New York, NY — The news reports said that the cab that caused the accident in New York near Central Park on Monday may have been a Lyft cab. Lyft is a popular app-driven cab service that employs regular drivers as “taxicabs” for anyone willing to pay for a ride. On Monday, a Lyft cab driver lost control and crashed into a lamppost on 5th Avenue, seriously injuring four people.
This happened around 3:00 p.m. on Monday, June 8, 2015.
A Lyft driver was headed along 5th Avenue when the driver suddenly swerved off the road near 59th Street, jumped a curb, and hit a lamppost. Four people were injured – all very seriously – and the driver may have been hurt as well. It’s not clear, though, whether they were pedestrians on the sidewalk or passengers in the Lyft cab.
Several people were taken to the hospital, including the four who were described as “critically” hurt. Lyft hasn’t made any statements about this yet and it’s not clear why the car lost control.
Map of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary:
Lyft and Über are ever-growing, popular ways of getting around town, but they’re also making a name for themselves in the legal industry — specifically, with personal injury lawyers and contract lawyers. Lyft’s claim to fame (along with competitors) is that they let regular people be cab drivers, thus making an on-demand taxi service that works at the driver’s leisure. Unfortunately, Lyft and other companies try to distance themselves from their drivers, making them into contractors that get their own insurance, which purportedly cuts Lyft out of the “liability” picture.
Except that the law doesn’t really work that way. If Lyft was hiring this driver as an employee, then they’d have to assume responsibility for any kind of accident he causes while on the job. If they are calling the driver a “contractor,” then they may not direct his hours, controlling his pay, giving him equipment for the job, or the driver’s status as a “contractor” may be bogus. The long and short of it is, though, employers can’t just stand by and let their employees take all the risks while they reap all the reward — there are laws against that.
Unfortunately, companies like Lyft and Über are so new, the courts are still trying to decide if they buy all this “contractor” language that Lyft is using to try and protect themselves from taking any responsibility for their drivers. It’s an interesting area of the law to follow and I sincerely hope that both Lyft and Über drivers are treated fairly by their respective employers in the future — but I also understand the importance of making sure that the law is upheld and that the appropriate parties are held responsible for accidents that leave paying customers either injured or worse, dead.
— Grossman Law Offices
