Injured as an Uber or Lyft Passenger in Ontario: Who Pays?

You climb into an Uber or a Lyft, you are not driving, you may not even own a car, and then another vehicle runs a red light and the trip ends in a crash. You are hurt, you did nothing wrong, and the first question that hits you in the emergency room is a practical one: who pays? Whose insurance covers your treatment, your lost income, and the injury itself when you were only a passenger in someone else's car?

The answer surprises most people, and it is better news than they fear. As an injured Uber or Lyft passenger in Ontario, you are almost always covered, even if you have never owned a car and never bought a single auto insurance policy in your life. Ontario law lines up the insurers who must respond, in a fixed order, and it forces one of them to start paying you while they argue among themselves about who is ultimately responsible. On top of that, you can usually sue the driver whose carelessness caused the crash.

This guide answers the question every injured Uber accident passenger in Ontario asks, who pays and how much, in plain language. It explains the two separate ways money reaches you after a rideshare crash, the priority of payment rule that decides which insurer covers your accident benefits, which insurers stand behind Uber and Lyft in Ontario, the benefits you can claim, the 2026 tort deductible that quietly shrinks pain and suffering awards, and the deadlines that can sink a claim before it starts. The rules come from the Insurance Act, the regulation on disputes between insurers, O. Reg. 283/95, and the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, with the dollar figures reset each year by the regulator, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario.

If you were hurt in a rideshare crash, do not try to guess which insurer to call, and do not sign anything an adjuster sends you. Talk to a personal injury lawyer who can identify the right insurer, get your benefits started, and protect the claim against the at fault driver. The rideshare model is newer than the rules that govern it, and the seams between the old rules and the new business are exactly where injured passengers lose money.

This article is general information about Ontario law. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not make us your lawyers.

Who pays if you are an injured Uber or Lyft passenger in Ontario?

Here is the short answer, and then the rest of this guide explains it. After a rideshare crash, money can reach you along two completely separate tracks, and the two tracks are paid by different insurers for different things.

The first track is your accident benefits. These are no fault benefits, which means they are paid regardless of who caused the crash. They cover things like medical and rehabilitation treatment, attendant care, and, if the right coverage is in place, some of your lost income. The key question on this track is not who was at fault. It is which insurer sits first in line to pay you. Ontario has a rule, the priority of payment rule, that answers that question. For most rideshare passengers the benefits come either from their own auto insurer, if they have one, or from the insurer behind the Uber or Lyft vehicle they were riding in.

The second track is a tort claim, which is the legal word for a lawsuit against the person who caused the crash. If the rideshare driver was careless, you sue the rideshare driver. If another motorist caused the crash, you sue that motorist. If both were partly to blame, you can sue both. This track compensates you for pain and suffering, past and future loss of income, the cost of future care, and out of pocket expenses. It is paid by the at fault driver's insurer.

Both tracks can run at the same time. A single injured passenger often has an accident benefits claim with one insurer and a tort claim against another, and the two are coordinated so you are not paid twice for the same loss. Understanding that there are two tracks, paid by different insurers under different rules, is the single most important idea in this article. Almost every mistake injured passengers make comes from confusing the two.

The two tracks: accident benefits and the tort claim

Because the two tracks trip people up so often, it is worth setting them side by side before we go deeper into either one.

Read that table twice. The left column is about coverage you are entitled to as an injured person, no matter whose fault the crash was. The right column is about holding the careless driver responsible. A good claim uses both columns at once, and a passenger who only pursues one of them usually leaves money on the table.

What is the priority of payment rule?

When more than one insurer could conceivably cover an injured person's accident benefits, Ontario needs a way to decide which one actually pays. That is the job of the priority of payment rule in section 268 of the Insurance Act. The rule sets out a ladder. You start at the top, and the first rung that applies to you is the insurer that must pay your benefits.

For someone who was an occupant of an automobile, and a passenger is an occupant, the ladder runs like this.

The practical takeaway for a rideshare passenger is that the first two rungs do almost all the work. Which one applies to you turns on one question: do you, or someone you live with, already have auto insurance?

What if I do not own a car?

Many people who use Uber and Lyft do not own a vehicle. That is often the whole point of using rideshare. If that is you, and no one in your household has an auto policy that covers you, then the first rung of the ladder is empty and you drop to the second rung. The insurer of the vehicle you were riding in, the Uber or Lyft car, becomes your accident benefits insurer. You do not need to have paid a premium, and you do not need any connection to that policy other than the fact that you were a passenger in the insured car. This is the reassurance that surprises people the most. You can have zero insurance of your own and still be fully entitled to accident benefits after a rideshare crash.

What if I live with someone who has car insurance?

If you live with a spouse, a parent, or another relative who has an auto policy, and you qualify as an insured under that policy, that policy may sit ahead of the rideshare insurer on the ladder. Ontario auto policies extend accident benefits coverage not just to the named insured but to their spouse and their dependants, even when those people are hurt as a passenger in a completely different car. So a student living at home, hurt in an Uber, may have their benefits paid by a parent's policy rather than by Uber's insurer. This is not a bad thing, and it is not a loophole. It is simply where the law places the responsibility, and as we will see, it can matter a great deal after July 1, 2026.

What if I own my own car?

If you have your own auto policy, that policy is normally your accident benefits insurer, even though your own car was parked at home and had nothing to do with the crash. Again, this is by design. Your own policy follows you as a person, not just your vehicle, so it covers you when you are a passenger in someone else's car, a rideshare car included. The rideshare insurer only steps in when you have no policy of your own to turn to.

Which insurers cover Uber and Lyft in Ontario?

When the rideshare vehicle's insurer is the one that has to pay, it helps to know who that actually is. Uber and Lyft do not self insure in Ontario. They carry commercial fleet policies through licensed Ontario insurers, and those policies are what respond when a rideshare trip ends in a crash.

That Lyft is insured by Aviva in Ontario is not just industry knowledge. It was confirmed in a reported court decision, Porter v. Aviva Insurance Company of Canada, 2021 ONSC 3107, where Aviva stood as the accident benefits insurer behind a Lyft trip. We come back to what that case actually decided a little later, because it draws an important line around what counts as an accident.

Does rideshare coverage depend on what the driver was doing?

Yes, and this matters for passengers even though passengers rarely have to think about it. Rideshare insurance in Ontario is layered according to what the app was doing at the moment of the crash. In broad terms:

• When the app is off and the driver is using the car for personal reasons, the driver's ordinary personal auto policy applies.
• When the driver is logged in and waiting for a ride request, a more limited layer of coverage applies.
• When the driver has accepted a trip and is on the way to a pickup, or has a passenger in the car, the full commercial fleet policy applies.

A passenger boards during an active, accepted trip. That means that from the moment you are in the car, the full commercial fleet policy, Economical or Definity for Uber and Aviva for Lyft, is the operative auto insurance on that vehicle. The regulator explains this layering in its consumer guidance on ridesharing and auto insurance. For an injured passenger, the bottom line is simple: while you were in the car on a trip, the vehicle was covered by the rideshare company's commercial policy, not just the driver's personal policy.

Do the insurers fight over who pays, and does that hurt me?

This is where a lot of injured passengers panic, because on paper it can look like two or three insurers all pointing at each other. The good news is that Ontario built a rule precisely so that the injured person does not get caught in the crossfire. It is O. Reg. 283/95, the regulation on disputes between insurers.

The core of that regulation is a pay first, argue later principle. When an insurer receives your completed application for accident benefits, it generally has to start adjusting and paying your benefits, even if it believes another insurer is really the one that should pay. If it wants to shift responsibility to another insurer, it has to serve a written notice within a strict time limit, and then the two insurers resolve the priority question in a private arbitration between themselves. You, the injured person, are usually not a party to that arbitration. You keep receiving benefits from the insurer that is paying while the companies sort out who is ultimately on the hook and who reimburses whom.

For a rideshare passenger this is genuinely reassuring. It means that if Uber's insurer thinks your own auto policy should pay, or your own insurer thinks the rideshare policy should pay, that dispute is theirs to have, not yours to suffer through. One of them has to keep your treatment funded and your benefits flowing in the meantime. The practical risk is not that you go unpaid forever. The practical risk is delay and confusion at the very start, when nobody has yet been told which insurer received the first application, which is exactly the moment a lawyer earns their keep by getting the application in front of the right insurer quickly and correctly.

What accident benefits can a rideshare passenger claim?

Accident benefits are set out in the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, usually just called the SABS. They are the same menu of benefits available to any injured person in an Ontario auto accident, and a passenger is fully entitled to claim them from whichever insurer the priority ladder points to. Here are the core benefits and their current amounts.

A quick word on the Minor Injury Guideline, because passengers hear about it constantly. If your injuries are classed as minor, sprains, strains, and minor whiplash without complications, your medical and rehabilitation funding is capped at $3,500. If your injuries are more serious than that, or if you have a pre existing condition that takes you outside the minor category, you can access the larger $65,000 pool, and in the most severe cases the $1,000,000 catastrophic pool. Getting out from under the $3,500 cap when your injuries deserve it is one of the routine battles on the accident benefits track, and it is fought with medical evidence.

Here is a simple worked example. Suppose you are a passenger with a genuinely minor soft tissue injury that heals with a few months of physiotherapy. Your treatment is funded up to $3,500, and that may well be enough. Now suppose instead that the crash leaves you with a herniated disc and nerve pain that needs injections, imaging, specialist care, and many months of rehabilitation. That injury is not minor, the $3,500 cap should not apply, and the funding you can draw on jumps to as much as $65,000. The difference between those two outcomes is not the label the insurer puts on your file on day one. It is the medical evidence your treating doctors build over the following months. For more on the benefits that flow from serious injuries, see our guides on attendant care benefits in Ontario and, for students and the unemployed, the non earner benefit.

How the July 1, 2026 reform changes what a passenger gets

Here is the part of this article that could cost a rideshare passenger real money, and it is brand new, so most people have not caught up to it. For accidents on or after July 1, 2026, Ontario changed which accident benefits are mandatory and which are optional.

Under the reformed system, only three benefits are mandatory on every auto policy: medical, rehabilitation, and attendant care. Everything else, including income replacement, the non earner benefit, the caregiver benefit, housekeeping, and the death and funeral benefits, became optional. A policyholder can still buy those benefits, but they have to opt in and pay for them. If they did not, those benefits are not there.

Now layer that onto the priority ladder, and you can see the trap forming. The reform also limits the optional benefits to the named insured, their spouse, their dependants, and the drivers listed on the policy. A random passenger in a rideshare car is none of those things on the fleet policy. So consider a passenger who does not own a car and has no household auto policy. After July 1, 2026, that passenger drops to the second rung of the ladder and claims against the rideshare fleet insurer, and from that fleet policy the passenger can generally access only the mandatory benefits, medical, rehabilitation, and attendant care. Income replacement and the non earner benefit, which come from the optional side of the ledger and are reserved for the policy's own insureds, may simply not be available to that passenger at all.

The lesson is stark and worth stating plainly. After July 1, 2026, the passenger who is best protected is the one who has their own auto policy, or lives with someone who does, with the optional benefits bought. The passenger who relies entirely on the rideshare company's fleet policy may find that the medical and rehabilitation care is covered but that there is no income replacement to lean on while they are off work. If you cannot work after a rideshare crash and you are being told there is no income replacement benefit available, that is a moment to get advice quickly, because the answer depends on the precise priority analysis and on what coverage exists across every policy that might respond. Our overview of the 2026 accident benefits changes walks through the reform in more detail.

What counts as an accident? The Porter v. Aviva line

Accident benefits are only payable if you were hurt in an accident as the SABS defines that word. Section 3(1) of the Schedule defines an accident as an incident in which the use or operation of an automobile directly causes an impairment. For a passenger hurt in a collision while riding, that definition is easily met. The crash is the incident, the use of the automobile caused it, and you were in the car. There is nothing to argue about.

The definition matters at the edges, though, and a reported case shows where the edge is. In Porter v. Aviva Insurance Company of Canada, 2021 ONSC 3107, the Divisional Court considered a person who slipped on ice while walking toward a waiting Lyft and was hurt in the fall. The person sought accident benefits from Aviva, the insurer behind Lyft. The court held that this was not an accident within the meaning of section 3(1), because the cause of the injury was the ice, not the use or operation of the automobile. The car was simply where the person was headed. It did not cause the fall.

Two things are useful about Porter for rideshare passengers. First, it confirms that Aviva is the accident benefits insurer standing behind Lyft in Ontario, which tells a Lyft passenger which insurer is on the second rung of their priority ladder. Second, it illustrates the boundary of coverage. If you are hurt in the crash itself, you are squarely within the definition of an accident and your benefits are not in doubt on that ground. The harder questions arise at the margins, such as slips and falls while approaching or leaving the vehicle, where the connection between the injury and the use of the car can be genuinely contestable. A passenger who was actually in a collision does not need to worry about the Porter problem, but it is a good reminder that how and exactly when an injury happens can decide whether it is covered.

Can I also sue the driver? The tort claim

Yes. Alongside your accident benefits, you can bring a tort claim, a lawsuit, against whoever caused the crash. For a passenger this is often the strongest part of the whole claim, for a simple reason. A passenger is almost never at fault. You were not steering, braking, or making decisions. That means the awkward fights over shared blame that dominate driver against driver cases usually do not touch you. Your job is to identify who was careless and to prove your losses, not to defend your own driving.

Who is the at fault driver, the rideshare driver or another motorist?

It depends on how the crash happened, and it changes who you sue and whose insurance responds.

• If your Uber or Lyft driver caused the crash, you sue the rideshare driver, and the commercial fleet policy, Economical or Definity for Uber and Aviva for Lyft, provides the liability coverage that answers your claim.
• If another motorist caused the crash, you sue that motorist, and that motorist's own insurer responds.
• If both drivers share the blame, you can sue both, and the court apportions responsibility between them. You do not have to pick the right defendant at the outset and hope, you name everyone who may be responsible and let the evidence sort out the shares.

Because a passenger is a neutral party who was simply along for the ride, you are generally able to recover your full damages from whichever driver or drivers were at fault, without your own conduct reducing the award.

Does the injury threshold apply to a passenger?

Yes, and this catches passengers off guard, so it is worth being clear. Any lawsuit for injuries from the use or operation of an automobile is subject to Ontario's injury threshold and statutory deductible under section 267.5 of the Insurance Act, and a passenger suing a driver is bringing exactly that kind of lawsuit. It does not matter that you were only a passenger, and it does not matter that you are suing the driver of the very car you were riding in. It is still an automobile claim, so the threshold and the deductible apply to the pain and suffering part of it. We explain that gate in full in our guide to Ontario's injury threshold; here is the short version and the 2026 numbers.

The 2026 deductible on pain and suffering

To recover anything for pain and suffering, your injury has to clear the threshold, which broadly means a permanent, serious impairment of an important physical, mental, or psychological function, or permanent serious disfigurement, or a death. If you clear that gate, the law then subtracts a fixed deductible from your pain and suffering award, unless the award is large enough to make the deductible disappear. The figures are reset each year by the regulator.

A worked example makes the deductible concrete. Suppose a jury values your pain and suffering at $70,000. The 2026 deductible of $47,913.01 comes off the top, and you keep about $22,086.99 for that part of your claim. Suppose instead the jury values it at $40,000. Because that is less than the deductible, the deductible swallows the entire award and you keep nothing for pain and suffering, even though you cleared the threshold. Now suppose the value is $165,000, above the 2026 disappearance line of $159,708.71. The deductible vanishes and you keep the full $165,000. The cliff around that line is why the precise value of an injury matters so much, and why an early settlement offer that sits just below the line can be worth far less than it looks. Our guide on what a car accident settlement is worth in Ontario digs into that math.

Important: the threshold and the deductible only touch pain and suffering, and certain health care expenses inside the lawsuit. They do not touch your income loss, your future care costs, or your accident benefits. So even a passenger whose pain and suffering claim is modest can still recover substantial income loss and future care through the tort claim, and separately draw on accident benefits.

Illustrative examples: who pays in four common situations

The following are illustrations only. They are not real clients, and they are not predictions about any particular case. They exist to show how the two tracks and the priority ladder play out with different facts.

The carless commuter (Uber driver at fault). Priya does not own a car and takes Uber to work. Her Uber driver runs a stop sign and is T boned. Priya fractures her wrist and develops chronic neck pain. On the accident benefits track, she has no policy of her own and no household policy, so she drops to the second rung of the ladder and claims her benefits from Uber's fleet insurer, Economical or Definity. Her medical and rehabilitation care and, if needed, attendant care are covered. On the tort track, because the Uber driver caused the crash, she sues the Uber driver, and the fleet policy's liability coverage answers the claim for her pain and suffering, income loss, and future care.

The car owner in a Lyft (other motorist at fault). Marcus owns a car and has his own auto policy, but he took a Lyft home after a late shift. Another driver blows a red light and hits the Lyft. On the accident benefits track, Marcus has his own policy, so he sits on the first rung and claims his benefits from his own insurer, even though his car was parked at home. On the tort track, the other motorist caused the crash, so Marcus sues that motorist and that motorist's insurer responds. If the investigation later shows the Lyft driver was also partly to blame, Marcus can add the Lyft driver as a defendant.

The student living at home (shared fault). Amrita is a student with no car and no policy of her own, but she lives with her parents, who have auto insurance. She is hurt in an Uber crash where both her Uber driver and another driver were careless. On the accident benefits track, because she is a dependant insured under her parents' policy, that policy sits on the first rung and pays her benefits, which after July 1, 2026 can matter a great deal if her parents bought the optional income replacement coverage and she has to miss school and part time work. On the tort track, she sues both drivers, and the court apportions fault between them.

The passenger with no income replacement (post reform gap). Devon does not own a car, lives alone, has no household policy, and is badly hurt in a Lyft crash on a trip taken after July 1, 2026. He cannot work for months. On the accident benefits track he claims against Aviva as Lyft's fleet insurer, and his medical, rehabilitation, and attendant care are covered because those benefits are mandatory. But because income replacement is now an optional benefit reserved for a policy's own insureds, and Devon is only a passenger on the fleet policy, there may be no income replacement benefit available to him at all. His route to compensation for lost income runs through the tort claim against the at fault driver, which makes getting that claim right, and getting advice early, especially important.

What if the at fault driver was uninsured or drove off?

Sometimes the driver who caused the crash cannot be made to pay through the ordinary route, either because they had no insurance or because they fled and were never identified. A rideshare passenger is not left without options in that situation.

If another motorist caused the crash but was uninsured, or if they were unidentified because they fled, coverage can come from the accident benefits and liability protections that respond to uninsured and unidentified motorist situations, layered through the same priority analysis we have already walked through. Where no insurer is available at all, the last resort is the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund, a government fund that steps in when there is genuinely no insurance to respond. These claims have their own notice requirements and their own procedural traps, and they are among the situations where getting a lawyer involved early is not optional advice but practical necessity, because a missed notice can forfeit the claim. If you were a passenger in a hit and run, or the at fault driver turns out to be uninsured, treat it as urgent.

What you can still claim, even if you assumed you could not

This is the reassurance section, and for rideshare passengers it is a long list, because passengers are in a strong position more often than they realize.

• Even if you do not own a car and have no insurance of your own, you are covered. The priority ladder drops you to the rideshare vehicle's fleet insurer, and your mandatory medical, rehabilitation, and attendant care benefits are there.
• Even if the driver of your own rideshare caused the crash, you can still claim. You are not stuck because it was your own driver, you sue that driver, and the fleet liability policy responds.
• Even if you never learned who the other driver was, because they fled, there is a route through uninsured and unidentified motorist coverage and, if all else fails, the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund.
• Even if your pain and suffering claim is blocked by the threshold or shrunk by the deductible, your income loss, your future care costs, and your accident benefits are separate and are not touched by the threshold.
• Even if the insurers are fighting about who pays, the pay first, argue later rule in O. Reg. 283/95 means one of them has to keep your benefits flowing while they sort it out.

Passengers rarely walk away from a rideshare crash with nothing to claim. The mistake is assuming you are not covered and never asking.

Deadlines: the clock is already running

Rideshare crashes come with the same unforgiving deadlines as any Ontario auto claim, and some of them arrive far sooner than the two year limitation people vaguely remember. Miss the early ones and you can lose benefits you were entitled to.

Two practical points. First, on the accident benefits track, the seven day notice period is short, and for a rideshare passenger the very first task is figuring out which insurer to notify, your own if you have one, otherwise the fleet insurer. Getting the application in front of the right insurer promptly is what triggers the pay first rule and gets your treatment funded. Second, the two year limitation to sue can feel far away, but the evidence you need, the trip record, the identity of the drivers, the vehicle details, and the medical documentation, is easiest to gather in the first weeks, and it gets harder every month you wait. For more on this, see our guide on how long you have to sue after a car accident in Ontario.

How to protect your claim after a rideshare crash

You cannot change how the crash happened. You can protect the evidence and avoid the mistakes that hand the insurers easy arguments. If you are hurt as a rideshare passenger, and you are able to, the following steps matter.

• Save the trip in the app. This is the rideshare passenger's biggest advantage. The app records the trip, the driver, the vehicle, the route, and the exact time, all timestamped. Screenshot the trip receipt and the driver details and do not delete the ride. It is powerful, neutral proof that you were a passenger on an active trip.
• Get the drivers and vehicles identified. Note the rideshare driver's name and plate, and if another vehicle was involved, get its plate, driver, and insurance details. Photograph the scene and the vehicles if you can.
• Report and get checked out. Make sure the crash is reported, and see a doctor even if you feel only sore. Early medical records tie your injuries to the crash and start the paper trail the accident benefits and tort claims both rely on.
• Notify the right accident benefits insurer promptly. Do not sit on the seven day notice. If you are unsure which insurer sits first on the priority ladder, that is a question to bring to a lawyer immediately, not to guess at.
• Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer. You have duties to cooperate with your own accident benefits insurer, but you are not required to give a statement to the adverse insurer, and an early recorded statement is a common way claims get undercut. Our guide on giving a statement to an insurer explains the difference.
• Be careful with quick settlement offers. Because of the deductible cliff and the way future losses unfold over time, an early offer can be worth far less than it appears. See should I accept the insurer's first offer before you sign anything.
• Keep a record of the impact. Track missed work, tasks you can no longer do, and out of pocket costs. Both tracks compensate real world impact, and the file has to describe it.

How VC Lawyers can help

Rideshare claims sit on the seam between old insurance rules and a new way of getting around, and that seam is where injured passengers lose money, usually by claiming from the wrong insurer, missing an early deadline, or accepting an offer before the full value of the claim is clear. At VC Lawyers, we identify exactly which insurer sits first on your priority ladder, get your accident benefits application in front of that insurer so the pay first rule starts your funding, and build the medical evidence that lifts you out of the $3,500 minor injury cap when your injuries deserve it. On the tort side, we name the right at fault drivers, coordinate the two tracks so nothing falls through the gap, and value your pain and suffering with the deductible cliff in mind, while making sure your income loss and future care, which the threshold does not touch, are fully captured.

We work on a contingency fee basis for personal injury clients, which means no fees unless we recover for you, and the first consultation is free. If you were hurt as a passenger in an Uber or Lyft and you are not sure who pays, let us map it out for you before you talk to an adjuster. Contact VC Lawyers for a free consultation, or learn more about our personal injury practice.

This article is general information about Ontario law. It is not legal advice, and it does not create a lawyer and client relationship. Every claim turns on its own facts and medical evidence, the priority rules are technical, and the dollar figures change every year. For advice about your situation, speak with a lawyer.

Key terms explained

• Accident benefits (SABS). No fault benefits paid by an auto insurer regardless of who caused the crash, set out in the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, O. Reg. 34/10. They cover medical and rehabilitation care, attendant care, and, if the coverage was bought, income replacement and other benefits.
• Tort claim. The lawsuit against the person who caused the crash. It compensates pain and suffering, income loss, future care, and out of pocket losses, and it is where the injury threshold and deductible live.
• Priority of payment rule. The rule in section 268 of the Insurance Act that decides which insurer pays your accident benefits when more than one could. For a passenger, it usually points to your own insurer or the rideshare vehicle's insurer.
• Occupant. A person in or on an automobile, including a passenger. Occupants have their own rung on the priority ladder.
• Insured. A person covered by an auto policy, which includes the named insured, their spouse, and their dependants, even when hurt as a passenger in a different vehicle.
• Fleet policy. The commercial auto insurance that Uber and Lyft carry to cover their trips in Ontario, through Economical or Definity for Uber and Aviva for Lyft.
• O. Reg. 283/95. The regulation on disputes between insurers. It makes the insurer that receives your application pay benefits while any priority dispute is arbitrated between the insurers, so you are not caught in the middle.
• Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund. A government fund of last resort that responds when there is genuinely no insurer available to pay, for example after a hit and run by an uninsured driver.
• The injury threshold. The legal gate in section 267.5 of the Insurance Act that an injury must clear before pain and suffering can be recovered in an auto lawsuit. It applies to passengers too.
• Statutory deductible. The fixed amount, $47,913.01 in 2026, subtracted from a pain and suffering award that clears the threshold. It disappears once the award exceeds $159,708.71.
• Minor Injury Guideline (MIG). A $3,500 cap on accident benefits treatment funding for injuries classed as minor. Serious injuries fall outside it and can access much larger pools.
• Accident, SABS definition. Under section 3(1) of the Schedule, an incident in which the use or operation of an automobile directly causes an impairment. A passenger hurt in a collision clearly qualifies.