When you’ve had a bit too much to drink to get behind the wheel, you might get a cab or have Uber or Lyft pick you up. But police in Austin say one Lyft driver could’ve used a ride himself, after arresting him for allegedly driving while drunk with a passenger in his back seat.
The driver was arrested on March 8 for driving while under the influence — while, reports KHOU-11.
His passenger has been a Lyft customer for two years, and says he uses the service almost every day to get to work. He noticed something was off during the ride, saying the driver seemed to be unaware he was drifting into other lanes.
Things only went downhill from there, the passenger said, and he was about to ask the driver to stop. That’s when police noticed the driver’s behavior as well, and pulled over the car.
“The police stopped us and he was going for his insurance in the glove box and when he leaned over he smelled really heavily of beer,” said the passenger. “I did watch him do the sobriety test. It looked like he failed it pretty hard.”
A Lyft spokeswoman issued a statement about the incident, saying the company permanently removed the driver’s access to the Lyft platform.
“We have a strict zero-tolerance drug and alcohol policy for Lyft drivers and any behavior threatening the safety of a Lyft community member is not tolerated,” she said.
The passenger wants better background checks and policies. So far he’s been offered five free rides to make up for the incident, but he’d like more than that in the form of compensation.
“When you’re getting into a Lyft, you think that you have a safe ride,” he said, adding that those free rides don’t amount to much.
“Kind of puts a weird value on my life right?”
Lyft driver arrested for DWI with passenger in vehicle [KHOU-11]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
No comments:
Post a Comment