Uber accident

[Nkj]

In June 2019 my partner and I were spending the weekend in London. We had had dinner at the shard and we decided to take an UBER back to the hotel. When we left the shard I arranged the uber on my phone and we waited outside. A short while after the taxi arrived and we jumped in. When we got to our destination, we pulled uo alongside the hotel and as we were getting out a black cab driver drive round the taxi we were in just as my fiancee was opening the door. The black cab caught the door of the uber subsequently pushing the door further round than it should go. Pictures were taken and my fiancee gave the uber driver his details and we went up to our room for the night. We left London the next day and returned home. A few days later the uber driver often messaged and phoned my fiancee claiming we owed him £3,000 in compensation and loss of earnings. We phoned uber who said we would not be liable and that this accident would be covered under the drivers insurance. We then never heard any more. That was 3 years ago, and recently my fiancee has been contacted via the government website notifying him he is being sued by the uber driver for approx £1,800 in loss of earnings, hire vehicles, public transport etc. Does anybody have any advice regarding this as surely this should be covered by his insurance as this is obviously an accident. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance

[echat11]

Hi NKJ

The following doesn't make sense -

'contacted via the government website notifying him he is being sued by the uber driver for approx £1,800'

a) Was a letter before action received? (pre action protocols)

b) Is it a court claim that's been received? The Government don't get involved in claims (not unless they are branching out).

It's all very odd.

[DE DOGS]

Short answer. This accident is covered by the Insurance, the Uber driver is trying to claim the money he is not entitled to.

[des8]

Not that easy.
Who was liable for the accident? the black cab/the passenger or the Uber driver?

It sounds as if the Uber dribver has claimed for damage to his vehicle on his own insurance.
If it had been paid by the black cab insurers they would also have picked up the loss of earnings claim.
The Uber insurers have probably only covered the damage to the vehicle (and could possibly try and recover that from the passenger altho' unlikely)

The Uber driver probably does not carry Lss of earnings insurance and so is trying to recover from the person he thinks caused the accident.

Need to know a lot more surrounding the actual accident to ascertain who (if anyone) was at fault.

[dslippy]

I am with Des8.

That an insurance company pays out does not absolve the person who may have caused the acciodent by his negligence. The insurance company merely takes its place oin the list of those entitled to sue for the damage for which it has paid.

[echat11]

Uber drivers at that time were 'self employed', until the Supreme Court decided they should be treated as 'workers' in 2021.

Definitely need a lot more information.

[Manxman]

Assuming that the Uber driver had pulled in on the nearside/lefthand side of the road and your partner was exiting from the offside/righthand side of the road, then your partner ought to have checked behind to ensure that it was safe to open the door. If you were driving your own car you wouldn't just open your door without first checking that there was nothing approaching from behind. Well I wouldn't but perhaps some people don't think...

(I am led to believe that if you hire a "proper" London cab, the driver can prevent passengers from exiting on the offside in order to prevent just this sort of situation happening. It also helps to stop passengers doing a runner before paying)

[des8]

Assuming that the Uber driver had pulled in on the nearside/lefthand side of the road and your partner was exiting from the offside/righthand side of the road, then your partner ought to have checked behind to ensure that it was safe to open the door. If you were driving your own car you wouldn't just open your door without first checking that there was nothing approaching from behind. Well I wouldn't but perhaps some people don't think...

(I am led to believe that if you hire a "proper" London cab, the driver can prevent passengers from exiting on the offside in order to prevent just this sort of situation happening. It also helps to stop passengers doing a runner before paying)

..............but if the black cab had approached too fast, too close,?
basically we don't know enough of the circumstances to try and apportion liability

[Manxman]

..............but if the black cab had approached too fast, too close,?
basically we don't know enough of the circumstances to try and apportion liability

Well we do know really.

If the black cab had approached too fast or too close then obviously the OP would have said so from the outset rather than waiting for a cue form this forum to suggest that they should say so!

Either the OP's partner checked over their shoulder to check the road was clear behind or they didn't. I think the fact that the OP hasn't already mentioned that their partner checked that the road was clear probably means that they didn't check. Certainly if I was in this position I would have said from the outset that I had checked over my shoulder - because I always do so. It is dangerous not to.

And obviously whether the Uber driver has a claim against their insurance is irrelevant if the OP's partner has been negilgent by not taking reasonable steps to ensure that it is safe to open the door

[Edit: my point is that anybody who exits from the offside of a car (assuming that that is what the OP's partner did), MUST first check that the road behind them is clear before opening the door. If they do not do so they leave themselves open to all sorts of liability claims, whether the driver is insured or not. If I'm in a taxi I always make sure I exit on the nearside. If people want to scrimp by using a "non-proper" taxi service like Uber they must accept that the Uber driver may not be fully conversant with how to assist their passengers. Cheap Uber = not eh best service]

[des8]

... except the cab driver should not get too close to the vehicle he is overtaking (highway cade 163) and I was taught too many years ago to leave at least a yard just in case.

sorry, but it is not black and white and I wasn't prompting.
OP states " as we were getting out a black cab driver drive round the taxi we were in just as my fiancee was opening the door." which could be that the cabbie swung out suddenly from behind the Uber taxi and ran close just as the passenger door was being opened.

It may well be the passenger didn't look, but there could still be contributory negligence by other parties

following years of insurance experience you learn not to accept the first account of an accident

[Manxman]

I don't think it's black or white either.

But I note that the OP does not state that "my partner checked over their shoulder to make sure it was clear behind before opening their door".

Now if the OP had said so from the outset, it might add weight to an argument that the following cab driver had been travelling too quickly or had been too close to the Uber in front. But the OP has not said that their partner checked behind,

The Op's post appears to be based on (what I think is a misapprehension) that if the Uber cab has insurance, then their partner is absolved from liability, whether they checked behind or not.

Basically, if you exit a vehicle on the offside, there should never be any issues like this if you have checked behind appropriately. I suspect that the OP's partner did not check and just opened their dooe without thinking.