When Your Uber Hits a Deer: Understanding Liability in Animal Collision Accidents
Posted December 1st, 2025 by Anthony Carbone, PC.
Categories: Attorney Anthony Carbone, Auto Accidents, Lyft Accident, Personal Injury.
You’re riding in a Lyft through a suburban New Jersey area or along a rural road when suddenly an animal darts into the path of your vehicle. The driver swerves sharply or slams on the brakes, but it’s too late. The impact throws you violently against your seatbelt. You might strike the seat in front of you or the window. The vehicle may spin, veer off the road, or collide with other objects. When the chaos ends, you’re injured, shaken, and unsure what just happened or who is responsible. Animal collision accidents involving rideshare vehicles raise unique legal questions that many passengers don’t know how to handle. Understanding liability and your rights can help you recover the compensation you need.
At The Law Offices of Anthony Carbone, we help victims of rideshare accidents involving animals navigate these complex claims and hold responsible parties accountable.
Why Animal Collisions Happen More Often Than You Think
New Jersey’s mix of urban, suburban, and rural areas creates frequent encounters between vehicles and animals. Understanding when and why these collisions occur helps establish the context for liability.
Wildlife on Roadways
Deer are particularly common in New Jersey and cause thousands of vehicle accidents each year. These large animals often travel in groups, cross roads unpredictably, and are most active during dawn and dusk when visibility is reduced. Other wildlife including raccoons, opossums, foxes, and coyotes also appear on roadways, especially near wooded areas or parks.
Domestic and Stray Animals
Dogs and cats that escape from yards or homes may wander onto roads. Livestock including horses, cows, or goats sometimes escape from farms in rural areas. These animals may stand in roadways, creating stationary hazards, or dart suddenly into traffic.
Limited Reaction Time
Animals often appear without warning, giving drivers little time to respond. A deer might leap from the roadside directly into a vehicle’s path. A dog might chase a car and run in front of it. These sudden movements make avoiding collisions extremely difficult even for attentive drivers.
Time of Day and Season
Animal collisions increase during certain times. Deer are especially active during mating season in fall and when feeding at dawn and dusk. Darkness reduces visibility, making it harder to spot animals before they enter the roadway.
Rideshare drivers navigating unfamiliar areas while managing GPS and app notifications may be less prepared to react when animals appear suddenly.
Understanding Who May Be Liable
Determining responsibility for accidents involving animals requires examining multiple factors and potentially several parties.
The Rideshare Driver’s Responsibility
Drivers have a duty to operate vehicles safely and respond appropriately to road hazards. While hitting an animal that appears suddenly may be unavoidable, driver negligence can contribute to or worsen the accident. If the driver was speeding, distracted by their phone, or failed to slow down in known wildlife areas, they may be held liable.
Similarly, a driver’s reaction after encountering an animal matters. Swerving excessively, overcorrecting, or braking so hard that the vehicle loses control may constitute negligence. Experienced drivers should be able to respond to sudden hazards without causing additional danger to passengers.
Rideshare Company Insurance
When rideshare drivers are actively working and transporting passengers or en route to pickups, Uber and Lyft’s commercial insurance policies typically provide coverage. This insurance can compensate injured passengers regardless of whether the animal collision itself was avoidable. The key question becomes whether the driver responded reasonably to the emergency.
Property Owners and Municipalities
In some situations, property owners or government entities may share liability. If a property owner failed to maintain fences that allowed livestock to escape onto roads, they could be responsible. Municipalities that failed to install appropriate warning signs in high-risk wildlife areas or maintain roads properly may also bear some fault.
Animal Owners
Owners of domestic animals have a responsibility to properly restrain and control their pets or livestock. If a dog or cow escapes due to negligent supervision and causes an accident, the owner may be held liable for resulting injuries and damages.
Comparative Negligence
New Jersey’s modified comparative negligence law allows fault to be distributed among multiple parties based on their respective contributions to the accident. An investigation may reveal that the driver, an animal owner, and a property owner all share some responsibility.
Common Injuries From Animal Collision Accidents
Even when vehicles strike relatively small animals, the resulting accidents can cause serious injuries to passengers.
The sudden impact or violent swerving throws passengers around the interior of the vehicle. Common injuries include whiplash and neck injuries from rapid head movement, concussions and head trauma from striking windows or seats, broken bones and fractures from impact with vehicle interior, soft tissue injuries throughout the body, back and spine injuries, and psychological trauma from the frightening experience.
When drivers swerve to avoid animals, they may lose control of the vehicle, run off the road, strike trees or barriers, or collide with other vehicles. These secondary impacts often cause more severe injuries than the initial animal collision.
Steps to Protect Your Rights After the Accident
If you are injured in a rideshare accident involving an animal, taking immediate action strengthens your claim and protects your ability to recover compensation.
Get Medical Attention Right Away
See a healthcare provider immediately even if injuries seem minor. Animal collision accidents can cause injuries with delayed symptoms. Medical documentation links your injuries to the accident and establishes their severity.
Report to Law Enforcement
Call police to create an official accident report. Officers will document the scene, the presence of the animal, road conditions, and the driver’s response. This report provides crucial evidence about what happened.
Document the Scene Thoroughly
Take photos of all vehicle damage, the accident location, the animal if still present, any animal tracks or evidence, road conditions, warning signs or lack thereof, and visible injuries. The more evidence you gather immediately, the stronger your case.
Identify Witnesses
Collect contact information from anyone who saw the accident occur. Witnesses can verify how the animal appeared, how the driver responded, and whether the driver’s actions were reasonable under the circumstances.
Preserve Ride Information
Screenshot all details from your rideshare app including driver name and photo, vehicle information, route, timing, and any messages exchanged.
Avoid Premature Statements
Do not provide detailed statements to insurance adjusters before consulting an attorney. Insurance companies often use these statements to minimize claims, arguing that animal collisions are unavoidable and therefore no one is liable.
Contact Experienced Legal Help
Cases involving animals and rideshare accidents present unique challenges. The Law Offices of Anthony Carbone understands how to investigate these crashes, determine whether driver negligence contributed to injuries, identify all potentially liable parties, and fight for full compensation covering medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and future needs.
Your Rights Don’t Depend on What the Animal Did
Insurance companies often try to dismiss animal collision claims by arguing that the accident was unavoidable and no one bears fault. However, the presence of an animal doesn’t automatically absolve the driver or other parties of responsibility. The question is not just whether hitting the animal was avoidable, but whether the driver’s actions before, during, and after the encounter met the standard of reasonable care.
If driver distraction, excessive speed, or improper reaction contributed to your injuries, you have a right to compensation. If an animal owner’s negligence allowed their pet to escape onto the road, they can be held accountable. With thorough investigation and skilled legal representation, you can recover what you need to move forward.
