Hurt in an Uber in Queens? The two policies that decide what your claim is worth
Queens riders take rideshares for granted now, and most assume that being a passenger is the simple case: someone else was driving, someone else was at fault, someone else’s insurance pays. The passenger seat is a good place to be legally, but the claim that follows a rideshare crash is rarely the simple one, because two cars that collide on Northern Boulevard can be carrying wildly different amounts of insurance.
Two cars, two very different policies
Vehicles licensed by the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission are insured commercially. A for-hire vehicle seating up to seven passengers must carry at least $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident in liability coverage, and $100,000 in no-fault benefits. The private car that hit it may carry New York’s statutory minimum, which is $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident.
That gap decides what a serious injury is worth. If the rideshare driver caused the crash, the claim sits against the larger commercial policy. If the other driver caused it, the claim sits against a policy that can be exhausted by a single surgery. Same passenger, same injury, and a four-fold difference in what is available, decided by something the passenger had no part in.
When the at-fault policy is too small for the harm done, supplementary underinsured motorist coverage can sometimes make up part of the difference, depending on which policies are in play. Sorting out which ones exist is work that happens at the start of a case, not at the end.
Fault is no longer just an argument about percentages
Until this year, New York reduced an award by the injured person’s share of the blame and paid the rest. Since the amendment to CPLR 1411(b), which applies to motor vehicle actions commenced on or after 26 May 2026, anyone found more than 50% at fault recovers nothing for pain and suffering.
A back-seat passenger is seldom blamed for a collision, so this sounds like someone else’s problem. It becomes the passenger’s problem indirectly. Two insurers arguing about which driver was responsible have every reason to drag that argument out, and the longer fault stays unsettled, the longer everything else waits. It also means the police report, the roadway evidence and the timeline are worth more than they used to be.
What the app knows, and how long it stays easy to get
A rideshare trip leaves a better evidence trail than an ordinary crash. The app holds the driver’s name, the vehicle, the plate, the route and the exact time of the ride. That record answers questions that take weeks to establish in other cases: whether the driver was working, whose coverage applied at that moment, and where the vehicle actually was.
It is also the piece riders most often lose. Trip history gets buried under later rides, phones get replaced, accounts get closed. Screenshots taken on the day of the crash cost nothing and remove an argument later.
The same goes for the TLC plate. Photograph it at the scene. It identifies the vehicle’s licensing and its insurer far faster than a description of a silver sedan.
A Queens case where the record did the work
A passenger travelling through the intersection of Utopia Parkway and Union Turnpike, near St. John’s University, was hurt when another driver ran the red light and struck the side of her Uber. She felt shaken but not injured at the scene, and the neck and back pain arrived a day or two afterwards. Her treatment ran through months of physical therapy before she needed injections.
The insurer’s position was that these were minor sprains. What answered it was the medical file: imaging, range-of-motion findings recorded in degrees, and treatment notes that stayed consistent from the first visit. The claim resolved for the at-fault driver’s full $100,000 policy without a trial.
Attorney Mark Kandkhorov of Kand Personal Injury Lawyers explains the claim in the video below, and the firm has written a longer account of how that Fresh Meadows Uber settlement came together.
Five minutes at the scene that change the claim
- Screenshot the trip in the app, including the driver, the vehicle and the time.
- Photograph the TLC plate and both vehicles where they came to rest.
- Make sure the police are called and a report is made, even where nobody appears badly hurt.
- Take the names and numbers of anyone who saw it, including the driver of the other car.
- Get examined the same day or the next, and describe the mechanism of the crash to the doctor rather than just the symptom.
The paperwork side has its own clock: written notice for no-fault benefits is due to the insurer within 30 days of the crash, and as a passenger that claim normally runs through the insurance on the vehicle you were riding in.
Talk to someone before the policies are sorted without you
If you were injured as a passenger, a driver, a cyclist or a pedestrian anywhere in Queens, a free consultation will establish which policies are available and what your medical record needs to show. Kand Personal Injury Lawyers handles injury claims across Queens and New York City, with no fee unless they win.
Kand Personal Injury Lawyers
215-15 Northern Blvd, Ste 3, Bayside, NY 11361
(718) 998-6788
This article is general information about New York law, not legal advice for any particular situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.