Uber driver held for rash driving, injuring passengers in Lower Parel

Local Press Co 5-point Snippet:

1. 22-year-old Gangaram Ugale, a driver with taxi-aggregator Uber, was arrested driving rashly and causing a major accident on Saturday, leaving the passengers seriously injured.

2. Amit Mehta, CEO of Unived Sports, along with his friend had booked the Uber cab from Sakinaka. Around 3:30 pm, when the cab was on the last flyover before Palladium, Ugale decided to overtake the car in front of him and ended up crashing into a Maruti Zen. Both Mehta and his female friend sustained serious injuries. In the other car, the driver fractured his back while his other two passengers were severely injured and had to be rushed to the hospital, with one admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

3. According to Mehta, the absence of any ‘emergency response’ from Uber during the critical situation was most disappointing. After the accident, Mehta sent an email immediately to Uber reporting the matter, but to no avail. “It was only after I narrated the incident on the social media page (which went viral with more than 1,500 hits) that Uber officials responded and called me 24 hours after the incident. Prior to that, they were unwilling to call and had offered support only through emails,” Mehta told TOI.

4. Mehta claims that Uber lacks a quick response cell which assists passengers during critical and emergency situations. However, when TOI contacted the taxi-aggregator, they denied all the allegations leveled upon them by Mehta.

5. The company official stated that they had extended complete support to the victims and have already suspended the driver. Although the official acknowledged Mehta’s email, he told TOI, “Though the passenger did not make use of the IRT facility in the app, even if he sends us an email, we should have picked it up and responded immediately. This was a lapse on part of our customer-care official.”