If you were hurt in an Uber or Lyft, hit by one, or assaulted by a rideshare driver in the St. Louis area, the first question is not who was at fault. It is what the driver’s app was doing at the moment it happened. Missouri law ties the insurance to that status. Get it wrong, and you spend months arguing with the wrong insurance company.

In a rideshare case, the most important evidence is a timestamp on a server you cannot see, owned by a company that is not in a hurry to show it to you.

Who Pays After an Uber or Lyft Crash in Missouri?

Missouri’s rideshare insurance law sets three tiers. Which one applies depends on the driver’s status in the app (RSMo 379.1702).

  • App off. The driver is just a person driving a personal car. The driver’s own auto policy is the coverage, and Missouri’s minimum is $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash for bodily injury (RSMo 303.190).
  • App on, waiting for a request. The law requires primary liability coverage of at least $50,000 per person, $100,000 per incident for injury and death, and $25,000 for property damage, plus uninsured motorist coverage at no less than the state minimum (RSMo 379.1702.2).
  • Ride accepted through drop-off. A “prearranged ride” begins when the driver accepts the request and ends when the last rider gets out (RSMo 379.1700). During that time the law requires at least $1,000,000 in primary liability coverage for death, injury and property damage, plus uninsured motorist coverage at no less than the state minimum (RSMo 379.1702.3).

That third tier covers the drive to pick you up, not only the ride itself. A driver heading to pick you up who runs a red light is already inside the $1,000,000 tier.

The coverage can come from the driver’s policy, the company’s policy or a mix. If the driver’s insurance has lapsed or does not provide the required coverage, the company’s insurer must cover the claim from the first dollar and defend it (RSMo 379.1702.4). The statute requires uninsured motorist coverage at the state minimum. Any higher uninsured or underinsured limits come from the company’s own policy, and we read that policy rather than assume.

Why Does the Driver’s Personal Insurer Deny the Claim?

Because Missouri lets it. Personal auto insurers may exclude all coverage while a driver is logged on to a rideshare app, giving a ride, or carrying people for pay (RSMo 379.1708). That exclusion can reach liability, uninsured and underinsured motorist, medical payments and collision coverage. It is the modern version of the old livery exclusion, and many personal policies carry it.

The law also says the company’s coverage does not depend on the personal insurer denying first (RSMo 379.1702.5). In practice, the two insurers often point at each other. The way through is proof of the driver’s status, not argument.

  • After a crash, the driver must give the insurance information to the people involved, their insurers and the police on request, and must say whether he or she was logged on or on a ride at the time (RSMo 379.1702.8).
  • The company and the insurers must exchange the exact times the driver logged on and off in the 12 hours before and the 12 hours after the crash (RSMo 379.1708.6).
  • The company must disclose its coverage, types and limits to its drivers in writing before they take rides (RSMo 379.1704), so the driver has a written record of which insurer stands behind the company.

We identify the company’s insurer early, put it on notice, and pin down the driver’s status with the company’s own data before anyone’s memory starts to change.

Passenger, Other Driver or Pedestrian: Does It Change the Claim?

You were the passenger

You were inside a prearranged ride, so the $1,000,000 tier applies to a claim against your driver. If another car caused the crash, your claim is first against that driver’s insurer. If that driver had no insurance, the rideshare policy’s uninsured motorist coverage and your own household policy may both come into play (RSMo 379.203). Every Missouri auto policy must include uninsured motorist coverage.

A rideshare driver hit your car

Your claim runs against whichever tier was active. The company’s insurer will want to know the status before it accepts anything. If the app was off, you are dealing with the driver’s personal policy, which may be only $25,000 per person. Your own uninsured and underinsured coverage then matters.

You were walking or riding a bike

The same tiers apply. Pickups and drop-offs happen at curbs, in bike lanes and in the middle of the street. A driver watching the app for the next request is a driver not watching the crosswalk.

In every version, Missouri’s pure comparative fault rule applies. If you were partly at fault, your recovery is reduced by your share, not wiped out (Gustafson v. Benda, 661 S.W.2d 11, Mo. banc 1983).

Is the Driver an Employee of Uber or Lyft?

Usually not, under Missouri law. The statute says rideshare drivers are independent contractors when four conditions are met: the company does not set required hours, does not stop drivers from using other apps, does not stop them from holding other jobs, and the driver agrees in writing to contractor status (RSMo 387.414). A separate section says a driver is not the company’s agent unless a written contract says otherwise (RSMo 387.416), and the company is not the driver’s employer for wage, workers’ compensation and unemployment purposes (RSMo 387.432).

In plain words, the company will argue it is a software platform and the driver’s conduct is the driver’s problem. That argument matters less than it sounds in a crash case, because the insurance requirement attaches to the driver’s app status regardless of employment. It matters more in an assault case, where the question is what the company itself knew and did.

What Evidence Does Uber or Lyft Hold?

Almost all of it. Missouri law requires the companies to keep certain records, and the apps generate far more.

  • Trip records, kept for at least one year from each trip (RSMo 387.428).
  • Driver records, kept at least until one year after the driver leaves the platform (RSMo 387.428).
  • GPS location and speed data, and the driver’s status in the app second by second, including log-on and log-off times.
  • In-app messages and calls between you and the driver, which run through the app.
  • The background check. Before a driver can take rides, the company must run local and national criminal checks, check the national sex offender registry and review a driving history report (RSMo 387.420).
  • Complaints. Companies must keep a zero-tolerance policy for impaired driving, suspend a driver when a rider reports suspected impairment, and keep those records for at least two years (RSMo 387.418).
  • Notices to the state. A company must revoke a driver’s access after certain convictions and must notify the Missouri Department of Revenue when a driver is in a crash causing serious injury or death (RSMo 387.436).

One year sounds like plenty of time. It is not, once you subtract the weeks spent recovering and the months spent talking to an adjuster. A preservation demand is a written notice to the company, sent to its registered agent in Missouri (RSMo 387.406) and to its insurer, that identifies the trip, the driver and the categories of data and requires the company to keep them. Once the company has that notice, destroying the data carries consequences in the lawsuit. We send it early, and we name the trip, the time window and the driver specifically.

Screenshot the trip receipt today. It is the key that unlocks everything the company holds.

What if a Rideshare Driver Assaulted You?

You may have two kinds of civil claims, on two different clocks.

  • Against the driver, for assault and battery. Missouri gives you two years to file (RSMo 516.140).
  • Against the company, for its own negligence: how it screened the driver, what it did with earlier complaints, and what safety measures it chose to use or not use. Injury claims based on negligence are generally governed by Missouri’s five-year statute (RSMo 516.120). Do not plan around the longer deadline. Which clock applies to which claim is a question to settle early, with a lawyer.

These claims are being tested nationally. In October 2023, the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation sent passenger sexual assault cases against Uber to Judge Charles R. Breyer in the Northern District of California as In re: Uber Technologies, Inc., Passenger Sexual Assault Litigation, MDL No. 3084. In February 2026, the Panel did the same for Lyft, sending In re: Lyft, Inc. Passenger Sexual Assault Litigation, MDL No. 3171, to Judge Rita F. Lin in the same court. The Lyft order describes allegations that the company knew of the risk and failed to screen drivers, respond to complaints and adopt safety measures such as video and audio surveillance.

The first federal bellwether trial against Uber ended on February 5, 2026, when a federal jury in Arizona found the driver was acting as Uber’s apparent agent and awarded compensatory damages. The jury did not find Uber negligent, did not find its safety systems defective and declined punitive damages, and Uber said it would appeal. In a separate California state court trial in 2025, a jury found Uber not liable. Every case turns on its own facts.

The companies publish their own numbers. Uber’s US Safety Report counted 2,717 reports in the five most serious categories of sexual assault in 2021 and 2022, including 355 reports of non-consensual sexual penetration, across more than 1.8 billion US trips. Those reports came from riders and drivers. Lyft’s first Community Safety Report counted 4,158 reports in the same five categories from 2017 through 2019, including 360 reports of non-consensual sexual penetration.

The firm’s sexual assault practice is at /sexual-assault/, for survivors whose claims go beyond the ride itself. Assaults that happen at a hotel after a ride, or by someone met through travel, are covered on the hotel sexual assault page at /sexual-assault/hotel-sexual-assault/.

You do not have to report to police to talk to a lawyer, and a consultation is confidential. Medical care comes first, and a sexual assault examination preserves evidence whether or not you decide to report.

How Long Do You Have to File?

  • Most injury claims from a rideshare crash: five years (RSMo 516.120).
  • Assault and battery claims against the driver: two years (RSMo 516.140).
  • Wrongful death: three years from the date of death (RSMo 537.100), brought by the family members the statute lists (RSMo 537.080).
  • A ride that crossed the river and crashed in Illinois: two years (735 ILCS 5/13-202).

Those are the courthouse deadlines. The data deadline is shorter, and it is the one that decides most rideshare cases.

Does the St. Louis Airport Change Anything?

St. Louis Lambert International Airport assigns rideshare pickups to set spots: Door 6 on the departures level at Terminal 1 and Door 12 on the arrivals level at Terminal 2. Crowded pickup zones are where riders climb into the wrong car. Before you get in anywhere, match the driver’s photo and plate in the app, which Missouri law requires the company to show you before the ride (RSMo 387.410). If something happens in a car that was not the one the app sent, tell us. It changes who is responsible and which insurance applies.

What Should You Do Right Now?

  • Get medical care and keep every appointment. Gaps in treatment are what adjusters point to first.
  • Screenshot the trip in the app: the driver’s name, photo, plate, route, times and the receipt. The company must send you an electronic receipt with the origin, destination and fare (RSMo 387.412). Save it.
  • Report the crash or the assault through the app, in writing. Keep a copy of what you sent and what came back.
  • Call the police and get the report number. Note the agency that responded.
  • Photograph the vehicles, the scene and your injuries. Get the names and numbers of witnesses and of any other driver.
  • Do not give a recorded statement to any insurer, including the rideshare company’s, before you talk to a lawyer.
  • Do not delete the app or your account. Your trip history and messages live there.
  • Call The Injury Counsel for a free, confidential consultation. We identify the driver’s status, every policy that applies, and the records that need a preservation demand this week.

You do not need to know which period the driver was in. You need someone to find out before the company decides what it will say. Call The Injury Counsel at (314) 727-7220.