‘I hope you get raped’ Uber driver tells woman'Claire' has deleted the app and encouraged her friends to do the sameOne woman’s Uber journey home turned into a nightmare when her driver allegedly took her miles out of her way, swore at her and said he hoped that she got raped.
The victim, a 31-year-old finance worker who does not want her identity made public but said we could call her ‘Claire’, called an Uber cab at 2.08am on Sunday morning to take her home from South Kensington to Islington.
Partway through her journey, she asked the driver to take her to her boyfriend’s house, also in Islington, instead - but soon realised he was taking a longer route than necessary.
Claire says that when she question him on this, “He started being extremely rude to me”.
“He was becoming more and more aggressive as the journey continued and told me to shut the f*** up, called me a bitch and when I asked him to please be quiet and just drive he then told me to get out the car for questioning him”.
Claire alleges that he ordered her out of the car and said “I hope you get raped”.
“I just wanted to get back safely so I asked him to please just drive me as he was being paid to do - which received more swearing but I got back in the end.”
The journey took 50 minutes instead of the usual 25, and when she arrived safely at her partner’s home safely, Claire immediately complained to Uber.
A spokesperson said she was ‘shocked’ by the driver’s comment and condemned his “highly inappropriate language”.
The company have apologised to the passenger, refunded her fare, and have ‘de-activated’ the driver while they investigate the incident.
Uber said: “We were all really shocked to hear of this unacceptable incident. We have been in touch with the rider to make sure she is okay. With any serious incident such as this we of course suspend the driver while we investigate thoroughly.”
Claire said she was ‘pretty shaken up’ but was glad it didn’t happen to someone more vulnerable. She is also ‘fearful’ that the aggressive driver has her home postcode.
Whilst the 31-year-old said “Uber’s customer service have actually been pretty good,” she has deleted her Uber app and account and encouraged friends to do the same.
“As for the driver - I’m not an awful person and I genuinely don’t want a person to lose their livelihood after stupid comments but some action obviously needs to be taken as he must think it’s okay to talk to women appallingly. I’ll certainly be interested to hear what Uber do about this.”
“It’s really awful and it’s made me wary of minicabs. I guess we’ve spent all these years being told not to get into unlicensed cars by the government but then we don’t know how well the Uber drivers are being screened! For the sake of a few extra pounds I’ll be taking black cabs from now on!”
This incident comes as black cab drivers gear up for a second protest aimed at raising awareness of safety risks in the city’s private hire vehicle business on May 26.
The United Cabbies’ Group has already held one demo to make the public aware of an official report which says only half of minicab passengers say they always feel safe.
source:
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