Uber vehicles are as prone to having accidents as any other car. That is a reality. A wreck on North Kentucky Street and West Race Street does not distinguish between a rideshare and a private car. However, Tennessee law does, and a rideshare accident lawyer in Kingston can help you unravel the difficulties of these types of cases.
At Fox & Farmer, we have represented personal injury victims across Kingston and Roane County, and we know that rideshare crashes can have their complexities. If you wonder whether you are owed compensation after being involved in a crash with a Lyft or Uber driver, contact us.
The structure of rideshare insurance is set by Tennessee Code section 55-12-141, which ties the coverage available after a crash to the driver's status in the app at the moment it happened.
The starting point of any rideshare case is to understand that structure, because the same crash can involve vastly different coverage depending on a single fact: what the driver was doing in the app.
The law sets out distinct periods. When the app is off and the driver is using the car for personal purposes, only the driver's personal auto policy applies, as in any ordinary crash. When the app is on and the driver is waiting for a ride request but has not yet accepted one, primary coverage applies, with liability limits set by statute, that responds if the driver's personal policy does not.
And once the driver has accepted a ride and is on the way to or carrying a passenger, the rideshare company's large commercial liability coverage, one million dollars, applies. This is the period of fullest company responsibility, since the driver is actively working, and it is when most rideshare passengers are injured, because a passenger is by definition in the car during an accepted trip. The table below sets out the periods.
| Driver's app status | Coverage that applies |
|---|---|
| App off (personal use) | Driver's personal auto policy only |
| App on, waiting for a request | Primary coverage: 50,000 per person, 100,000 per crash, 25,000 property |
| Ride accepted, en route, or carrying a passenger | The company's 1,000,000 commercial liability coverage |
Because the coverage swings so dramatically across these periods, the app status at the moment of the crash is frequently the most important fact in the case, and establishing it, through the app data, the trip records, and the company's own information, is essential to reaching the coverage that applies.
The difference is not a small one. A crash that occurs seconds after a driver accepts a ride may fall under the full commercial coverage, while the same crash moments earlier, with the app on but no ride accepted, may fall under only the primary coverage with far lower limits.
That sensitivity to the exact moment is why the trip data, which records precisely when a ride was requested, accepted, and begun, so often decides which policy must respond.
If the driver who caused the crash is uninsured or flees the scene, liability coverage on the rideshare side does not answer the loss. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage does, under Tennessee Code section 56-7-1201. Additionally, section 55-12-141 requires transportation network companies' policies to comply with it. A passenger may also have UM/UIM under a personal or household policy.
It depends on what the app was doing. If the driver was carrying or en route to a passenger, a large commercial policy generally applies. If they were merely logged in and waiting, a smaller primary policy applies, and if the app was off, only their personal insurance applies.
Tennessee applies modified comparative fault, the rule from McIntyre v. Balentine, under which an injured person recovers only if found less than 50 percent at fault, with the recovery reduced by the share assigned and barred entirely at 50 percent or more.
A rideshare crash is, at its core, still a vehicle crash, so fault is established the same way as in any Kingston car accident: through the crash report, the physical evidence, the witness accounts, and any footage. The added dimension is the layer of insurance and trip data the rideshare context brings.
Fault may lie with the rideshare driver, with another motorist, or with both, and the injured person may be a rideshare passenger, the occupant of another vehicle, a pedestrian, or a cyclist.
A passenger in a rideshare vehicle is essentially never at fault and is focused on reaching the right coverage, while a person in another vehicle struck by a rideshare driver must establish that driver's fault and then determine the driver's status in the app to know which policy responds.
The distinction affects how quickly the coverage question can be answered: a passenger can usually point to a trip in progress, while an outside party may need the company to confirm, through the data it holds, whether the driver was engaged with a ride at the moment of impact, which is one more reason to preserve every available record early.
In every version, the ordinary work of proving fault combines with the rideshare-specific work of pinning down what the driver was doing in the app and identifying the coverage, and the same proof that establishes how any crash happened applies here alongside the trip data. The injured person's position shapes the practical strategy.
A passenger has a direct path to the commercial coverage because a ride was plainly in progress, while a person in another vehicle, or a pedestrian or cyclist struck by a rideshare driver, must both prove the driver's fault and then establish what the driver was doing in the app, since the driver may have been between rides.
Yes, if you were less than 50 percent at fault. Tennessee follows modified comparative fault: a party 50 percent or more at fault recovers nothing, and a smaller share reduces recovery proportionally.
A feature of rideshare cases that shapes how they proceed is the way the companies have structured their relationship with drivers. Uber and Lyft classify their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, a distinction the companies rely on to limit their direct responsibility for a driver's conduct.
This is part of why the statutory insurance framework matters so much: rather than leaving an injured person to argue about the company's responsibility for its driver, Tennessee law requires the tiered coverage that applies based on the driver's status in the app, providing a more direct route to the insurance.
The independent-contractor classification has been contested in various contexts, but for a victim, the practical answer the law provides is the coverage framework itself, which attaches to the activity in the app rather than to an employment relationship that the companies dispute. That is what gives a claim a dependable path to the right policy.
That structure also explains the gap that can arise in the waiting period. When a driver has the app on but has not yet accepted a ride, the company's full commercial coverage does not apply, and only the primary, lower-limit coverage does, and then only if the driver's personal policy does not respond, and many personal auto policies exclude crashes that occur while driving for a rideshare service.
This intersection of a personal policy that may exclude rideshare activity and a primary company policy with lower limits is exactly where coverage disputes arise, and where establishing the precise status in the app and examining both policies carefully becomes essential to finding the coverage that should respond.
That is the waiting phase, when the rideshare company's primary coverage applies if the driver's personal policy does not respond. It is larger than a minimum personal policy but smaller than the coverage during an active ride.
Compensation in a serious rideshare case must capture the full extent of harm. Tennessee law allows recovery for economic damages (the measurable financial losses) and non-economic damages (the human losses of pain and suffering, disability, and the loss of consortium).
If the one-million-dollar commercial coverage applies, there is often enough coverage to address even a catastrophic injury, which makes establishing the status that triggers it all the more important.
This is one of the few situations in which serious injuries from a crash may be met by substantial coverage rather than a minimum policy, so the stakes of correctly establishing the driver's standing in the app are high: it can be the difference between a recovery that fully addresses a life-altering injury and one constrained by a small personal policy.
Rideshare trips around Kingston often run to and from Knoxville and its airport along Interstate 40 and US-70, the kind of longer trips where a serious highway crash is most likely.
The economic damages include past and future medical care, the income lost during recovery, and the lost earning capacity where an injury prevents a return to work. The non-economic damages account for the pain, the permanent disability or disfigurement, and the loss of the life a person was able to live before.
In Kingston, a seriously injured person is typically taken to the nearest emergency room at Roane Medical Center, the Covenant Health hospital in Harriman, about ten miles to the northeast. The most serious injuries are stabilized and transferred to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, the region’s Level I trauma center, about forty miles to the east.
The state caps non-economic damages at $750,000, rising to $1 million for certain catastrophic injuries, under Tennessee Code section 29-39-102. On the other hand, punitive damages are generally capped at the greater of two times compensatory damages or $500,000, but this cap can be lifted when the at-fault driver was intoxicated or committed a felony.
Because the available coverage can be substantial when a trip is in progress, a rideshare case can sometimes provide for a serious injury more fully than an ordinary crash against a minimum-limits driver, which makes the early work of establishing the coverage well worth doing.
A rideshare crash is one form of the broader range of harms in any Kingston personal injury claim, and where a rideshare crash takes a life, the family's Kingston wrongful death case pursues the responsible parties while measuring a far heavier loss. This type of claim may also recover for the loss of consortium, which covers the loss of companionship, affection, intimacy, and household services.
Of course, no outcome can ever be promised, and the facts always govern, but pursuing every applicable policy and every category is how a serious rideshare claim is made whole.
Get medical care promptly, both for your health and because the medical record documents the injury and ties it to the crash. Some injuries are not fully apparent at first, so prompt evaluation protects both your recovery and your claim, and it begins the medical record that ties the injury to the crash.
At the scene, if you are able, make sure the crash is reported so an official record exists, and document everything: photograph the vehicles, their positions, the damage, and any visible injuries.
Crucially in a rideshare case, capture the app information while you can, screenshot your trip record if you are the passenger, note the driver's name and that the trip was through Uber or Lyft, and preserve any confirmation of the ride, because the driver's status in the app is the key fact and this information establishes it.
Gather the names and contact details of the driver and any witnesses. If you are a passenger, the app itself holds much of what matters: the driver's identity, the trip details, and the timing.
Preserving your own record of the ride, rather than relying on the company to produce it later, puts that proof in your hands from the start. A screenshot taken at the scene is far easier to secure than data requested from the company months afterward.
Be cautious with any insurer (the driver's, the other motorist's, or the company's) that reaches out: do not give a recorded statement or accept an early settlement before you have advice, because the question of which coverage applies is exactly what an insurer may try to resolve in its own favor.
With several insurers potentially involved, each has an incentive to minimize its own exposure or to point at another, and an unrepresented person can easily be steered toward the smallest available coverage rather than the one that should respond.
Reach out to a rideshare accident lawyer in Kingston promptly, because the app and trip data that prove coverage are best secured early, and Tennessee's one-year deadline can arrive faster than expected.
Often the claim runs through the company's insurance rather than the company itself, because drivers are classified as independent contractors. The applicable policy depends on the app's phase, and a lawyer can identify the right target.
One year from the date of the crash under Tennessee Code section 28-3-104. Missing it almost always ends the claim, so acting early matters. If the at-fault driver faces DUI charges from the crash, Tennessee law extends the filing deadline to two years under section 28-3-104(a)(2).
It depends on what the driver was doing in the app at the moment of the crash. If the driver had accepted your ride or was carrying you as a passenger, the company's one-million-dollar commercial coverage generally applies. If the app was on but no ride was accepted, a smaller primary coverage applies. If the app was off, only the driver's personal policy applies.
Because a ride was in progress, the rideshare company's one-million-dollar commercial liability coverage generally applies to a passenger injured during the trip. As a passenger, you are essentially never at fault, so your case focuses on establishing the harm and reaching that coverage.
That turns on what the driver was doing in the app when the crash occurred, which is established through the app and trip data. The driver's fault is proven as in any crash, and then the driver's standing in the app determines whether the company's commercial coverage, the primary coverage, or only the driver's personal policy responds.
Because Tennessee law ties the available coverage to it. The same driver may carry one-million-dollar commercial coverage, a smaller primary coverage, or only a personal policy, depending on whether the app was off, on and waiting, or engaged with a ride. The difference can be enormous, which is why pinning down what the driver was doing in the app is central to the case.
No, the companies classify them as independent contractors, which they rely on to limit their direct responsibility for a driver's conduct. This is part of why Tennessee's statutory insurance framework, which requires tiered coverage based on what the driver was doing in the app, is so important to an injured person's recovery.
You can still recover as long as your share of the fault stays below 50 percent, with the recovery reduced by your share. Because the insurer will try to push that share up, establishing what actually happened protects the claim.
The family can bring a wrongful death claim, within one year of the accident that caused the death, against the responsible driver and the applicable coverage, recovering both the family's losses and the person's own harm. A grieving spouse might also be compensated for the loss of consortium.
It depends on the firm, but Fox & Farmer works on a contingency fee, so you pay no attorney fee unless you recover. The first consultation is free.
Kingston is the seat of Roane County, so a serious rideshare accident suit is generally brought right here in the Roane County court, where the circuit court sits at the courthouse on East Race Street.
From years of experience across Roane County and the wider Knoxville area, our attorneys know how the app-status coverage tiers work under Tennessee law, how to secure the app and trip data that prove which coverage applies, and the workings of the Roane County courts where a case is filed. Because Kingston is the county seat, a serious rideshare accident suit is brought right here in the Roane County court, at the courthouse on East Race Street, in the Ninth Judicial District.
A rideshare accident case is won by establishing the app status, proving which coverage applies, reaching that coverage, and documenting the full extent of the harm, and Fox & Farmer builds each case to do all of these, moving quickly to preserve the app and trip data the case depends on. The goal is a recovery that reflects the true cost of the injury, drawn from the coverage the law makes available.
Because the app and trip data that prove coverage are best secured early, the sooner you reach out, the more we are able to do. Your consultation is free, and you owe no fee unless we recover. Contact our team or call 865-531-9400 to tell us what happened.
Last reviewed: June 2026
This page was reviewed by Robert L. Widerkehr Jr., licensed in Tennessee since 1988.
