Food delivery services make their money off the growling stomachs in Louisville and all over Kentucky. Drivers for fast food delivery companies like Postmates get requests at all hours for burgers and fries from restaurants as well as cereal and milk from the grocery store.
The door-side service is nice if you can afford it, but the added traffic around Louisville is not a welcome side effect. These workers may not be bad drivers, but when you consider all the distractions they face while behind the wheel an increased risk of an accident isn’t a surprise.
Help for Louisville Delivery Driver Accident Victims
A distracted driver concerned over delivering a hot meal, or accepting a new order could suddenly be right in front of you and cause a serious accident. Companies like Postmates send dozens of drivers out on local roads every day but do they support victims when their drivers cause collisions?
The answer is…not if they can help it. If you are hurt in a collision caused by a Postmate employee contact a Louisville attorney with experience taking on big companies that like to avoid accepting responsibility for their employees. Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC Injury Lawyers support accident victims across Kentucky and would like the opportunity to make sure you get every bit of compensation you’ll need to make a full recovery from your injuries.
Postmates Driver Dangers on Louisville Roads
Any driver working from behind the wheel is at risk for inattention and in turn, can be a serious threat to anyone’s safety on the road.
Distracted drivers play a major role in Kentucky’s yearly accident numbers, but often the numbers don’t reflect the true danger. Investigators can’t always know when an at-fault driver was distracted at the time of an accident and drivers don’t always admit to it. For that matter, not everyone who is working for a delivery service admits to their employment after an accident.
In 2018, The Kentucky State Police found that cell phone distraction and other distractions were involved in around 5% of all collisions. Again, that’s only the known accidents caused by distraction, the number is likely much higher.
Perhaps a better gauge is to look at driver inattention. Kentucky State Police reported that inattention accounted for nearly 50,000 accidents in 2018. That was 37% of all the accidents reported and they led to 18% of deadly accidents for the year.
Postmates Driver Distractions
A driver on the job can have their attention drawn away by many factors. The biggest temptation is true for anyone, the lure of the cellphone. Employees do almost every part of their job through the Postmates app. That means glances at phones and taps to accept orders are likely on every outing.
A food delivery service worker can be extra tired on the road after getting too little sleep. It’s very different for a drowsy employee to tough out a day behind a desk compared to being in a car for an entire sleepy shift. Employees can even be stressed and fatigued by working for multiple companies at once. Employees often keep apps open for services like Postmates, Doordash, and UberEats just to have a chance at more customers and more money.
Postmates Insurance In Auto Accidents
Postmates is an outlier because they do offer some accident coverage to their drivers when many delivery service companies don’t. If you are in an accident with one of their employees, you’ll first be dealing with the driver’s own car insurance. Your injuries and financial damages may or may not be covered. Some insurance companies won’t pay for an accident for their policyholders if they were working for a delivery service at the time.
If the driver’s insurance won’t provide compensation, then Postmates does possess a one million dollar third party supplemental insurance policy. The catch is that Postmates drivers are only covered when they have food or groceries for a customer in the car. If the accident happens outside of this period, then you won’t usually be able to involve Postmates as you try to find help paying your medical bills.
If neither policy will lend you a hand, a claim against your own insurance policy under the uninsured/underinsured coverage may be your last option. An attorney working for you can help you determine the best path if you find yourself in this situation. Sometimes an experienced attorney can try different strategies to force Postmates to accept blame in an accident.
Compensation for Victims of Postmates Driver Error
Filing a claim for damages against the at-fault driver, and perhaps Postmates as well, as soon as possible will be a top priority once you realize the kinds of damage an accident can do to your financial health and emotional stability. This civil lawsuit attempts to protect you from all of those consequences coming out of a crash that wasn’t your fault.
This is a partial list of the expenses and hardships that accident victims should expect to recover after an accident:
- Hospital and medical expenses.
- Past and future lost earnings.
- Past and future permanent physical disability such as a limp, scars, loss of a limb.
- Emotional distress, such as depression and anxiety.
- Money towards counseling and psychological services.
- Damage or destruction of property.
- Physical pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life.
Contact a Louisville Delivery Driver Accident Attorney
A company like Postmates, that makes millions of dollars off our business, should want to support their drivers in accidents and the victims of those accidents. Unfortunately, they usually fight as hard as they can to avoid blame.
If you were the victim of a serious crash caused by a distracted delivery driver you may wonder if you need an attorney. The answer is almost always yes. Postmates insurance company agents and lawyers have years of experience and are good at their job which is to pay you as little as possible or nothing at all. You need someone just as experienced to help you level the field. Talk to someone you can trust to be on your side and get you what is yours under the law.
The attorneys at Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC, have that knowledge and a combined 100 years’ experience in helping clients get the compensation they’ll need to fully recover. To discuss your case, call Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC today, at (800) 937-8443 or click here to contact them online.
