A Message to My Fellow Rideshare Drivers
The Hidden Reality of Rideshare Driving
We as drivers are often put in scary and dangerous cliff hanging situations that challenge our wits, safety and well-being. Unfortunately, this reality mostly goes unnoticed and uncompensated for by the public at large and the rideshare giants.
A Driver’s True Story: When Safety Meets Reality
A Personal Account That Changed Everything
I remember my first harrowing experience as a driver, one I’ll never forget, as it feels like it happened yesterday. It was a dry, very chilly fall Friday night, and I’d been driving for a few hours, when I pulled up around 3:00 am to wait for my passenger outside a small club/lounge in a suburban residential neighborhood.
There was a large empty parking lot surrounding the spot, and as I initially approached, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that I had passed by a young lady sprawled out on her back, off in the distance, laying in the middle of the empty parking lot to the club I’d pulled up to. I thought little of it, except that it was kind of strange, yet none of my business.
After patiently waiting for nearly 5-minutes and nearing the mandatory time lapse to cancel the ride and receive my cancellation fee, I turned to look towards the passenger side. To my shock, less than two feet away from the back passenger door, I see two men dragging the semi-unconscious lady who was just sprawled out in the parking lot, towards the car, barely holding her weight upright, by each man draping one of her arms over each of their shoulders and dragging her along. It looked like a scene out of the movies, and before I could ask the men questions or say anything, they’d already swiftly opened my back door and shoved her into the back seat of the car without saying a word. They quickly closed the door and meandered back into the club as if nothing had happened out of the ordinary.
I was in shock as there I suddenly was, parked with an unknown semi-conscious, voice slurring, young lady, that has no business being in the condition she’s in, randomly shoved into the back of my car, who is now my responsibility. Plus, it gets worse. In addition to the young lady being semi-conscious, she was also very limp and couldn’t sit up straight. She slumped down in the back seat as I began to pull off. I then realized she likely was given a “pill” or “Roofie” from someone in the club, and was now almost paralyzed, which is why she was sprawled out on her back in the parking lot.
My mind just prayed that her address in the app was the correct one, as the two men who put her in my car didn’t say anything, and she wasn’t in any state to confirm matters. As I nervously navigated her to the drop off destination, throughout the trip she kept profusely apologizing, saying “I’m so sorry” over and over, her voice severely slurring as she slumped over in the back seat into her own lap, apparently unable to move. I was certain she was internally embarrassed, confused and terrified all at the same time, despite being barely conscious and unable to move. My good Samaritan instincts kicked in, as I reassured her the entire ride that everything would be ok.
When we arrived at the drop-off destination, she was unconscious by that point. So, I took a deep breath, said a brief prayer and left a message on a phone voice recorder app I’d downloaded – with details of the passenger’s name in the app, drop off location and description of the situation, for some sort of evidence and proof in case things went left – for at the time the rideshare giants offered very limited driver safety tools and resources.
I then walked around to the back of the car to try to help her out of the car. She was unconscious and couldn’t move, so I thankfully woke her up, wrapped her arm around my shoulder and almost carried her to her destination (as she could barely walk) by traveling nearly 25 yards across the lawn and up the front porch steps. My heart was racing with anxiety, as I prayed: one, for my safety; two, that no concerned neighbors called the police out of suspicion; and three, that the drop off address in the app was in fact her place.
As we reached the top of the porch steps, and I released her slightly, she completely collapsed down to her knees, slumped over and her purse dropped – with credit cards, contents and keys all spilling out on the porch. I instantly grabbed the keys off the porch and luckily was able to unlock the front door. Suddenly my mind started racing and my heart began pounding as I immediately thought about the daunting consequences I potentially faced – “what if a dog or man comes racing to the door, or what if an alarm goes off once I open the door?”
I cleared my thoughts and my mind zoned in. I found and put the correct key in the lock! I then opened the door slightly ajar, stood her up and placed her gently right inside the doorway, perched upright with her back pressed against the wall. I surely was not going to enter her home and take her inside, as that also could have been very dangerous for me for many reasons. As I turned to leave, she stared at me helplessly unable to move her body or head, while still perched up against the wall, with a dazed yet frightened look in her eyes. I then said a few more reassuring words to her, locked the door handle from the inside, placed her purse and belongings next to her feet on the floor, closed the door behind me, quickly returned to my car, and drove off, all while giving thanks to the above, for things to have worked out safely.
“Wow, that could’ve been a disaster,” I thought to myself.
