, not just rides

A driver working for a delivery platform raises a related but distinct set of questions about which coverage requirements apply. That is at app-based delivery drivers.

Common questions

How do I know whether they were working?

Ask at the scene and write down the answer, then verify it. Drivers often display a company placard, and the app screen is usually visible on a mount. Once a claim is made, the platform’s own trip records settle it — but at the scene, what you observe and note is what starts the process.

Their insurer says the personal policy does not cover it. Now what?

That denial is usually a signpost rather than a wall. Personal auto policies exclude driving for compensation, which is precisely why California requires transportation network companies to carry coverage. A denial on that ground points at the platform’s policy.

What if the driver says the app was off?

Test it. Drivers have an incentive in both directions and the platform holds records that answer it to the second. A crash a few seconds after a drop-off falls in a different coverage period from one a few seconds before, and the driver’s recollection is not the evidence.

I was walking or cycling. Does any of this change?

The framework is identical. The practical difference is that you have no vehicle, so you were not in a position to note plates and app screens, and you may have been more seriously hurt. Photographs of the vehicle and any placard, taken by anyone at the scene, matter more as a result.