Food Delivery Accidents
Food delivery services like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. However, food delivery drivers aren’t professionals. They’re not subject to heightened licensing requirements, don’t have to have a safe driving record to get the job, and are often under considerable pressure to make tight delivery deadlines.
Needless to say, auto accidents involving food delivery vehicles aren’t uncommon. In fact, they’ve become more and more problematic in recent years.
What Causes Food Delivery Accidents?
Some of the most commonly cited causes of food delivery accidents include:
- Speeding: Food delivery drivers may speed to make deliveries on time and increase the number of deliveries they can complete in a shift.
- Aggressive driving: The more deliveries an Uber Eats driver can complete, the more money they’ll make in a shift. This can potentially encourage food service drivers to make unsafe lane changes, make illegal turns, run red lights and stop signs, cut other vehicles off in traffic, tailgate, and engage in other aggressive maneuvers.
- Driver fatigue: These gig economy jobs are often a secondary source of income, so food delivery drivers are often overworked and overtired before they ever get behind the wheel.
- Vehicle defects: Drivers for food delivery services aren’t required to conduct regular vehicle inspections or evaluate whether their car is fit to drive. As a result, they might miss signs of defects or mechanical issues that can cause car and truck accidents.
- Drug and alcohol use: Food service drivers might use drugs and alcohol to cope with the stresses of their job, which can increase the chances of a wreck.
- Distracted driving: Food delivery services are mostly app-based, meaning that a driver has to rely largely on their phone to get orders and make deliveries. These apps – including applicable GPS and driving instructions – can draw the driver’s attention from the road and cause collisions.
At the end of the day, driver negligence is the leading cause of food delivery accidents in cities like Chicago.
Who’s Liable For a Food Delivery Accident?
In Illinois, the state’s fault-based laws give crash victims the right to seek compensation from anyone who contributes to a food delivery accident, which can include a:
- Negligent food delivery driver
- Driver of another passenger vehicle
- Pedestrian
- Food service customer
- Vehicle manufacturer
- Property owner
- Negligent party’s employer
Since food delivery drivers are mostly independent contractors, you’ll be hard-pressed to hold companies like Uber Eats and DoorDash liable for an accident.
However, food delivery drivers must have personal car insurance coverage, and food delivery services are often required to maintain liability policies if drivers working for them get into accidents. You can file a claim with the food delivery service’s insurance company once other insurance benefits – typically those under the delivery driver’s personal policy – have been exhausted.
Don’t let the stress of a food delivery accident in Chicago, Illinois, get the best of you. If you got hurt because the food delivery driver was negligent, Taxman, Pollock, Murray & Bekkerman, LLC can help you fight to recover the compensation you need and deserve.
Our Chicago personal injury lawyers have decades of experience and a proven track record of success. In fact, as advocates for individuals, not corporations, we’ve won over $750 million in damages.
Contact us for a free consultation. We’re available to take your call at our Chicago law office 24 hours a day.