Phoenix Uber Accident Attorney

Ridesharing platforms (such as Uber, Lyft, etc.) have quickly exploded into a $60 billion industry in the United States. The ability to get a ride just about anywhere, any time of day, in hundreds of cities, using no more than a few clicks on a phone screen represents an incredible technology that is attractive to consumers for obvious reasons. Ridesharing has even likely done some good in society by contributing to a reduction in drunk driving cases.

With over 500 million people worldwide expected to turn to the convenience of ridesharing apps, some things are bound to go wrong. A transportation business cannot exist on such a massive scale without sometimes experiencing traffic accidents—and worse. If you’ve been injured in a Lyft or Uber collision, call our firm. Our Arizona rideshare accident attorneys can help you receive fair compensation.

Nobody expects to find themselves injured or assaulted when they request a ride through Uber or Lyft. We all want peace of mind when hiring professional transportation services, and it’s easy to assume every experience will be a safe and professional one. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, especially with a ridesharing model, where drivers and their cars are so loosely regulated and not subject to the same industry standards and regulatory scrutiny as a public bus or licensed taxi. When the unthinkable does happen, it’s crucial to secure the services of a high-powered injury attorney so that you receive the damages you are owed and the justice you deserve.

A study from the University of Chicago and Rice University took localized traffic accident data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and studied it in relation to the dates Uber or Lyft began serving a particular city and the number of miles logged. The findings of the study suggest that the explosion of rideshare platforms may have increased traffic deaths by as much as 3% in the US since 2011. That’s more than 1,000 deaths per year.

This quantifiable uptick in traffic deaths can be demonstrated as far back as Uber’s San Francisco launch in 2010, and it has been the case in city after city that has welcomed ridesharing services since. Not only has ridesharing increased traffic deaths overall, but it may also even be partially to blame for reversing a trend that saw the US experiencing record low traffic deaths in 2010, with traffic mortality numbers that had not been seen since the 1940s.

Other studies into ridesharing have concluded that the services increase congestion of already-busy streets. The prevalence of rideshare cars also reduces the number of people supporting public transport systems, which are in many cases better regulated, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly than Uber and Lyft drivers that circle endlessly, waiting for fares. For example, in New York City, it was estimated that drivers waste almost three miles between every new passenger, needlessly contributing to traffic congestion, wear and tear on roads and vehicles, emissions, driver fatigue, and the potential for accidents.

Lyft’s first-ever company-wide safety report, published in 2021, did not paint a much brighter picture of today’s rideshare industry and its potential to harm both customers and drivers. Uber had released a similar safety report in 2019 that suggested safety and accountability issues, noting for example, nearly 100 fatal crashes in 2017 and 2018 and the conspicuous absence of any data on non-fatal but injurious crashes. The release of that Uber report prompted Lyft to promise its own safety project. However, now that it has been released, it seems clear that the industry has not become much safer in the years between the companies’ individual reports.

The Lyft report implicated the popular ridesharing service in four fatal attacks, 49 deaths due to car crashes, and over 1,800 sexual assaults in 2019 alone, an absolutely staggering number. Many lawsuits have already been filed against Lyft and other parties, but these are enormously wealthy and influential corporations, and getting the total amount of damages someone is owed in a court of law often requires an excellent injury law firm to help fight at every step.

As accidents and litigation pile up, rideshare companies can come to see their overworked drivers as a liability. This is part of the reason that Uber, Lyft, and their partners have been putting millions of dollars toward autonomous, self-driving cars. According to the rideshare companies and their technology partners, autonomous cars would eliminate driver error, a factor central to many traffic accidents.

This vision of the future is not the utopian dream they would have you believe, however. Uber’s self-driving technology has already killed one Arizona woman.

The federal report on the fatal accident, prepared by the National Transportation Safety Board, concluded that Uber’s machine failed to recognize 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg as a pedestrian and failed to accurately predict her path, despite being equipped with radar, lidar, and camera sensors.

With seemingly little regard for these fatal consequences of deploying immature technology on public roadways, the major rideshare companies and their investors continue to lobby for loosened restrictions on automated driving technology and rideshare practices in general.

To protect your rights and your safety, it’s critical that you partner with a trusted and experienced Arizona rideshare accident lawyer like Luis Guerra.

Wrongfully injured rideshare customers are beginning to fight back against unsafe and harmful practices, and courts are awarding damages against Uber and Lyft as well as offending drivers. Seeking damages effectively and expeditiously will require you to work with a qualified car accident lawyer like Luis Guerra of Phoenix, who can help with your case. If you require medical assistance after your accident, seek it immediately. Then contact the law offices of Luis Guerra before talking to anyone else about your accident. Insurance agents and corporate lawyers will attempt to talk circles around you, get you to admit fault, or intimidate you into settling for less money than you’re entitled to for your injuries. Let Luis Guerra and his experienced law team handle these discussions for you while you focus on your healing.

Rideshares have given more than 11 billion rides since the technology emerged in 2010, and while most have statistically been satisfactory experiences, a number of them have resulted in traumatic or injurious consequences for users and, in turn, lawsuits. Drivers, Lyft, Uber, taxi companies, insurance companies, and riders themselves have all been caught up in legal disputes over ridesharing since the industry came into being. Moreover, as the number of rides continues to grow year by year, so do the number of lawsuits.

Personal injury lawyers across America’s cities have begun to take work from wronged and injured rideshare customers, but only a few highly reputable car accident lawyers like Luis Guerra of Phoenix, Arizona, can genuinely claim to specialize in rideshare cases. Lawsuits relating to rideshares have only become a significant subset of automobile injury law in the last few years, and they can be highly complex matters involving multiple parties, insurance coverage, and differing regulations from state to state or even city to city. It takes a responsive, cutting-edge legal practice to stay on top of this rapidly growing industry, and those injured by a rideshare experience in Phoenix can count on the law firm of injury attorney Luis Guerra.

The particular amount of damages sought will depend on many factors:

• The severity and nature of the injury sustained
• The circumstances of the rideshare (is the injured party a pedestrian? A passenger?)
• Insurance factors—Uber and Lyft now carry insurance in the amount of one million dollars per ride—don’t let them mislead you about your right to compensation if you’ve been involved in a rideshare accident.

If you need to go to court to assert your rights against a significant player in the well-funded, rapidly growing rideshare industry, it’s important to educate yourself. Did you know:

• The ridesharing industry is worth over $60 billion in total, and by some models, it is projected to balloon to over $200 billion by 2025.
• Uber and Lyft now carry $1 million in insurance coverage on accidents. This is per accident rather than per passenger. The coverage is significantly less if a rideshare driver is in an accident without a paying passenger in the car.
• Demographically, Americans aged 18 to 29 are the biggest users of ridesharing services. Only an estimated 24% of people aged 50 and older have used a ridesharing service.
• Forty-three percent of all Uber rides requested in the US are for social engagements (dinner, dates, etc.); 22% are for airport ground transportation.
• A San Francisco Public Press report, using data from the San Francisco Police Department, the California Public Utilities Commission, and the California Department of Insurance, showed that seven out of 47 traffic deaths (around 15%) that occurred in San Francisco during a period in 2018 and 2019 were related to a ridesharing service.
• Uber and Lyft combined have over 5 million drivers. However, it is estimated that almost a quarter of all rideshare drivers in the US operate for both companies, with many working nearly around-the-clock hours to maximize their income.
• In some states, ridesharing services can account for up to 14% of all miles traveled by passenger vehicles. In 2016, Uber and Lyft accounted for around 500 million miles traveled every month in the US.
• From 2014 to 2016, insurance companies paid out over $185 million for claims related to rideshare accidents. In addition, there were over 9,000 individual claims.
• In the Superior Court of San Francisco, CA, alone, there have been over 150 lawsuits filed that allege that drivers operating on the Uber platform were responsible for wrongfully injuring plaintiffs. Many of these lawsuits include similar claims of reckless or unprofessional driving by Uber operators.
• Almost a quarter of the people in the US use a ridesharing service at least monthly.
• Ninety-nine percent of the ridesharing market in the United States comprises two companies, Uber and Lyft.
• One-third of the population claimed to have never heard of ridesharing when asked in 2015, compared to only 3% of respondents only three years later.
• Fewer than 25% of people who make under $30k per year use rideshares, while over half of people earning $75k or more use ridesharing. However, this may be a misleading statistic, as low and high salaries tend to correspond to rural and urban areas, respectively, and rideshare companies operate mostly in urban areas.
• Rideshare drivers are considered independent contractors in most states. This means they are not technically employees of Uber or Lyft, which use this legal definition to their advantage as a way to not only deny their drivers benefits but also broadly reject responsibility for driver safety and conduct.
• Over 45 million Americans downloaded popular ridesharing apps in 2018; three years earlier, the number was fewer than 20 million.
• Projections indicate around 540 million people will use ridesharing apps in 2021.
• Ridesharing companies are investing massive amounts of money into autonomous driving technologies and lobbying for legal approval of self-driving machines. One of Uber’s self-driving cars has already killed a pedestrian in Arizona.
• In New York City, Uber surpasses Yellow Cab use by more than 300,000 rides every day (about 230,000 versus 550,000). Lyft is almost neck and neck with taxi use and expected to join Uber in surpassing it soon.
• Fewer Americans own and operate their own vehicles, and this is especially true for young people. For example, only about a quarter of 16-year-olds had their own license when surveyed in late 2014, compared to over 30% in 2008 and nearly half in 1983.

The high-powered law practice of attorney Luis Guerra has a history of success seeking damages for wrongfully injured clients and victims of negligence in the Phoenix area. We are a reputable, responsive, and compassionate full-service injury law firm. If you’ve been in a taxi, Uber, or Lyft accident, contact our office today for a confidential review of your case.

If you’ve been injured in an accident or harmed due to the negligence of another party in the Phoenix area, don’t delay in contacting the Law Offices of Luis P. Guerra today. Everything we do is centered around the principles of passion, dedication, and honesty, and we would be honored to put our skills and experience to work fighting for your rights.