Ask HN: Hit-and-run during an Uber ride | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Hit-and-run during an Uber ride

23 pointssusiemielekim17 comments

Hey HN,

I was involved in a hit-and-run while in Uber on May 19th. My driver ignored my request to take the highway and went onto a local street, where it wasn't the best part of town. He was driving pretty slow, at around 30mph, when another car drove out of a ground level public parking lot at a very high speed and hit my ride on the front right corner. The car that hit us backed out and drove away before I even realized what happened. My ride's bumper fell out and it was smoking a lot, and I had hit the right side of my body pretty hard on the door and the left side of my face on the back of the front seat (I was sitting in the back on the right side). It was raining and I was shaking a lot and really didn't want to stand on the street where there were a lot of drunk people yelling at us, so I grabbed another Uber and left the scene.

I did report the accident to Uber right away on the app, took photos and videos of it, and thought they were going to contact me. They have only responded on the app saying their insurance would contact me in 2-3 business days but it's been a week and I haven't heard from them. I got bruises, external and internal, as well as a minor concussion. It's been hurting more but I currently don't have an insurance (life of an early stage startup founder...) and haven't gotten it checked yet.

What are the best next steps?

Thanks!

If you've been injured, call an accident (tort) lawyer. Uber will respond to a legal inquiry much more quickly and seriously than to a customer service inquiry.

Most tort lawyers work on contingency, so you usually won't have to pay anything up front, though they will demand 30-50% of any payout you receive.

Get an attorney. There are plenty who specialize in auto injuries. As otterley said, many injury lawyers work on contingency. Furthermore, many will help you get medical attention while you're waiting for Uber to cough up money to pay your bills.

One of my taxi passengers was going to a Chiropractor. She'd lost her car in a car wreck caused by the other driver. The chiropractor paid her taxi fare, and billed the passenger's attorney for this and their fee. The passenger was previously not a Chiropractic fan, but the urgent care she'd gone to first basically ripped her off by charging lots of money for anti-inflammatory medication (which didn't help at all). She was feeling much better with regular treatments from her new Chiropractor.

(I personally have been to lots of Chiropractors. Some were pretty good, some were mediocre. Eventually I found some manual therapy systems that are more gentle and reliable. As one of the doctors I'd visited said, "all some people need is any kind of touch, which is why they love their massage therapist...")

(I bet Uber's founders were so annoyed when they realized they had to hire people to provide customer service. The transportation company I used to drive for has always had people to take complaints, and to deal with problems.)

Contact Morgan & Morgan. This is their specialty. Let me know if you want more info.

If your body is still hurting after one week, well, go see a doctor. I can imagine everybody you told the story so far said the same.

Also get health insurance. Not the answer you're looking for but in the US medical costs can ruin your life.

how would he know if he had a concussion and internal bruising if he hadn't been to a doctor?

The same way the rest of us self-diagnose? WebMD at 2 A.M

If your car gets hit in the side and you knock yourself out on the back of a seat, figuring out you've got a concussion doesn't require expert problem solving skills.

> It's been hurting more but I currently don't have an insurance (life of an early stage startup founder...)

European here. I thought "Obamacare" was supposed to prevent this?

Otherwise, it seems crazy for anyone to take the risk of founding a startup, and not being able to afford insurance.

(I know people that avoid going to the doctor when they should, me included sometimes, but it's nothing to do with money.)

It's not socialized medicine. Technically it made it possible to get insurance subsidized (or fully funded) if you cannot afford it, prevented insurers from pricing with anything but age/gender/tobacco/location, and dings you with small tax penalties if you don't buy it (on the assumption that everyone will eventually then buy insurance and the net cost to society will go down).

Honestly, probably a better long term solution than socialized medicine, but it still allows individuals the freedom to screw up and not buy insurance.

Go see a doctor, you not having insurance won't affect them seeing you or billing the auto insurance for your care. Also, depending on what state you are in, remember some states limit the amount of time you have to make a claim. In my state it is 14 days, after which you forfeit your right to make a medical or injury claim. There are probably some ways around it, but why mess with it. Even if nothing comes of this all and you just need some time to heal, at least you have protected your rights in case there is something more serious that is found later.

Other option, go to a personal injury attorney (I know but they do exist for a reason). A reputable PI Attorney will help you protect yourself, get seen by a physician faster if you need help there, and will file all the paperwork etc for you. They get paid by going after the insurance, so just expect that, and they will get a response, not the brush off.

I got into a minor car accident (as a passenger) on an Uber ride in Seattle a few months ago. No injuries, just a bit jarring for me and an utterly destroyed bumper for the driver.

Someone from Uber called by phone the next day and were very willing to discuss coverage for any injuries. They asked me to confirm multiple times that I wasn't injured before ending the call.

Not trying to be a shill: I assumed I'd never hear from Uber unless I went after them with a celebrity twitter account or an army of lawyers.

Hopefully it's just an oversight that your incident has fallen through the cracks and you can get ahold of someone soon. I just wanted to point out that there should be human beings reviewing any reports, at least as of a couple months ago.

I'd try the uber facebook page. They usually respond within the hour. https://www.facebook.com/uber/?fref=ts

Report the accident directly to the James River Insurance Company rather than going through Uber. You'll have better response going directly to the insurer.

When riding a taxi, is it normal to expect that the taxi operator covers health costs for any accidents not caused by their driver?

One of the reasons for insurance is that most people do not have the funds to immediately take care of the costs that accidents cause.

If someone crashes into your car, you usually call your own insurance and they pay for your expenses so you can carry on with life. Then they get the money from whoever was responsible. Usually some combination of the other party and their insurance.

With taxis, it works similarly. The operator is supposed to be insured and their insurance will float the cash.

When I see stories like this trending on Reddit, Twitter, or Hacker news, am I too paranoid in thinking that just maybe some of them are marketing plays meant to manipulate the reader into siding with one company or the other? It would be so easy for them to do this.

While that is a possibility, I do appreciate the discussion and advice goven, should I ever find myself in a similar situation.

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