当我乘坐专车遭遇车祸时……

绿灯亮了，我的优步专车司机向左转，进入了旧金山的一条单向街道。突然，有人对着我们的丰田普锐斯狂按喇叭。

当时是凌晨三点，天色很暗，根本看不清周围的情况。但我知道，我的优步专车与另一辆车发生了碰撞。

我告诉司机，他应该靠边停车。他似乎并未意识到应该这样做。他或许被惊呆了，只是盯着对方的车，看着对方司机慢慢把车停在了路边。

两年前，优步和Lyft等专车公司刚开始流行时，就有人批评这些公司的司机保险政策，甚至根本没有提供保险。如果专车司机在运送乘客的过程中发生事故，应该怎么办？应该由谁对任何损害或人身伤害负责？

我即将找到这些问题的答案。

我下了车，站在路边，向周围看了看。我的专车只有一小块凹陷，一个车灯周围有一些刮痕。但另外一辆车却没有这么幸运。驾驶员位置的车门上撞出了一个明显的坑。

我的优步专车司机向我保证，会把我送回家。当时我们正站在他的车边。附近，另外一辆车的司机检查了受损情况，看了看我们，显然很生气。

我跟司机说，我可以走回家，因为我家离得很近，他应该留在那里等到事故解决。毕竟，司机不能离开事故现场。事实上，我的公寓距离事故地点要走20分钟，但我希望能够尽快回家。搭便车回家肯定是不妥的，但我太累了而且有些害怕，不想等到他们交涉完具体的细节。如果对方报警怎么办？一般人都会这样做，但这种可能性让我很不舒服，尽管我完全是无辜的。

当我最终回到家后，或者在那个周末晚些时候我再一次打开Uber应用时，一个窗口提示我对那一次专车服务评分。这一次，我留下了评论。 “我们遇到了一次小交通事故，我想司机肯定向优步报告了……”

最主要的是，我想解释为什么这一次我只给了司机四星评级，而不是五星。司机和乘车人只有在评分不低于特定评级的情况下，才能保持活跃用户身份。

第二天，一位名叫“约什” 的优步客户服务团队成员给我发来了一条信息。“约什”对于事故造成的不便深表歉意，并告诉我，他已经将车费退还到了我的信用卡——好消息，虽然这只为我节省了7美元，因为我使用了非常便宜的UberPool拼车选项。此外，他还告诉我，未来几天，将有一名詹姆士河保险公司的理算员联系我。

这让我很紧张——这跟我有什么关系？我并没有开车——但约什向我保证，这只是协议的一部分。

优步的保险公司大概只是想了解尽可能多的信息，以便确定损害程度和责任方，以及由谁来埋单。众所周知，优步和Lyft等公司一直在竭力避免事故发生时的责任，他们告诉驾驶员，在申请公司保险之前，先通过个人保险申请理赔。（最近，这种做法开始有所改变，因为许多保险公司已经明确规定，其个人保险政策不适用于专车事故。）

2013年，优步增加了对UberX服务的保险，该项服务使用的驾驶员没有商业执照或商业保险。最初，这项保险仅涵盖驾驶员接单之后和运送乘客的过程。后来，优步将保险范围扩大，在某些情况下，凡在上班期间的驾驶员均可享受这项保险。

对于专车司机发生事故的频率，优步发言人拒绝发表意见。但他向我们介绍了公司的安全措施和政策，其中提到了优步的保险规定和驾驶员背景审查等。优步的政策规定，在使用优步服务过程中不断发生严重事故的驾驶员和乘客，将不能继续使用这项服务。

后来，确实有一位来自优步保险公司的人通过手机联系到我，询问事故的情况——在我使用优步服务的时候，优步便获得了我的手机号。我想他确认，自己并没有受伤，然后我尽可能详细地解释了两车相撞的情形。通话只持续了几分钟，之后，我再也没有听到保险公司或优步对这起事故的后续处理情况。

这起事故发生在一个半月之前，是我使用优步或Lyft遭遇的第一次也是唯一一次交通事故。尽管过程没有什么麻烦，但依旧有一些令人不解的细节。我的专车司机是否向优步汇报了那次事故？如果没有，他是否会因为没有汇报而遇到麻烦？更糟糕的是——他是否会因此而被炒鱿鱼？(财富中文网)

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

审校：任文科

As the light turned green, my Uber driver turned left onto yet another one of San Francisco’s one-way streets. Then, a loud thump gently rattled our Toyata Prius.

It was very late, past 3 a.m., and too dark to see anything. But I immediately knew my Uber driver had collided with another car.

I quickly told my driver he should pull over, something he didn’t seem to realize he was supposed to do. Instead, he stared at the other car, probably in shock, as its driver slowly pulled over to the curb.

A couple of years ago, when ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft started to gain momentum, critics attacked their driver insurance policies, or lack thereof. What happens when a driver gets in an accident while ferrying passengers and who pays for any damage or injuries?

I was about to find out.

I stepped out into the street and looked around. My driver’s car had only a small dent and scratches around one of his headlights. The other car, however, didn’t get off so lightly. The driver’s door had a visible crater in it.

I can drive you home, my Uber driver reassured me as we stood in the street by his car. Nearby, the other car’s driver inspected his damaged car and us, visibly annoyed at the situation.

I told my driver I would walk because my house was nearby, and he should stay to deal with the accident. After all, you aren’t supposed to leave the scene of an accident. In truth, my apartment was a good 20-minute walk, but I just wanted to get home as soon as possible. Getting a ride home immediately would have felt wrong, and I was too tired and a bit too scared to stay until they exchanged the usual details. What if the other driver called the police? It’s a common thing to do, but the possibility made me uncomfortable despite my total innocence.

When I finally got home, or perhaps the next time I opened my Uber app later that weekend, I was prompted with the usual box to rate my ride. This time, I left a comment. “We got into a little car accident, I’m assuming he reported it to Uber…”

Mostly, I wanted to explain why I had given the driver only a four-star rating out of five for the trip. Drivers and riders can only remain active as long as their score doesn’t dip below a certain rating.

The following day, a member of Uber’s customer service team sent me a message. “Josh” profusely apologized about the inconvenience of the accident and told me he had refunded that trip to my credit card—great news, although it only saved me $7 as I was using the ultra-cheap UberPool carpooling option. Also, a James River Insurance Company adjuster would likely contact me in the next few days about the accident, he added.

This made me nervous—why should I be involved in this? I wasn’t driving—but Josh reassured me it was merely part of protocol.

Presumably, Uber’s insurance company would want as much detail about the accident as possible to determine the extent of the damage, who was at fault, and who should pay for it all. Companies like Uber and Lyft have notoriously worked to avoid as much responsibility as a possible when it comes to accidents like telling drivers to file claims through their personal insurance first before the company’s policy. (Recently, this practice has started changing after many insurance companies made clear that their personal policies didn’t cover ride-hailing accidents.)

In 2013, Uber added insurance coverage to its UberX service, which uses drivers who don’t have commercial licenses or commercial insurance. Originally, it only covered drivers after they had accepted a ride request and while they were transporting a passenger. Since then, Uber expanded it to cover drivers during their entire time on duty under certain circumstances.

An Uber spokesman declined to comment on how often its drivers get into accidents. Instead, he pointed us to the company’s safety measures and policies, which outline Uber’s insurance provisions and driver background checks, among other things. Uber’s policy says that drivers and riders who are consistently in serious accidents while using the service will no longer be allowed to use Uber.

Sure enough, later that week, someone from Uber’s insurance company called my cell phone—Uber has my number from when I use its service—to ask about the accident. I confirmed that I had no injuries, and then explained, with as much detail as possible, how my Uber driver collided into another car. The call only took a couple of minutes, and I never heard from the insurance company or Uber again about the accident.

This happened almost a month and a half ago, and it has been my first and only accident while using Uber or Lyft. Despite the ease of process, however, a few details remain unclear. Did my driver report the incident himself to Uber? If not, did he get in trouble for failing to? Worse—was he fired over this?