After an Uber or Lyft crash in Warwick, how much insurance is available depends on something most people never think about: what the driver’s app was doing at the moment of impact. With the app off, neither rideshare tier applies, and only the driver’s personal policy responds. Logged in and waiting for a request, more coverage applies. Once a ride has been accepted, far more applies again.
Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, Accident & Injury Lawyers, Ltd. represents people hurt in these crashes, whether you were riding in the back, driving another car, walking, or on a bike. The fault rules are the same ones that decide any Warwick car accident. The extra layer is the app, and the gap between the two tiers is well over a million dollars.
What Coverage Applies When an Uber or Lyft Crash Happens in Warwick?
Rhode Island’s rideshare insurance law, § 39-14.2-14, sets the available coverage by what the driver’s app was doing when the crash happened. There are two tiers. While the driver is logged in and waiting, before a ride request is accepted, the law requires at least $50,000 for death and bodily injury per person, $100,000 per incident, and $25,000 for property damage. Those limits can be met by the driver’s own policy, the company’s, or the two combined. They are floors set by statute, so a particular policy may carry more.
When the higher tier starts
The same statute sets a second, far higher tier, and it starts the moment the driver accepts a ride request, not when you get in the car. From that point the required coverage is at least $1,500,000 for death, bodily injury and property damage together, as a single limit spanning all three. It is already running while the driver is on the way to collect the passenger, it stays in place during the ride, and it ends only once the last rider who requested the trip has left the vehicle. So a crash on the way to a pickup falls under the $1,500,000 tier, not the lower one.
If the driver’s own personal insurance has lapsed or falls short of what the law requires, the company’s coverage steps in “beginning with the first dollar of a claim,” and the company’s insurer has to defend that claim. The company’s cover does not wait for the driver’s personal insurer to deny the claim first.
The tier does not change with who was hurt. A passenger in the back seat, a driver in another vehicle, a pedestrian and a cyclist all draw on the same coverage. The driver’s app status sets the limit, wherever you happened to be sitting.
Why Work With Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, Accident & Injury Lawyers, Ltd.
We are based in Rhode Island. Partner Andrew O. Resmini is licensed here and in Connecticut. Before he joined the firm he clerked for Associate Justice Daniel A. Procaccini at the Kent County Superior Courthouse. Warwick sits in Kent County.
We have handled a case with the same kind of gap between what one driver’s policy carried and what an injury was worth. In that matter, a client was hurt when another driver crossed into their lane. We pursued the client’s own underinsured motorist coverage alongside the at-fault driver’s insurance and resolved the claim for more than $1 million, as set out in our case results. Layering a client’s own coverage on top of the driver who caused the crash is the same mechanism Rhode Island’s uninsured and underinsured motorist law makes available.
We promise to call back within the hour if we are busy, and we personally take your calls, not a call center.
What If the Insurer Says the Crash Was Partly Your Fault?
You can still recover. Rhode Island follows a pure comparative negligence rule under § 9-20-4, so being partly at fault does not bar a claim. Your damages are reduced by the share of fault attributed to you, whatever that share turns out to be, and the statute sets no cutoff point. Someone found mostly to blame still recovers the portion of the damages that is not their own fault. The same rule applies even where a danger or defect was open and obvious.
This comes up when an insurer argues the rideshare driver was not fully responsible, or points at another driver who was distracted, a pattern we see often in our work on Warwick distracted driving crashes. Being blamed in part reduces what you recover. It does not end your claim.
How Long You Have to File a Claim
Three years, in most cases. Rhode Island generally gives you three years from the date the claim accrues to file a personal injury lawsuit, under § 9-1-14(b). Miss that date and the claim is usually over, whatever happened to you. A small number of exceptions can move it, and each one depends on the facts of the case, so the date that applies to you is worth settling early rather than assuming.
Three years also sounds like more room than it is. Which insurance tier applies turns on what the driver’s app was doing at the moment of impact, and that is a question far easier to answer early than late. If you are not sure where your deadline falls, a free consultation is the place to get a straight answer about it.
If the Crash Was Fatal
Rhode Island’s wrongful death statute, § 10-7-2, sets the deadline at three years from the date of death, or from when a wrongful act unknown at the time of death was or should have been discovered. That claim is brought by the executor or administrator of the estate. Claims for loss of society and consortium work differently: under § 10-7-1.2, family members bring those in their own names rather than through the estate. A defendant found liable in a wrongful death case is liable for damages of not less than $350,000. That figure is a floor set by statute, not an amount a family will necessarily collect.
Where Does Your Own Insurance Fit In?
Rhode Island is a traditional at-fault state. There is no personal injury protection and no tort threshold, so the liability insurer for whoever caused the crash is the one who pays. Your own health insurance generally covers treatment in the meantime, and health insurers commonly seek reimbursement once a settlement comes through.
Sometimes the at-fault policy is not enough. Rhode Island’s minimum insurance limits are set at § 31-47-2(13)(i)(A): $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, $25,000 for property damage, or a $75,000 combined single limit. A driver carrying nothing more than the minimum can leave a serious injury only partly paid for.
That is where your own uninsured motorist coverage comes in. Under § 27-7-2.1, your insurer must provide that coverage in an amount equal to your own bodily injury liability limits, unless you selected a lower limit in writing. The same statute treats an underinsured driver as an uninsured one, so a single provision in your policy covers both. This is the coverage you are most likely to lean on after a Warwick hit-and-run crash, or when the other driver simply carries too little insurance to cover what happened.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if the driver's app was off when the crash happened?
Then neither rideshare tier applies, and you are dealing with the driver’s personal auto policy, as you would after any other Warwick crash. If that policy carries only Rhode Island’s minimum limits, or the driver had let it lapse, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is the next place to look.
Does rideshare coverage pay for my car, or only injuries?
The same statute covers both. While the driver is logged in and waiting, property damage is covered up to $25,000. Once the driver has accepted a ride, property damage sits inside the combined $1,500,000 limit alongside death and bodily injury. Either way, it is covered within those same statutory limits.
Does uninsured motorist coverage protect a family member riding with me?
That is set by your policy rather than by the statute. Rhode Island requires the coverage to exist, and it counts an underinsured driver as an uninsured one, but whether a particular family member is an insured person under a given policy comes from that policy’s own language. The statute does not define who a household member is, so the wording of your policy is what to check.
Which court would a Warwick rideshare claim be filed in?
That depends on the amount at stake. Claims above $10,000 fall under the Superior Court’s exclusive jurisdiction, under § 8-2-14(a). Claims of $5,000 or less go to the District Court, where Warwick sits in the Third Division, based in Kent County, under § 8-8-2. Working that out is not your job: on the cases we take on, our office handles the filing.
If the crash happened in Warwick, will the case be heard there?
Not necessarily. Superior Court venue turns on where the parties live or can be found, under § 9-4-3, rather than on where the collision happened. A Warwick crash can still end up filed in whichever county the driver or the company is located in. That is a question about where papers go, not about whether you have a claim.
Talk to Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, Accident & Injury Lawyers, Ltd. About a Warwick Rideshare Claim
If an Uber or Lyft crash in Warwick left you hurt, we offer a free consultation to go through what happened and work out which insurance tier applies to your situation. Call 401-352-5271 or reach us through contact us, and we will talk it through with you directly. We represent people hurt in car and rideshare crashes across Warwick and the rest of Rhode Island.