Uber shaken by dangerous drivers
In Kalamazoo Michigan, Jason Brian Dalton, 45, picked up several passengers in his car. He drove erratically, ran multiple red lights, swerved on the road, and refused to stop to let the passengers out, forcing them to jump out of the car for their safety. Later that day, Dalton switched cars, and drove around Kalamazoo, shooting at strangers, leaving six people dead. He was an Uber driver.
Many teenagers and young adults are using Uber nowadays, as it seems to be the most convenient way for people to travel locally. However, recent incidents involving the unsafe state of Uber drivers has led the public to cast aspersions on the transportation service.
Uber is essentially the modern day taxi service. People use the Uber app on their smartphone to request a ride, and their location is automatically shared with the closest Uber drivers. In a payment process much quicker than that of traditional taxi services, Uber automatically transfers money from your credit card on account to their drivers’ account, so cash is unnecessary.
Grace Pratt, senior, used an Uber driver so her and her brother could get from their hotel in Fort Lauderdale to an airport. In light of recent events, she’s not sure she would feel completely safe in an Uber again.
“It makes me worry because there aren’t as many checks with respect to taxi drivers,” Pratt said. However, she does understand that this is not solely a problem involved with Uber drivers. “There’s a risk whenever you get into anybody’s car anywhere, so it doesn’t deter me completely.”
Chloe Diestel, senior, a previous Uber user, agrees with Pratt and understands the risk of using any transportation service. “Any driver you get, no matter what company it’s from or anywhere you go, there is always danger,” Diestel said. “You always run the risk of having someone who is trying to hurt you or getting in a bad situation.”
The incidents involving the unstable conditions of Uber drivers don’t fall solely on Jason Dalton.
Robert Wing, former assistant principal of Sycamore Middle School in Newbury Park, was an Uber driver who was on duty and on his way to pick up a client when he was pulled over and arrested for a DUI. Police found beer cans in his car and tested his Blood Alcohol Content to be 0.25 percent, far greater than the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
Uber released statements claiming they have a zero tolerance policy for any driver under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and said that relations with Wing had been severed.
Despite the incidents involving Dalton and Wing, Diestel believes that the company has far too many positive qualities for people to not use the services. “Just from one or two bad Uber drivers you can’t discount all the good they’ve done for people,” Diestel said.
Uber has apologized for the unprofessional and horrendous actions of their drivers, yet the company has taken no further steps recently to improve the safety of their clients and ensure their drivers are mentally stable and capable of performing their job at the highest level.
Pratt recognizes it is hard to monitor people’s actions, but she believes the safety of the passengers can improve. “The biggest thing to do would be to have a larger vetting process and different types of licenses and background checks that you have to have before you become an Uber driver and then routinely when you are one,” Pratt said.
Diestel hopes people who use Ubers are more aware of the driver’s condition and take advantage of Uber’s response system and let the company know of any issues. “Uber does have a really good reporting system where you get feedback right away, and they give you refunds if anything at all is wrong,” Diestel said.
The company argues that no one can foresee the future, and the horrible actions by its seemingly competent employees are impossible to guess, simply based on background checks.
Puri hopes that the number of Uber drivers who put their passengers in danger remains close to zero, and he believes that could be possible since the drivers understand their responsibilities. “Uber drivers know that the lives of other people are in their hands,” Puri said.
