Rideshare Accidents with Child Passengers in Texas

You booked an Uber for a quick trip across Austin with your seven-year-old riding beside you. As you crossed South Congress Avenue, another driver ran a red light and slammed into the vehicle. Your child was hurt. Now you’re dealing with medical appointments, insurance adjusters, and questions about who is liable for your child’s injuries.

Texas Car Seat Law Does Not Cover Rideshares

Texas generally requires children under 8 years old and shorter than 4 feet 9 inches to ride in an approved child safety seat. However, Texas Transportation Code § 545.412 creates an exception for drivers who transport passengers for hire. Uber and Lyft drivers, along with taxis, are not required by law to have a car seat in the vehicle or to enforce its use.

The Texas Department of State Health Services confirms that rideshare drivers fall within this exception. The driver faces no statutory penalty for picking up your child without a seat installed. There is also no explicit Texas car seat law that sets a specific age when a child can legally sit in the front seat.

The exemption does not mean you lose the right to pursue a claim if your child is injured in a rideshare crash. It means that liability is usually determined by other factors, like who caused the collision, whether the driver acted negligently, and what insurance coverage applied at the time of the crash.

Who Is Liable When a Child Is Hurt in a Rideshare?

Liability in a rideshare crash depends on who caused the accident and what the driver was doing at the time of impact. Uber and Lyft classify their drivers as independent contractors, which limits direct employer liability. However, the companies’ commercial insurance policies apply regardless of that classification.

Knowing how Uber and Lyft insurance coverage periods work is your starting point for any claim involving a child passenger.

Rideshare Insurance Coverage Periods

The amount of coverage available shifts dramatically depending on the driver’s app status at the moment of the crash. Texas Insurance Code Chapter 1954 establishes different coverage requirements based on the driver’s status at the time of the crash.

When a driver has accepted a ride request or is actively transporting a passenger (Periods 2 and 3), Uber and Lyft provide up to $1 million in liability coverage. If your child was injured while riding in the vehicle, this is usually the coverage that applies.

Coverage is lower during Period 1, when the driver is logged into the app but has not yet accepted a ride request. During that stage, Texas law requires at least $50,000 in bodily injury coverage per person and $100,000 per accident.

Other Parties Who May Share Liability

The rideshare driver is not the only party that may bear responsibility. If another driver caused the crash, their insurer becomes a primary recovery source for your child’s injuries.

You can also pursue a direct negligence claim against Uber or Lyft if the driver had a known history that the platform failed to screen adequately. That theory bypasses the independent contractor argument. Texas uses a modified comparative fault system, which means fault can be split across parties. A child passenger is rarely at fault.

Special Rules for Child Injury Claims in Texas

When the injured person is a minor, Texas law provides specific protections that do not apply to adult rideshare accident claims.

Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code (CPRC) § 16.001 often tolls the two-year statute of limitations for minors. The filing clock does not start until the child turns 18.

That means your child may technically have until their twentieth birthday to file a personal injury lawsuit. However, parents and legal guardians can bring a claim on a child’s behalf much sooner, and waiting is rarely beneficial. Evidence disappears, witnesses move, and memories become less reliable over time.

Texas courts also require judicial approval before a settlement involving a minor becomes final. A judge must determine that the settlement serves the child’s best interests before it can be approved.

Those protections exist because childhood injuries can have consequences that are difficult to measure immediately. Developmental delays, learning difficulties, future medical needs, and lasting physical limitations may not become fully apparent until months or years after the crash.

Why Child Injury Claims Can Be Worth More Than Expected

A child’s injury claim often involves more than the medical bills generated immediately after the crash. Some injuries require ongoing treatment, therapy, educational accommodations, or future medical care that extends well beyond the initial recovery period.

Because children have many years ahead of them, Texas law allows claims to account for losses that may affect them long into the future. Depending on the injury, damages may include future medical expenses, pain and suffering, physical impairment, and diminished earning capacity later in life.

In some cases, Texas law also allows exemplary damages. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 41 requires clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with gross negligence, fraud, or malice. Ordinary negligence is not enough.

In Uber accident claims, gross negligence arguments tend to center on the platform rather than the individual driver. If Uber or Lyft retained a driver with a known history of dangerous behavior, or if screening processes broke down in a way that put a foreseeable danger behind the wheel, that conduct could support the argument.

While exemplary damages are uncommon, the long-term effects of a serious childhood injury can still result in significant compensatory damages. The focus is often on understanding not just the harm your child has suffered today, but the challenges they may face years into the future.

Even without exemplary damages, a child’s compensatory claim can be large. Future medical care, lost earning capacity over a lifetime, and pain and suffering calculated across decades all factor into what a serious child injury claim is worth.

Work with an Injury Attorney

A rideshare accident involving a child raises legal issues that do not exist in most car accident claims. Questions about insurance coverage, liability, court approval of settlements involving minors, and the impact of a child’s injuries can all affect the outcome. If you’re unsure what to do after a rideshare accident when your child is involved, acting early can help.

Angel Reyes & Associates has handled rideshare accident cases and personal injury claims for Texans for over 30 years. Our case results show examples of prior recoveries for injured Texans. Our team can review your situation, assess which parties may be liable, and help build the documentation your child’s claim requires.

Reach out to us for a free consultation.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.