Summary
On New Year’s Eve 2013, a distracted Uber driver struck a family of pedestrians in a San Francisco crosswalk, killing a six-year-old girl. The driver was logged in to the Uber app, but did not have a passenger at the time. Uber insisted its insurance should not have to cover the accident, but the driver’s personal car insurance policy did not cover accidents during commercial driving. Assembly Member Susan Bonilla introduced Chapter 389 to close that insurance gap between the time when a driver for a Transportation Network Company (TNC), like Uber or Lyft, opens the app and when he or she picks up a passenger. Chapter 389 also ensures that the TNC’s insurance policy or a policy the driver holds specifically for TNC activities provides coverage instead of the driver’s personal policy. Chapter 389 reflects months of negotiation and compromise among the affected parties, but leaves room for future legislation or regulation to expand the rules governing TNCs.
