Rideshare drivers face hazards from all vehicles they share the road with, but collisions with large commercial vehicles like trucks and buses bring added risks. These crashes can cause catastrophic injuries due to the sheer size and weight of these vehicles. If you’ve been hit by a truck or bus while rideshare driving, understanding your legal options is key.
Factors that Increase Severity
Crashes between rideshare vehicles and commercial trucks or buses are typically extremely serious. Some factors that raise risks include:
- Weight discrepancy – An 80,000-pound big rig can flatten a 3,000-pound sedan. This weight mismatch often leads to severe or fatal injuries.
- Height difference – The high clearance of trucks and buses can override safety features in cars like airbags. This elevates dangers to drivers.
- No-zone blind spots – Large vehicles have expansive blind spots where drivers can’t see nearby traffic. If they merge into your lane, you may have little time to react.
With these severe mismatches, rideshare drivers suffer the consequences. Even at low speeds, truck and bus collisions cause disorienting, often disabling injuries.
Common Injuries
Given the extreme forces in commercial vehicle crashes, injuries run the full range of severity:
- Whiplash
- Back and neck injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Spinal cord damage
- Severed limbs
- Disfiguring lacerations
- Internal organ damage
- Broken bones
Any survivors face long rehabilitation roads and permanent disability risks. Additionally, they carry increased chances of developing post-traumatic stress disorder in crash aftermaths. The psychological impacts of serious accidents can be just as devastating as physical injuries. PTSD, depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders may manifest and require extensive counseling and treatment. These emotional and psychological effects further add to the losses suffered by rideshare drivers injured in collisions with trucks and buses. The road to recovery is challenging on many fronts.
Filing an Injury Claim
All rideshare companies require drivers to carry ample insurance, but securing full compensation for injuries often demands going beyond basic policies. Truck and bus companies must also insure vehicles at higher state-set minimums. However, given the potential loss of income and massive medical bills, injured drivers must fully utilize legal options.
The Right Lawyer Makes the Difference
Pursuing maximum available compensation requires understanding both federal and state-level transportation laws alongside intricate insurance claims processes. An experienced attorney in truck and bus injury litigation simplified this complex web of legal rights and helps clients make the right moves after devastating crashes. Especially when facing teams of legal and claims experts from deep-pocketed transportation firms, securing counsel levels the playing field.
Rideshare drivers recovering from collisions with oversized vehicles shouldn’t take chances with half-measures or self-representation. Get a free case review from us, as we have proven commercial driving injury claim track records. With medical debts, lost income, and long-term disability bills piling up, the right lawyer makes all the difference toward getting the compensation you deserve.
If you have been involved in a rideshare collision, you can visit us at the following locations:
- 2005 West Main St. Tupelo, MS 38801
- 406 Galleria Dr., Suite 7 Oxford, MS 38655
- 1671 Lelia Dr., Suite B, Jackson, MS 39216
- 5100 Poplar Ave., Suite 2700 Memphis, TN 38137
Call us today for a free consultation on (888) 484-1476.
