SO ... WHO SHOULD PAY, REALLY??

 So, if youa know me, you know I s6art my days with a cup of tea and Good Morning America (ABC) .... well today, I caught a story on a woman who had a horrible run-in with an Uber driver ....

Well, her and her friend had the run in, but she ac5ually DIED because of it ...

And Uber KNEW this particular driver had several complaints against him before.

I'm not going to get ahead of myself .... I'm going to bury the story, but at leas5t I will tell you the outcome in the end.

So, here's what happened ...

This gal and her firend had goune out for the eventing, and "over endulged" shall we say - so they called an Uber to get them in Los Angeles - this is kind of important - and the FRIEND got sick in the back of the car.

Okay - that would be enough to tick off any driver, but you have to remembe that driver's have the right to DENY SERVICE before picking up the passenger ... this guy did not.

During the ride he begins to shout and cuss them out ...

He then proceeds to PULL OVER on the FREEWAY - we are talking 55-65 mph traffic here ... demands they PAY and then proceeds o KICK THEM OUT OF THE CAR!!!

So, while they are arguing/pleading with him not to leave them there .... This lady gets HIT by ANOTHER CAR .... yup, she ends up dead - they did not mention anything about an ambulance, so I do not know where she was pronounced deceased - but you'd think the driver of the other car would have called to report it .... they did not say.

So - the family of this poor woman .... these poor people ... have been going round and round with Uber trying to settle this thing.

Well, it wound up in COURT 

and it turned out the driver had at least 6 other complaints from passengers ... from demanding extra money during the drive to nearly hittung pedestrians to erratic behavior ... and a note from Uber saying he would get some sort of coaching on the policies ....

There was NOTTHING WRITTEN in his record to PROVE he had gotten such an intervention ... 

Holy Crap!!! So the family, who had already lost their daughter, has been getting told by Uber that they are not responsible for 2 years (by the sounds of it), and then to find this out?!?~!

Wait - it gets better ...

Uber actually had the GULL to step up before the Judge and say they weren't liable because, technically, driver's are INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS .... which if you know anything about the way the courts in Minneapolis looked at them already, they are NOT strictly Independent. (I think I wrote about this one before a few years back, if so I will link it).

Well the judge call BS on that, and orde4ed a JOINT judgement ... both the driver and Uber are being held liable.

Now - I do not know if this is just Uber's portion, or if it can be split between them ... usually it's up to the winner to chose how it gets split ... and they had so many HOLES in the story that I have no idea the fate of the Uber driver, nor the driver who hit her, BUT 

ABC said - they said this - that Uber was told to pay $40 MILLION ...

Uber, for their part, tried to get a GAG ORDER attached to the settlement - really, guys?? - but the Judge said NO.

So they put out a statement (rather a long one, three placards worth, I will put // at the end of each placard)

"No family should have to suffer the loss of a child, and our thoughts continue to be with the Normandin-Parker family.// While we respect the arbitration process, we believe the arbitrator was wrong in holding Uberr legally responsible for the tragic eventts of that night.// We have continued to strengthen our approach to safety over the yeasrs ... including additional guidance to drivers about avoiding drop-offs in unsafe locations."

Did you get that?  They felt that they were released from responsibility because they told a group of people "don't do that" ... um .... NO - he didn't listen ... and you knew this at least 6 times already!!!!!

So - where did he drop them off?  I guess I forgot to tell you that part ... it was at Gore Point ... on State Route 73, where the highway and the off ramp meet - it's supposed to be a small triangular bit ... but the thing is ... it is ILLEGAL to STOP THERE, much less let anyone off there ....

I think they better look into this guys driving history as well ... I wonder how he even got a liscense to begin with!!!

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