Irrespective of who is at fault, a road accident can be a traumatic experience for everyone involved. Whether you are a passenger or a driver, knowing how to respond after an accident can be quite confusing. As a passenger, however, you are generally free of any kind of liability and also have the right to be compensated. If you get injured as a passenger during an accident, ensuring your safety and that of your fellow passengers and safeguarding your rights should take priority. Here are a few things you must do right after getting injured as a passenger.

Get Medical Assistance

The first thing you must do is seek medical assistance. Timely medical assistance can often be the difference between life and death. Even if your injuries appear to be minor in nature, you can never be too careful and there could always be a fellow passenger who might be more gravely injured. It is common for injuries due to road accidents to worsen with time if not treated properly.

Contact The Police

In the event of a road accident, the most important thing to do after seeking medical assistance is to contact the local police department. If you are unable to do so, you must ensure that someone else does. No matter how much damage has occurred and how many people have been injured, the police must always be contacted and a report must be filed. This step is necessary in order to file a subsequent insurance claim, seek damages, and protect the rights of everyone involved in the accident.

Note Down The Details Of The Driver

Noting down the details of your driver is an important step that should not be overlooked. You should ask your driver to share the details of their driver’s license. You could either note down the details or take a photo of their identity card. In addition to collecting the information of your driver, you should also record the information of the other driver involved in the accident together with the details of the involved vehicles, especially the registration numbers and the Uber driver’s insurance details. Subsequently, if possible, you should try and share these details with the other passengers as well.


Contact A Personal Injury Lawyer

If you are injured in an accident through no fault of your own, you have the right to be compensated. The compensation includes any damages incurred and also any medical bills related to your treatment for the injuries due to the accident. However, your claims for seeking compensation have to be filed within a fixed period of the accident and this varies from one state to another. Furthermore, there might be a lot of paperwork with a lot of legal jargon involved. That is why in these situations, it is important to hire a personal injury lawyer. There are even situations where you can seek compensation from whichever driver is at fault, even if the motorist at fault is your driver. You could find yourself in these situations when you avail the services of a ride-sharing platform like Uber or Lyft. According to a uber accident lawyer in Richmond, Virginia, Uber’s commercial liability insurance policy provides coverage of up to one million dollars per accident. The coverage includes both bodily harm and property damage, enabling you to seek compensation from your driver while protecting the driver at the same time.

File An Insurance Claim

If you are injured as a passenger, you might be able to file a claim through your driver’s insurance policy or the vehicle’s insurance, known as a third-party insurance claim. However, this may not always be possible, and in some cases, your driver may not even have an insurance policy. You would be surprised to know that one in every seven drivers in the United States is uninsured. In situations like this, you would be better off filing a claim using your insurance policy. In either case, you must keep all your medical bills, including hospitalization, medication, and physiotherapy, well organized as they would be required while submitting your claim.

As a passenger involved in an accident, you hold no liability and have the right to be compensated. The compensation is generally offered through the insurance policy of the driver at fault and in cases where both the drivers are considered to be equally at fault, it is shared by their respective insurance policies. Filing a police report, keeping your medical bills organized, and collecting the information of the parties involved in the accident is very important to execute a successful claim. By following the steps described above you should be able to secure the compensation that you deserve.

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