Rideshare Accidents: What Injured Passengers Need to Understand
By Austin Hunt
I was partway through a question about insurance companies when I asked it differently. I had sat down with Nic Sinclair, an attorney at The Bruning Law Firm, to talk about rideshare accidents, and I started asking whether both drivers’ insurers would call an injured passenger. Then I widened the question: what starts happening to that person after the crash? I asked about the police report, the insurance calls, and the things coming at them almost immediately.
For someone hurt during a ride in St. Louis, those exchanges may begin while they’re still trying to understand what happened. Nic’s answers followed the passenger through that uncertainty, and the conversation eventually brought me to a more specific question about where his own work begins.
An honest account leaves room for gaps
Nic began with the police officer asking what a passenger saw and what they didn’t see. “I think it’s important to be honest with the police officers in that situation.” His example was someone looking at their own phone when the crash happened. If that was where your attention was, he explained, say so.
What I take from his example is that the gaps belong in the account, too: you can describe what you remember without supplying a speed or movement you missed. If another person tells you what they saw, keep their account separate from your own. That gives the lawyer both the details and the limits of your recollection.
Later, when I asked what evidence a passenger might have that would help him, Nic described noticing a driver using a phone or interacting with incoming ride requests. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s explanation of distracted driving helps explain why that observation could matter: phone use and adjusting navigation systems can divert attention from driving. It doesn’t establish what caused a particular collision or place a legal duty on a passenger to monitor the driver. The useful detail is what you actually observed.
The uncertainty can outlast the call
Our conversation moved to the person who has already spoken with an insurance adjuster and is now looking for help. I asked Nic about that experience, including what might be behind the feeling that something was wrong. He described those callers alongside people who contact him within hours of an accident.
“It’s usually a feeling of unfairness, a feeling of lack of control, and then also a feeling of a lack of understanding of what needs to happen next.”
That last part gives me a practical way to think about the earlier call. If you don’t understand what you were asked or what happens next, the conversation itself needs explaining. Bring the messages, the offer, or the document you received, along with what you remember saying. Be clear when you aren’t certain of the words. Attorneys.Media’s guide to what to bring to a first meeting with a lawyer includes correspondence and questions, which fit this situation well.
A worry about having said the wrong thing belongs in that discussion, too. The words and circumstances need review before their significance can be explained; the same conversation can address whether a request needs a response and how to handle another call. Nothing in that approach requires ignoring notices or refusing every insurer request.
Care means explaining what happens next
I then asked Nic what experience he wants people to have with the firm. “I want them to feel as if we truly care about them, for one.” He went on to describe attention to a case, communication, answering questions, and avoiding promises the firm could not deliver.
Read alongside his account of the uncertain caller, that answer gives care a practical meaning. A passenger may need to understand why information about the other driver is still missing or what to do with a new insurer request. An explanation should help them follow the work as it develops. Attorneys.Media’s article on communication during a personal injury case discusses continuing dialogue and written follow-up, both useful ways to return to a question that an earlier conversation left open.
The case still begins with what happened
Later in the interview, I asked what Nic first looks at when an injured passenger calls. His answer was direct: “First thing we’d look at would be to figure out who caused the accident.” He explained that the facts shape the case differently depending on which driver caused the crash.
Earlier, Nic had described drivers disputing responsibility, and he also identified distracting the driver as conduct that could raise a passenger-fault question. Being a passenger doesn’t remove the need to examine the person’s role. His first question makes sense against that background: the account still has to be understood before conclusions follow.
There is an insurance-information question alongside it. Missouri’s rideshare insurance statute, in subsection 8, requires the driver to provide coverage information to directly interested parties, insurers, and investigating officers upon request. Upon such a request, the driver must also disclose whether they were logged on to the network or on a prearranged ride when the accident happened. Those requirements concern information; they don’t determine fault or what someone will recover.
I return to that question about what comes at a passenger after the crash. What I take from his answers is that the passenger can enter those conversations with an incomplete but honest account, the messages they’ve received, and the questions they still need explained. There is room to say what you don’t know. Nic’s description of his own starting point shows why: establishing what happened is part of the work ahead.
About the author: Austin Hunt interviews attorneys about the questions people bring to them and the work involved in answering those questions. His professional work includes legal content and marketing. He conducted the interview behind this article; the attorney supplies the legal perspective.
Disclosure: I conducted this interview through my professional work with the firm. AI assisted research, drafting, and editing. This article provides general information, not advice about your case.
