Whose insurance applies after an Uber or Lyft crash in Raleigh

North Carolina answers this question in a statute, and the statute turns on a timestamp. The rideshare company has to keep a record of each trip, and after a crash the statute requires the driver, the company and the insurers to share the app times.

What coverage does North Carolina require in each rideshare period?

The required coverage turns on what the driver was doing in the app when the crash happened. G.S. 20-280.1(5) says TNC service begins when the driver accepts a ride request. It ends at the later of two moments, when the driver completes the transaction in the app or when every passenger has exited and finished unloading.

The statute then sets two tiers. One covers a driver who is logged on to the app but is not providing TNC service. The other covers a driver who is engaged in TNC service, which takes in the drive to the pickup and the trip itself.

Where the driver was	What the statute requires
App off	The tiers in G.S. 20-280.4(a) do not apply. The driver's own auto policy is the one to read.
App on, waiting for a request	Primary liability coverage of at least $50,000 for death or bodily injury to one person, $100,000 for two or more persons and $25,000 for property damage in any one accident, plus combined UM and UIM coverage that complies with G.S. 20-279.21(b)(3) and (b)(4). G.S. 20-280.4(a)(2)
Request accepted, driving to the pickup	Primary liability coverage of at least $1,000,000 per accident for death, bodily injury or property damage in any combination, plus the same combined UM and UIM coverage. G.S. 20-280.4(a)(3)
Passenger in the car	The same as the row above. TNC service runs until the trip is completed in the app or all passengers are out, whichever is later. G.S. 20-280.1(5) and 20-280.4(a)(3)

Subsection (a) requires that insurance to be primary in both tiers, and G.S. 20-280.4(a)(1) requires the policy to recognize that the driver is a TNC driver or uses the vehicle to carry passengers for compensation. The statute sets no separate dollar figure for the UM and UIM piece and points back to the general UM and UIM statute instead. I explain how that statute works on the car accident page, so I will not repeat it here.

How does the driver's own auto policy fit in?

The driver's personal policy is allowed to step out once the app is on. G.S. 20-280.4(i) lets insurers that write auto insurance in North Carolina exclude any loss that occurs while the driver is logged on or providing TNC service. The coverages that exclusion reaches include liability, personal injury protection, uninsured and underinsured motorist, medical payments and both kinds of physical damage coverage.

An insurer that writes that exclusion has no duty to defend or indemnify the excluded claim under subsection (j). If a personal insurer defends or pays an excluded claim anyway, the same subsection gives it a right of contribution against the insurers covering that driver under this section.

The statute also covers a shortfall in the driver's own coverage. Subsection (a)(4) lets either the driver's insurance or the company's insurance satisfy the requirement, alone or together. If the driver's coverage has lapsed or does not provide what the statute requires, subsection (b) puts the company's insurance on the claim beginning with the first dollar and requires it to provide the defense.

Subsection (c) adds that coverage under the company's policy does not depend on a personal auto insurer denying the claim first. I point to that sentence when one insurer tells the client to wait on a decision from another. The adjuster is hired to pay the injured person as little as possible to settle the claim.

Two more duties apply before a driver starts using the app. Subsection (g) requires the driver to notify the vehicle's insurer and any lienholder before using the vehicle with a rideshare app. Subsection (h) requires the company to tell potential drivers in writing what coverage and limits it provides, and that a personal auto policy can leave them with no coverage while they use the app.

Does the answer change for passengers, other drivers, pedestrians and cyclists?

Passengers. A passenger in the car is inside TNC service by definition. That puts the higher tier in the table in place for the whole ride. When the rideshare driver caused the crash, that liability coverage is the first policy we read. When another driver caused it, the claim starts with that driver's liability insurance, and the UM and UIM coverage the rideshare statute requires is the next policy we read when that driver has none or too little.

Other drivers. A driver hit by a rideshare car needs the app status before anything else. With the app off, the claim runs against the rideshare driver's personal policy like any other crash. With the app on and no request accepted, the statute requires the lower tier. Once a request is accepted, it requires the higher tier even though nobody is in the back seat yet. In North Carolina, the other side also studies your own driving, and the rule behind that is on the page about contributory negligence in North Carolina.

Pedestrians and cyclists. The liability tiers are written in terms of bodily injury to persons, and nothing in them limits that coverage to people inside a vehicle. Someone on foot or on a bicycle usually has no car of their own in the crash. If there is an auto policy in that person's household, we read its UM and UIM coverage as well. Crashes involving people on foot have their own page on pedestrian accidents in Raleigh.

How do you prove which period the driver was in?

The app's records answer it, and the statute makes the people holding them share. Under G.S. 20-280.4(f) a TNC driver has to carry proof of coverage at all times while using the vehicle with the app. After an accident the driver has to give coverage information to directly interested parties, auto insurers and investigating police officers on request. On that same request the driver also has to say whether the driver was logged on or off at the time of the accident.

Subsection (m) goes further. In a claims coverage investigation or accident, the driver and the company and any insurer potentially providing coverage and other directly involved parties have to exchange a description of the coverage, exclusions and limits under any policy. They also have to exchange the precise log-on and log-off times and the precise TNC service times for the 12-hour period before the accident and the 12-hour period after it.

G.S. 20-280.5(c) requires the company to keep the record of each TNC service provided in North Carolina for one year from the date of the service. That is a record-keeping rule for the company and not a deadline for the claim. We ask for those records in writing early because a screenshot from someone's phone is not the same record.

I treat the app status as an open question until the records come in. Based on my experience, a disputed fact at the center of coverage is usually a problem with the case until a document settles it. I do not form a view on the value of your case before those records are in.

What is different about a rideshare crash in Raleigh?

The insurance rules are the same in Raleigh as anywhere else in North Carolina. G.S. 20-280.10(a) says no county, city, airport operator or other governmental agency is authorized to impose fees, require licenses or otherwise regulate TNC services except as Chapter 20 authorizes. Rideshare drivers in Raleigh stay subject to local parking and traffic rules, which the same subsection preserves.

The airport is one place where the statute does give local control. G.S. 20-280.9(d) lets an airport operator designate where TNC drivers stage and where they drop off and pick up passengers. Raleigh-Durham International Airport's own ground transportation page says ride app pickups use prearranged zones outside baggage claim, Zone 1 at Terminal 1 and Zone 8 at Terminal 2. For a crash near one of those zones, the timestamps showing when a request was accepted and when the trip closed are the first thing we ask for.

A rideshare injury suit filed in Wake County is a District 10 case. The North Carolina Judicial Branch places Wake County in District Court District 10 and Superior Court District 10. It says all civil matters except marriages are conducted in the Wake County Courthouse at 316 Fayetteville St. Mall in Raleigh. I am prepared to go to court for the client when a claim does not resolve.

My office is in Graham and there is no Raleigh or Wake County office. The first conversation with a Wake County client is by phone or video, and I also meet clients in person.

What do we do first on a rideshare claim?

We start by pinning down the app status at the moment of the crash, since every coverage answer depends on it. After that the work runs in a set order.

1. We ask the driver and the company and each insurer in writing for the information G.S. 20-280.4(f) and (m) require them to share.
2. We get the crash report and compare its times with the app timestamps.
3. We match each policy that could apply to the period the app records show.
4. We read the client's own auto policy and any household policy for UM and UIM coverage.
5. We collect medical records and bills while treatment goes on.
6. We negotiate the liens that health insurers and medical providers assert to maximize the recovery for the client.

The steps for the first days after any crash are on the page about what to do after a car accident in Raleigh.