For people at higher risk of a poor outcome if they contract the coronavirus, home delivery services have become a lifeline. Having groceries, restaurant meals, prescriptions, and household goods delivered means that older people and people with dangerous pre-existing conditions can avoid being in crowded public spaces. However, this increase in demand—and the lack of experience many of these delivery drivers have—might mean an increase in car accidents.
If an Instacart Driver Causes a Crash, Who Compensates Injured Parties?
Many of these delivery services are contract employers, similar to Uber and Lyft. Drivers for Instacart, Shipt, UberEats, Door Dash, and similar companies are independent contractors, meaning they are not trained, monitored, or insured by the company they work for. While they are required to have personal car insurance, it’s possible that the insurance company will resist covering an accident they caused while making a delivery.
With fleets of inexperienced, untrained drivers delivering goods in a hurry in unfamiliar neighborhoods, the odds are good that there will be more accidents. If you were injured in a crash with a delivery driver, a call to an Indianapolis personal injury attorney should be your first move. If the delivery company’s insurer and the driver’s car insurance provider both deny liability, you could be left out in the cold.
What a Car Accident Attorney Can Do to Help
If the driver who caused the accident did not have a valid license, had a record of traffic violations, or had a history of drug or alcohol abuse, his employer could be held liable for negligent hiring practices—even if the driver is a contract employer. If the driver’s car insurance policy did not specifically exclude coverage of for-profit or commercial use of the vehicle, they should be expected to cover damages caused by the crash. As an injured victim, your attorney will pursue these avenues of compensation on your behalf.
Contact Keller & Keller When You Have Been Injured
If a careless or negligent delivery driver caused the crash that left you injured, you should not assume that an accident claim will work the same as a crash with a non-commercial driver. Reach out to our Indianapolis car accident lawyer team as soon as possible to discuss your options for filing a claim for compensation. We fight for our clients to get the compensation they need to recover as fully as possible from their injuries.
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