A 28-year-old woman was forced to drive an Uber cab she booked after the driver continued to fall asleep while driving from Pune to Mumbai.
The incident came to light after Tejaswini Divya Naik tweeted a video of the incident along with a caption that read, “Thanking God I’m alive right now and I wasn’t asleep when this happened and that I know how to drive.@Uber. I am seething with anger right now. How dare they drive if they’re not well-rested? How dare they put anyone else’s life at risk?”
Naik had booked the cab from Pune to reach her destination at Andheri in Mumbai on February 21.
The six-second clip, which has now gone viral on social media, features the driver sleeping on the front seat. “Initially, the driver was constantly on the phone and I told him not to use the phone while driving. After he put the phone down, he started falling asleep,” she told. However, when the driver almost hit another car and a divider, Naik alleged, she suggested driving the car.
Watch the video here:
thanking god I’m alive right now and I wasn’t asleep when this happened & that I know how to drive.@Uber @Uber_Support @Uber_India I am seething with anger right now. how dare they drive if they’re not well rested? how dare they put anyone else’s life at risk?
— tejaswinniethepooh (@teja_main_hoon_) February 21, 2020
part 1 #uber pic.twitter.com/lUUFXpHCQS
“When he finally relented, I took the wheel and told him that he could sleep for half an hour as I would not drive for long because of my back problem,” Naik told the news agency. While Naik continued to drive, the driver kept talking on the phone and even praised her for her driving skills, she said.
However, when the driver finally slept, Naik clicked pictures and took a video of him sleeping as proof and later shared it on social media while alerting the cab company. The driver only woke up half an hour before reaching the destination and took over.
When contacted, Uber’s spokesperson, in an email stated, “This is a regrettable and concerning incident. Upon learning about this, the driver partner’s access to the app has been suspended.”