Which insurance policy pays after an Uber or Lyft crash in South Carolina depends on what the driver's app showed at the moment of impact, and the gap between those answers is $950,000 in coverage.
That question is harder to answer on a rural stretch like Old State Road or US-301 outside Orangeburg than near a busy pickup spot by South Carolina State University, where there's simply more traffic-camera footage and witnesses to check against.
At The Arndt Law Firm, we establish app status first in every Orangeburg County rideshare claim. Our firm can help investigate these crashes and secure the compensation our client may be owed. Call us at (843) 310-4645 to schedule your free case review.
South Carolina has specific rules for Uber and Lyft drivers, laid out in the state's Transportation Network Company Act (S.C. Code § 58-23-1610 and the sections that follow). The law requires different levels of insurance coverage depending on what the driver is doing at the time, whether they're waiting for a ride request, on the way to pick someone up, or actually driving a passenger. These coverage levels are set by law, not something the rideshare companies get to decide on their own.
When the app is off, the driver is an ordinary motorist on a personal auto policy, and no company coverage attaches. The available limits may be nothing more than the state minimum of $25,000 per person.
Perio one is when the app is on, and no ride has been accepted. Under S.C. Code § 58-23-1630(B), the required coverage is primary liability of at least $50,000 for death and bodily injury per person, at least $100,000 per incident, and at least $50,000 for property damage, together with uninsured motorist coverage. Those limits may be satisfied by the driver's insurance, the company's insurance, or both.
Periods two and three run from the moment a ride request is accepted until the last passenger leaves the vehicle. That entire window, including the drive to the pickup point, is a prearranged ride under S.C. Code § 58-23-1610(9), and it carries at least $1 million in primary liability coverage under S.C. Code § 58-23-1630(C).
The company's policy can't wait for the driver's personal insurer to deny the claim first, and if the driver's coverage has lapsed, the company's policy must respond from the first dollar.
It depends on the app. With the app off, only the driver's personal policy. With the app on and no ride accepted, at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per incident. From acceptance of a ride until the last passenger exits, at least $1 million in primary liability coverage.
A rural county can affect a rideshare claim in two ways.
Trips are longer and cover more ground. A single ride can begin in a town, run for twenty or thirty minutes on state and federal highways through an unincorporated county, and end somewhere else entirely. The point of the trip where a collision happened determines which agency investigated, and it may be nowhere near where the passenger got in.
Availability is thinner, which affects the phase question. A driver covering a wide rural area spends more time positioning between fares, which is phase two territory, and more time driving to a pickup that may be a considerable distance away, which is phase three. The difference between those two states carries a nine hundred fifty thousand dollar consequence and is invisible from the scene.
Where a driver was using the vehicle for personal reasons at the time, the app was off, and there may be nothing behind the driver but a minimum limits personal policy. S.C. Code § 58-23-1625 expressly allows a personal auto insurer to exclude coverage while a driver is logged on or providing a prearranged ride, so the personal policy and the company coverage are designed not to overlap.
The phase is a fact proven by the records the companies hold, rather than by anyone's memory.
A trip record shows when the driver logged on, when a request was accepted, the route driven, and when the ride ended. Telematics collected through the app can add speed and phone handling in the seconds before impact. Neither is produced voluntarily.
The request goes out in writing early, identifying the driver, the vehicle, the date and time, and the trip, which a passenger can supply. A passenger may have an advantage: the trip exists in their own account history with a receipt, a route map, a timestamp, and the driver's identity. Screenshots of that cost nothing and cannot be edited by anyone else afterward.
Independent verification is harder here than in a commercial district. There are fewer cameras on a rural highway, and where a collision happened between towns, there may be no third-party record at all against which to test a company's account. That makes the passenger's own trip record and any physical evidence at the scene especially important.
Through the company's trip and telematics records rather than recollection. Take a screenshot of your trip history immediately and send a written preservation request to the company early.
The obvious defendant is whichever driver caused the collision, and sometimes that is not the rideshare driver at all. A passenger injured when another vehicle crosses the center line has a claim against that driver, with the rideshare policy's uninsured motorist coverage available if the at-fault driver has no insurance. Whether underinsured coverage is also available depends on the policy actually in force.
That matters more in this county than in a market of low-speed collisions. Orangeburg County's published fatal collisions involve overtaking head-on crashes, left turns across highways, and rural intersection overturns, and a passenger in a rideshare vehicle struck in one of those is exposed to exactly the injuries that outrun a minimum limits policy.
In 2025, Orangeburg County recorded 87 fatal and serious-injury crashes. Long trips here often run on I-26, I-95, and US 21, 178, 301, and 601.
A claim against the company itself is a separate question from a claim against the driver, and it turns on the relationship between them, which is contested territory rather than a settled point. What the Act plainly does is require that coverage be in place at each phase.
Other defendants appear depending on the facts. A vehicle owner who is not the driver, a maintenance provider, a road contractor responsible for a work zone, or a property owner responsible for an entrance can each be a proper defendant. Identifying them early carries weight because, since January 1, 2026, a defendant may place a nonparty on the verdict form and shift a share of the fault onto them.
A rideshare passenger often has no vehicle damage claim, no policy of their own on the vehicle they were in, and no obvious insurer to look to. That leads many to assume their own coverage is irrelevant, and the assumption is worth testing rather than accepting.
South Carolina requires uninsured motorist coverage and makes underinsured coverage optional. The optional coverage carries a rule worth checking on every claim: an insurer must hold a signed form showing that underinsured coverage was offered and either accepted or rejected.
If the insurer has a signed selection form, the choice is presumed informed. If no signed form exists, whether underinsured coverage was properly offered is worth investigating, because the policy may be reformed to include it.
Whether a particular policy responds to a person injured as an occupant of someone else's vehicle depends on that policy's language, which is read rather than assumed.
| Driver status at impact | Primary coverage | Practical note |
|---|---|---|
| App off | Driver's personal policy only | Personal limits may be the 25/50 state minimum |
| App on, no ride accepted | At least $50,000 per person, $100,000 per incident, $50,000 property damage | May be satisfied by driver, company, or both |
| Ride accepted through last passenger exit | At least $1,000,000 primary liability | Includes the drive to the pickup point |
The South Carolina Highway Patrol investigates collisions on state and federal highways and in unincorporated areas, which covers most of the ground a long rural trip crosses and every one of the county's published fatal collisions.
Within the City of Orangeburg, the city's Department of Public Safety is involved, and the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office responds within the county. The Orangeburg County Coroner's Office maintains a separate file in a fatality.
A trip that begins in town and ends in the county can put the report with a department a passenger would not think to contact, which is a practical reason to establish the collision location precisely rather than approximately.
S.C. Code § 56-5-1290, the reports drivers and owners must file are not admissible at trial as evidence of negligence or due care, and officers may refer to them only to refresh recollection. The report initiates the investigation rather than resolving it, a principle that runs through every Orangeburg crash claim.
South Carolina lets an injured person recover as long as their share of the fault is not greater than the defendant's, under Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., 303 S.C. 243, 399 S.E.2d 783 (1991), with recovery reduced by that percentage and barred at 51 percent. A passenger is rarely assigned fault, which makes a rideshare passenger claim unusually clean on liability and unusually contested on coverage.
For claims arising or accruing after January 1, 2026, a defendant may ask that a party who was never sued be placed on the verdict form and assigned a share, provided that party is disclosed within one hundred eighty days of the start of the action. The defendant carries the burden of proving that the added party's breach was a proximate cause unless the plaintiff amends to add them.
In a case with two vehicles, two carriers, and a company policy, that mechanism has obvious appeal to a defendant. The date of the crash decides whether it applies at all.
Impairment changes the value of a claim rather than its structure. South Carolina caps punitive damages at the greater of three times compensatory damages or $500,000 (adjusted for inflation). The cap rises for some conduct and is removed where the defendant intended harm, was convicted of a related felony, or was substantially impaired by alcohol or drugs.
A second defendant may exist where a driver was served at a licensed establishment. Since January 1, 2026, a licensee found liable alongside a charged driver is jointly and severally liable for fifty percent of the plaintiff's actual damages, and licensees must carry liquor liability coverage with an annual aggregate beginning at $1 million, reducible to $300,000 through mitigation credits. The drunk driving analysis sets out how those claims interact.
Punitive damages require clear and convincing evidence of wilful, wanton, or reckless conduct, a higher standard than that required in the rest of the case. A criminal charge is useful evidence for it, not a precondition.
The categories are the same as any injury claim. Medical treatment, follow-up care, therapy, prescriptions, and any future care a physician says is likely, from an economic standpoint, along with lost income and lost earning capacity.
South Carolina places no general statutory cap on noneconomic damages in an ordinary injury case. Pain, disfigurement, and the loss of activities a person used to enjoy are not limited by statute.
A passenger usually has no vehicle damage claim at all, which removes the anchor an adjuster normally uses to frame an injury as minor. That cuts both ways: it deprives the insurer of a cheap argument, and it deprives the claimant of the early property settlement that usually establishes the file exists.
Treatment adds its own consideration here. Seriously injured people are commonly transported to MUSC Health Orangeburg, 3000 St. Matthews Road, an adult Level III trauma center, although published collisions show patients taken elsewhere as well. A catastrophic injury may involve transfer for specialized care, resulting in a record spanning more than one institution.
Yes. Your claim runs against the driver who caused the collision, with rideshare policies potentially available. Uninsured motorist coverage may be available if the at-fault driver has no insurance. Whether underinsured coverage is also available depends on the policy actually in force.
The general deadline is three years from the date of the crash under S.C. Code § 15-3-530(5). Where an injury was not apparent at the time, the same three-year period runs from when the person knew or reasonably should have known a claim existed. In a fatal crash, the three-year period for a wrongful death claim runs from the date of death.
Two shorter clocks can apply. A claim involving a government vehicle runs two years under the Tort Claims Act, or three years if a verified claim is filed with the agency within one year of the loss, which the statute frames as an option that buys time rather than a precondition. Recovery against a government entity is capped at $300,000 per person and $600,000 per occurrence, with no punitive damages.
Where the injured person was working at the time, a third-party claim must be commenced within one year of the compensation carrier accepting liability or making payment. A worker injured on the job generally can't sue the employer, but can sue the at-fault driver. If that suit isn't filed within one year after the comp carrier accepts liability or pays, the right can pass to the carrier.
Claims by children run longer. Claims by children are tolled during minority under S.C. Code § 15-3-40. How that extension is calculated is disputed, so a child's claim should be evaluated promptly rather than timed to a birthday.
The evidence clock is shorter than any of these. Trip records, telematics, and any third-party footage are held by parties with no obligation to retain them once their own retention periods expire.
Suit is brought in the Court of Common Pleas in the First Judicial Circuit, with the Orangeburg County Clerk of Court handling civil actions in which the demand or value exceeds $7,500.
Rideshare claims involve corporate carriers rather than a local adjuster and can be resolved without suit. Filing changes the posture, because it converts a coverage argument between insurers into a case with discovery obligations attached, and discovery is what produces the trip and telematics records that a company has not volunteered.
The steps that protect a rideshare claim close faster than in an ordinary crash, because the most important evidence sits on a company server rather than at the scene.
Take a screenshot of the trip in your own account history immediately. The receipt, the route map, the timestamps, and the driver's identity are all there. It is the only proof a passenger has control over.
Photograph the vehicle, including any company decal or placard displayed, and note whether the driver's phone showed an active trip. Get the driver's name and insurance information as you would in any collision, and get the other driver's as well, since the at-fault party may not be the rideshare driver.
Fix the location precisely. On a long rural trip, the collision point determines which agency investigated, and it may be nowhere near where the trip began.
Report the crash to your own insurer even though you were a passenger, since most policies require notice regardless of fault, and get evaluated promptly. A passenger with no vehicle damage claim has nothing in the file to anchor the claim except the medical record.
Screenshot the trip from your own account history, since it fixes the time, route, and driver, and is the one record you control. Then fix the exact collision location, since that determines which agency holds the report.
It depends on the driver's app status at the time of impact. At least $50,000 per person, $100,000 per incident, and $50,000 for property damage apply in primary coverage while the driver is logged on and waiting for a request, and $1 million in primary coverage applies once a ride is accepted.
In most cases, the claim runs against the drivers and the applicable policies. Whether the company itself is liable turns on its relationship with the driver, a contested issue.
Yes. South Carolina requires uninsured motorist coverage and makes underinsured coverage optional; whether either applies depends on the policy language.
That is phase two, carrying at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per incident, which is substantially less than the ride acceptance phase and substantially more than a personal policy alone.
Nothing up front. Consultations are free and the fee is contingent on recovery.
With a rideshare claim, the process begins by determining which coverage phase the app was in at the time of the crash, because a $50,000 coverage phase and a $1 million coverage phase can look identical at the scene and turn out to be two entirely different cases. That's why we send written preservation requests for trip and telematics data right away, while the data is still available.
We also help identify exactly where the collision happened. A long rideshare trip can cross out of municipal jurisdiction and into unincorporated county territory partway through, which means the report can end up sitting with an agency a passenger would never have thought to check. Attorney Jonathan S. Arndt, licensed in South Carolina since 2018, reviews every rideshare case our firm handles.
Contact us to schedule an appointment. We offer a case review at no cost, and there's no attorney fee unless we recover on your behalf.
Last reviewed: August 2026
This page was reviewed by Jonathan S. Arndt, licensed in South Carolina since 2018.
