You Were Just the Passenger. You Still Have Rights.
You Were Just the Passenger. You Still Have Rights.
You did not do anything wrong. You were in the passenger seat. Maybe a friend was driving you home from dinner in Babylon Village. Maybe you split a ride to work down the LIE. Maybe you were in the back of a rideshare on Sunrise Highway. Someone else was at the wheel, someone else made a mistake, and now you are the one hurting.
I talk to a lot of people in exactly this spot, and almost all of them start the conversation the same way. They feel like they should not be calling at all. So before anything else, let me clear up the thing that stops most passengers from getting the help they are entitled to.
The guilt that keeps people quiet
The number one reason injured passengers do not call a lawyer is that they do not want to "sue their friend." If your buddy was driving and you got hurt, the idea of making a claim against him feels like a betrayal. Same thing when it is a family member, a coworker, or a neighbor doing you a favor.
I understand that completely. But it is built on a misunderstanding of how these cases actually work.
Your claim is almost never really against the person
When you make an injury claim after a car accident, you are not going after your friend's savings or his house. You are dealing with an insurance policy. That is exactly what the policy is there for. Your friend pays for auto insurance every month for precisely this situation, so that if someone gets hurt, there is coverage to handle the medical bills and the losses.
In most cases, your friend does not pay a dime out of pocket, and the relationship stays intact. What you are really doing is asking an insurance company to do the job it was paid to do.
As a passenger, you may have more than one policy to turn to
Here is something most people never realize. As a passenger, you were not driving either vehicle, which usually means you were not at fault for the crash at all. That often puts you in a stronger position than the drivers themselves, and it can open up more than one source of coverage.
Depending on how the accident happened, there may be a claim against the driver of the car you were in, a claim against the other driver, and coverage available through your own auto policy as well. Sorting out which policies apply, and in what order, is one of the more technical parts of these cases. It is also where passengers who try to handle it alone tend to leave money on the table, because they simply do not know all the doors that are open to them.
New York no-fault covers you, even as a passenger
New York is a no-fault state. In plain terms, that means your own medical bills and certain other expenses get paid through no-fault coverage regardless of who caused the crash. As a passenger, you are generally covered, and the minimum no-fault coverage in New York is fifty thousand dollars.
There is a catch that trips people up, so pay attention to this one: there is a strict notice requirement. You generally have to file the no-fault paperwork within thirty days of the accident. Miss that window and you can jeopardize your right to have those bills covered. T
hat short deadline is a big reason I tell injured passengers not to sit on it.
What if it was a rideshare or a work vehicle?
The picture changes a little if you were hurt as a passenger in an Uber or Lyft, or in a company vehicle. Those situations often involve additional commercial coverage, which can mean more protection for you, but also more insurance companies and more complexity.
That is not a reason to worry. It is a reason to have someone in your corner who can deal with all of them so you do not have to.
What to do right now
If you were a passenger and you got hurt, do the same things any injured person should do. Get medical attention and be honest with your doctors about every symptom, even the ones that seem minor. Injuries from a crash often surface days later. Keep your paperwork. Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance company before you have talked to a lawyer, no matter how friendly the adjuster sounds.
And then call me. Some of the strongest cases I have handled started with someone who almost did not pick up the phone because they thought that being "just the passenger" meant they had no right to ask.
You do. It costs nothing to find out where you stand, and I am available day or night. The number is (631) 482-7808. Finally, a Fella
You Can Count On.
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