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An Arizona Uber driver left passengers fearing for their lives after he raced across lanes, mounted a sidewalk, and allegedly hit speeds of up to 100mph.
Yuki Momohara and her boyfriend, Aaron, filmed their horrific ordeal after getting into the driver’s car on December 19.
The couple were picked up in Midtown Phoenix by the male driver who quickly began driving erratically.
‘Slow down,’ Aaron can be heard telling the driver as he veered right to take a highway exit going 60mph, according to the speedometer seen in the video.
As he approached, the driver nearly ran into the side wall before taking a right at Aaron’s command after heading in the wrong direction.
‘Take a right, right!’ Momohara can be heard saying.
‘Just stopped the car, dude,’ Aaron demanded to no response from the driver, who kept going.
The motorist then crashed onto the sidewalk narrowly avoiding a street sign after he tried to respond to a pop-up notification from his Uber app.
Yuki Momohara and her boyfriend, Aaron, got picked up in Midtown Phoenix by an unidentified driver on December 19. Within minutes, he was swerving through lanes, hitting sidewalks, and driving erratically video showed
‘Holy s**t,’ Momohara said. ‘Stop the car, stop the car!’
‘Hit the f**king brakes, dude,’ Aaron said. ‘Hit the brakes.’
They threatened to call the police as they begged him to turn right onto a side street and let them out. The driver kept going until they both started yelling at him.
‘I’m going to f**k you up, put that s**t in park,’ Aaron told the driver.
Momohara quickly exited the vehicle, while Aaron said: ‘Are you alright, dude?’
The driver grunted as Momhara begged her boyfriend to get out of the man’s vehicle. The man eventually mumbled a response to him as the video cut off.
‘The guy told him: “If you don’t get out of the vehicle, I’m going to hurt you.” He started to press on the gas, so my boyfriend said: “Okay, I’ll get out,”‘ Momohara told AZ Family.
But the peril continued after the couple tried to dial 911 and the driver sped off, picking up another couple of passengers minutes later.
The driver eventually stopped after the couple begged him to pull over. But minutes later he picked up Eva Carlson and her friend and allegedly took them on an equally dangerous ride
Eva Carlson and her friend claim that within minutes they began to realize something was wrong and alleged they watched the speedometer climb to 100mph before the driver almost rear-ended a car on the highway.
‘I had never been in a situation like that before. It was scary,’ she told AZ Family.
Momohara reported the driver after getting out of his vehicle and but the driver had already disappeared before authorities arrived.
‘Uber later told us they would make sure we’re never paired with this driver again and that they’d “review the video,” but situations like this raise serious concerns,’ Momohara wrote on Instagram.
‘If passengers are put in danger, driving privileges should be suspended until fully reviewed.’
She said her Uber app had even detected what it believed to be a crash during their ride due to the driver’s erratic behavior.
‘Ride-share companies need stronger hiring processes and faster responses when people’s lives are at risk!’ she wrote.
Uber replied to the video: ‘Hi Yuki, this is incredibly concerning to see. We prioritize the safety of all our users, and this type of behavior is not acceptable. A specialized team is actively investigating this trip and will reach out to the account holder.’
‘I had never been in a situation like that before. It was scary,’ Eva Carlson said about her ride
The driver was eventually deactivated, AZ family said.
Uber told the Daily Mail: ‘We prioritize the safety of all our users, and this type of behavior is unacceptable. After investigating the rider’s report, the driver was deactivated from the Uber platform.’
The Daily Mail has contacted Momohara and Phoenix Police for comment.
Last month, Uber received backlash after The New York Times published an article about the company allowing violent felons and those accused of rape to drive on its platform.
The Times found that Uber allowed drivers with violent pasts to drive as long as the criminal activity – such as child abuse, stalking, and assault – happened at least seven years ago.
The ride-share platform also only checks in the current state of residence. Its background checks do not cross state lines, meaning crimes that happened in a different state can go unnoticed by those applying to be driving.
Uber’s background checking system has led to many lawsuits, especially from women, who say they have allowed unsafe drivers on the platform.
Momohara reported the driver and called 911, but the man was still allowed to drive. His account was later deactivated
In 2022, more than 500 women sued Uber, saying they were sexually assaulted by drivers, as well as kidnapped and harassed, among other crimes.
Uber’s Head of Safety, Hannah Nilles, told The Times that the seven-year mark ‘strikes the right balance between protecting public safety and giving people with older criminal records a chance to work and rebuild their lives.’
‘A lifetime exclusion for every criminal offense would unfairly prevent people from finding jobs long after they’ve served their time.’
