TORONTO -- A student who says she feared for her life when her Uber driver went over double the speed limit is furious the company only offered a $5 voucher after she first called to complain.
Thornhill, Ont. woman Alanna Moness said she was heading home after a night out with her friends in Toronto in the early hours of Dec. 22 when she called an Uber.
"We took the Don Valley Parkway home, he was weaving in and out of cars going 140 km/h," the 23-year-old student told CTV News Toronto on Friday.
"Once we got to the suburban areas, that's when everything started happening. There are three stop signs between the highway and my house and he ran all three."
Screenshots taken from the traffic app Waze during Moness' Uber trip appear to show the car was travelling 85 km/h in a 40 km/h residential zone in Thornhill. Another screenshot appeared to show the driver going 92 km/h in a 50 km/h zone.
Video taken by Moness during the trip also appears to show the driver going through at least one stop sign without braking.
She said she didn't confront the driver during the trip because she was alone and was worried he would get angry with her.
"I am a young woman, I didn't want to open my mouth, I was by myself," she said.
Moness said she texted her brother during the trip and told him to come outside when she arrived home.
"I told the driver, when my brother was with me, that I am going to report him because I've never felt so unsafe in my life but he didn't seem to care."
Moness said when she got home she contacted Uber's emergency line to report what had happened but was surprised by their response.
"They just apologized for the inconvenience and gave me a $5 credit," she said. "I reached out three times but they said they had already provided the appropriate adjustment."
Moness said Uber told her they had taken steps to minimize the chances of her being paired with the driver in the future.
After CTV News Toronto contacted Uber for comment, the company completely reimbursed Moness' $47.28 ride. A spokeswoman also said they have now removed the driver's access to Uber.
"We recognize the role we have in contributing to the safety of everyone on the platform and the communities where we operate. Once we learned of this report, we removed this driver's access to the app as we look into this further," an Uber spokeswoman said.
Moness said she also contacted York Regional Police and filed a report with their Road Watch division. On Friday, she said she received a response from police asking for the videos and photos she took during the trip.
Police confirmed to CTV News Toronto a report has been filed and the case is under investigation.
GummyKibble on January 13rd, 2020 at 15:35 UTC »
My Lyft driver hit a pedestrian. In our case, we were going at a reasonable speed down a city street, and some extremely drunk or high woman stepped out from around a parked SUV, approximately 15 feet in front of us. Spider Man couldn’t have stopped in time. The drunk lady bounced off our car, then the pavement, then stood up and yelled at us some before staggering through three more lanes of traffic and disappearing into a crowd. Because there was literally nothing else to do (find a policeman and tell them what exactly about the woman who got up and ran off?), we continued on to my stop which was just a couple of blocks away.
My driver was freaking the hell out - understandably - and was certain someone was going to turn her in for hitting a pedestrian and leaving the scene. We hung out for a while and talked to help her calm down, and I gave her my business card in case she needed a witness. Nothing ever came of it.
I know this didn’t have much to do with the article here, except as they’re both in the category of “Lyft/Uber rides you won’t forget for a long time”.
mf6689a on January 13rd, 2020 at 15:34 UTC »
A driver once pulled over and pissed in a bottle in front of me (not trying to hide a thing) so I let Uber know that probably isn’t the best behavior for a driver. They said “thanks, here’s a $5 voucher” and that was that. Stellar.
letdogsvote on January 13rd, 2020 at 14:24 UTC »
Their initial position was terrible. Guy drives 85 in a residential 40, blows through three stop signs, and Uber is like "What? We gave you a $5 voucher, now piss off."