Miss the government-claim timeline and the case can be thrown out before fault is ever decided.

What should have happened right away was figuring out who controlled the road or vehicle. In Davenport, that could mean the City of Davenport, Scott County, or the State of Iowa if the crash involved a state road, a failed guardrail, bad signage, or a bridge approach. That matters because Iowa uses different rules for government defendants than for a private driver or Uber's insurer.

If the claim is against the State of Iowa - for example, an Iowa DOT road hazard or guardrail issue - the injured person generally must file an administrative claim with the Iowa State Appeal Board first under the Iowa Tort Claims Act. The deadline is usually 2 years from the injury, and a lawsuit usually cannot be filed first. The Board gets time to act before a court case can move forward.

If the claim is against a city or county, such as a Davenport street defect or school-zone signal problem, the path is different. Iowa municipal claims are also commonly governed by a 2-year limit, but the city or county does not use the same State Appeal Board process.

What to do now:

• Get the crash report number and confirm the exact location.
• Identify who owned the road, sign, guardrail, or vehicle involved.
• Preserve photos, rideshare trip records, hospital bills, and names of witnesses.
• Check whether Medicare, Medicaid, or health insurance liens are building during treatment.

What comes next is usually two tracks at once: a claim against the driver/Uber insurance and, if the facts support it, a separate government claim. That split is what catches people off guard. A passenger on I-80, a Davenport bridge approach, or a black-ice stretch near the Mississippi River may have multiple insurance and liability issues at the same time.

If she was badly hurt and transferred to University of Iowa Hospitals, keep every billing record now. During tax season, medical debt and reimbursement claims start hitting fast, even while liability is still being sorted out.