A man from Massachusetts is suing Uber for $63 million following a crash that left him paralyzed for life. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday by William Good whose life turned upside down following the Uber crash. Good is now a quadriplegic and blames the company for negligence in hiring because the driver’s past records showed an “alarming” driving history with over twenty situations. What the company was thinking while hiring a man with such appalling records is yet to be answered. And Uber has to answer that question since their negligence has brought the life of a man to an absolute standstill. Being a ride-hailing service, the safety and security of the customers should be the prime tenets of the company, and clearly Uber has failed to meet those requirements. The news was first reported by Boston Globe.
The What and Why
William Good booked an Uber on the 30th of April 2021 for a ride home from the restaurant where he worked. Little did he know that the ride was about to turn his life upside down. Good, in his complaint described the driver’s speed to be “so fast to be noticeably frightening.” The vehicle ended up crashing into a parked car, according to the complaint. Good slumped over after hitting his head on the passenger seat’s headrest and “knew immediately he was paralyzed.” The 31-year old will now be a quadriplegic for life, thanks to the stellar hiring strategies of the reputed company.
Having your fate altered completely just because of the carelessness of someone else is hard to come to terms with and Good is going through exactly the same. This is what he told the Boston Globe,
“It is a level of incapability that I am at. That was kind of the real heartbreak part, just coming to terms with these things I hadn’t thought of yet.”
The Uber driver’s past records show every reason why he shouldn’t be hired for a driving job at all. Over twenty citations in addition to failure to stop or yield aren’t exactly the qualities you might look for in a driver, and surprisingly he got the job. As per the lawsuit, it is also stated that the driver had taken a re-training course in the past as required by the state.
Uber refused to comment on the report owing to the pending litigation. Their claims that drivers go through two-part screening and tests still don’t answer the question at hand, neither does it justify the dire negligence on its part.
