Lyft Sued For Wrongful Death: Will The Case Make Ridesharing Safer?

On Halloween afternoon, the mail room supervisor for Fisher Island was riding his motorcycle when he encountered a rider’s worst nightmare. A car failed to yield while making a left-hand turn and plowed into him. The 29 year-old succumbed to his injuries, and is survived by his wife, step-daughter and a newborn son that will never get to meet his father, but this motorcyclist’s life may help prevent future crashes.

Lyft Sued For Wrongful Death

The car that hit this local motorcyclist was being driven by a Lyft driver. The online mobile rideshare provider hires drivers with clean licenses, backgrounds, and $100,000 worth of insurance, but it has few if any other requirements of their drivers. This means Lyft drivers don’t need to have training, they don’t need to put away their mobile devices while on the job, and they don’t need to log the amount of hours they work. This is why the wife of the 29-year-old mailroom supervisor brought her case to the lawyers here at Colson Hicks Eidson.

Was This A Case Of Negligence?

“A hundred thousand dollars for killing a man and ruining the lives of two people, is that enough? How is it that this Lyft driver failed to respect and see a stop sign?”  a Colson Hicks Eidson partner asks reporters at a news conference Thursday, November 19. “You don’t know who these people are, you don’t know what their history has been, there’s no regulation whatsoever.”

The lawsuit Colson Hick Eidson has filed claims that Lyft was negligent by using untrained, potentially exhausted, and underinsured drivers to shuttle customers around the city. This case will hopefully help provide for a family that has lost their sole provider, and maybe this case will also force rideshare companies to make their services safer for their customers and the people who share the road with them.