In the same way there are a lot of unanswered questions over the liability and indemnity for autonomous vehicles, the same questions are also plaguing the growing use of drones.
You can buy outdoor drones and use them with barely any restrictions, but let’s face it; they can be dangerous and are known to come down unexpectedly or end up out of control.
With companies like Amazon wanting to use them for delivering parcels, we can safely say that the insurance and liability ought to rest with them; but what about the drones being used for personal use causing someone some serious damages?
The massive boom in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles means there are potentially thousands in our skies at any given time. They can be fun for personal use, and they can be useful for businesses too, but safety concerns must be addressed.
If it’s a company using a drone and an employee of the company causes an accident, the employer – i.e. the business – can be held vicariously liable. Their insurance ought to cover them, so there shouldn’t be any concerns there. But, when it comes to drones being used for personal use, how does a victim of an accident involving these devices go about claiming for an injury?
Being hit by a drone could cause a person serious harm, and these machines have caused road traffic accidents as well by coming down onto traffic filled roads. This is no laughing matter. If you were ever the victim of a car crash and ended up badly injured with a written-off vehicle because a drone hit your car and caused you to lose control, you’d be seeking compensation.
An accident victim can pursue a claim for personal injury compensation against a person, but unless the person has finances or insurance to cover them, you’re probably going to struggle to find a lawyer to help you. If the prospects of receiving any money are low, the exercise of pursuing a claim may not be worth it.
It poses an obvious problem and an unanswered question: “what will we need to do about liability and indemnity for the use of drones that are set to boom even more in the near-future?”
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