I’m not often at a loss for words, but this story leaves me speechless. So a woman is in labor and her husband calls for an urgent Uber ride for the 3 mile ride to the hospital in New York. Sounds reasonable. But no, David Lee told Fortune that when the Uber driver drove up and saw Lee’s wife throwing up on the sidewalk, he refused to let her in the car. Lee told the driver that his wife wouldn’t get sick again and he even promised to compensate the driver if she did. Again, sounds reasonable to me. But not to this driver, he drove off and to add insult to injury, charged them $13 for his time!
What?!? Yep. Hard to imagine than any human being would abandon a woman in labor, but did you know it’s also against the law? City and state mandate that drivers give rides to women in labor. Luckily the couple was able to get another Uber driver to take them to the hospital and Lee’s wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
You’ll be glad to know that Uber did eventually refund the $13 and now have released a statement:
“Denying service to a passenger in labor is unacceptable: it goes against our code of conduct and the standard of service our riders rely on. We extend our deepest apologies to both riders and have taken action to respond to this complaint. We are glad that the rider’s next driver was professional and courteous.”
Wow.
