Posted on 07/13/2023 12:37:27 PM PDT by NohSpinZone
A lawsuit filed against San Francisco ride-hailing behemoth Uber alleges that a 21-year-old Southern California man was killed after a driver abandoned him on the side of a highway.
Cory Hunter, a 21-year-old Corona resident, was killed in May after he was struck by a motorist in a Toyota Corolla while he was walking in the fast lane of Highway 91, according to news reports at the time.
The suit, filed by Hunter’s parents, allege that the Uber driver left Hunter on the side of the road while he was “disoriented,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by McClatchy. The outlet reports that Hunter’s family is accusing Uber of negligence and wrongful death. An Uber spokesperson told SFGATE that the company cannot comment on the lawsuit.
Hunter and a group of five friends were out drinking the night before in downtown Fullerton, about 25 miles southeast from Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. While riding in an Uber vehicle with the group at about 2:30 a.m., according to details of the lawsuit provided to the Daily News, the driver pulled over to let one of the passengers vomit on the side of the road. Hunter, who the suit says was asleep during the ride, was reportedly told to exit the car alongside the other passengers. According to the suit, Hunter’s friends and the driver agreed that he had disappeared and called for him.
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Hunter was struck by the Toyota Corolla just before 3 a.m.; the driver of the Toyota Corolla that struck him immediately exited the vehicle and is not under investigation, a California Highway Patrol spokesperson told McClatchy.
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The family is seeking damages totaling just over $25,000 from Uber, the Uber driver and the Toyota driver, according to McClatchy.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Those Uber drivers and Toyota Corollas are more dangerous to liberal communist, democrazy than a whole slew of Glocks and AR-15s.
I won’t use Uber. I don’t trust someone who works on that basis - and unfortunately, I’ve known a couple of people who drive for Uber and Lyft with whom I wouldn’t like to drive even as a friend.
We used to have great taxi service in my area; but for some reason, after Covid hit, all of the old, good cab companies - several of which had been here for decades - became extremely unreliable. You’d call for one, and were not sure anyone would answer the phone at the cab company; and if you got where you were going, you couldn’t be sure you’d get home. Everyone was using Uber.
I haven’t needed a cab during the past year, but I hope it’s gotten better.
$25,000 seems low to me. If Uber had been smart, they’d have paid at least that with a confidentiality agreement. I expect Uber will spend a lot more than $25,000 on lawyers.
I was wondering the same thing. Maybe that’s the compensatory ask and the punitive sum will be far greater.
I’m gonna guess the drunken “ friends” told the Uber driver to leave their “ buddy”
In a fictional story I saw recently, one of the characters commented that when drunk from drinking too much he does not take a cab home; he waks to the nearest hotel/motel and gets a room, where he sleeps it off and then gets a cab. I thought that sounded like a good idea, if you let yourself get drunk.
I admit, I drove Uber and I ditched drunken passengers in the middle of the night when they asked to be let out to pee
There is no difference between an Uber driver and a cab driver. Why you would trust one and not the other is beyond me
“The family is seeking damages totaling just over $25,000 from Uber, the Uber driver and the Toyota driver, according to McClatchy.”
1. As always, the “facts” presented here are from the lawsuit, and thus present only the plaintiff’s side of the story.
2. Interesting that the “friends” are not named in the suit. They should have been minding their drunk pal, not a Uber driver. The person who had to vomit and caused the vehicle to pull over shares some blame, as do the rest and the deceased guy — he chose to go out and get plastered.
3. I agree with other commenters that $25k for a wrongful death is suspiciously low. That says: “We have no case, so give us something to go away since that’s cheaper than defending a bs claim.” The Insurance companies will find settling just dandy given that after the deductibles, they will only eat $3k to $4k each.
killed in May after he was struck by a motorist in a Toyota Corolla while he was walking in the fast lane of Highway 91
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Right there is the cause. He was in the fast lane, he should have been running.
I believe $25,000 is a statutory threshold. Later on the suit will be amended to be much higher but for the filing you don’t need to specify an amount just whether or not it’s greater than 25k.
Once word got out, everyone would be hounding them. Seems there is more to the story than written.
If the person who needed to vomit was not next to the door, whoever was in his way would need to exit. How is it the driver’s responsibility to keep track of 5 adults who should’ve been keeping track of each other? At least one of them should’ve stayed sober. Drivers drive; they’re not drunk-sitters.
Oops, make that 6 people, and why aren’t the parents suing them? Who got each other drunk?
I remember seeing a TV story about what a London cabbie had to go through to be licensed & in America are pretty non-existent. This was way before Uber.
That makes sense, even if the basis for blaming uber is weak.
Our cab drivers here used to be full-time employees of long-established companies, well vetted and bonded.
Dude!
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