Anto Mathew says a trip he got last month ended up in a nightmare when a rift between his passenger and friends resulted in huge damage to his brand new car.
“On September 17th I got a trip from the Marion area in Adelaide. I picked the passenger around 10.30 am and drove him to Morphett Vale as per the request from Uber. He seemed to be very restless all the way and asked me to stop the music in the car,” Mr Mathew SBS Malayalam.
“After reaching the destination which was in front of a house, the passenger asked me to park the car to a spot he pointed which was around 75 meters away from where I stopped.
"I followed his instruction. I felt something is happening there that he didn’t want me to see. I became curious and looked through the rearview mirror inside the car to know what is happening out there.
Anto Mathew with his brand new car Source: Supplied
He described how he could see two men emerging from the house, then the three of them stood close to each other while exchanging something.
"All of a sudden my passenger snatched a packet from them, ran to the car and got into it. He cried out to me to drive away immediately accusing that the men were chasing him to kill him.”
“I felt frozen for a moment and as the passenger repeated the same request I could hear a number of very loud beats on my car and I could easily understand that the two attackers were beating at the same time.
"I quickly turned my head to see one of them breaking the driver side back rear window glass.
Source: Supplied
When they started walking towards me with the rods, I drove away with the passenger behind, he tells SBS Malayalam.
Mr Mathew described being in great mental agony and trauma at the time, stopping the car a kilometre away before calling the police.
"Meanwhile I could see him throwing outside a white substance from the packet which he was holding."
He says police arrived within 15 minutes and started taking statements together.
Source: Supplied
"But when I felt that the passenger is lying I insisted to take my statement separately," he said.
"I then contacted the insurance company and drove to the repair centre as directed by them. To my shock, I received a bill of $7,075.”
“Then I rang up Uber. They said since it is an issue between me and the passenger, they cannot provide much support. I was totally helpless,” he said.
However, he said that Uber told him that he could get compensation if the passenger was willing to pay. For this they asked him to take a few photos from the scene.
He says he went to the spot again the very next day to take photographs but says he was identified and approached by the same people who attacked his car.
“They identified me and were walking towards me. Seeing this I drove away in panic. I am scared now that they identified me.
'They now know my house'
"One of them even spotted me in front of my house. They now know my house. We live just three kilometres away from their place. So my family and I are very much worried about another attack.”
Mr Mathew says he then contacted the police and gave another written statement, but he says he and his family are now living with distress and fear of a second attack against them.
Source: Supplied
“I started my job as an Uber driver only to make both ends meet. But now I am scared to go back to work and we are living in fear,” he said.
"I am scared to go back to work but I am forced to do so as that is my situation. Out of fear, we have decided to sell our house and move to a safer place.”
Uber's response
SBS Malayalam contacted Uber for a reaction to the incident.
“When Anto originally contacted us this should have been escalated to a specialist team who handle serious matters like this one.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t escalated properly at the time of the report to our specialist team in Sydney - that has now been rectified and they are making contact with Anto as well as the rider involved,” an Uber spokesperson told SBS Malayalam.
However, after SBS Malayalam contacted Uber they gave $7,075 the full amount of the repair to Mr Mathew.
“After SBS Malayalam contacted, I got an email from Uber with the offer of $7,075 as gift money. They credited the amount to my account last day,” says Mr Mathew.
South Australia police have also confirmed that the matter has been reported and is under investigation.
Attack on Uber drivers not uncommon
While there have been reported cases of assaults by Uber drivers on passengers, attacks or abuse towards Uber drivers are not uncommon in Australia.
In 2018 a 31-year-old Uber driver was left badly injured and thousands of dollars out of pocket after he was attacked while picking up a passenger in Melbourne, SBS Punjabi has reported.
A survey conducted by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) last year reported 969 incidents of harassment and assault, almost 30 per cent of respondents had received racist comments and over 40 per cent had had their property damaged.
However, Uber says it supports their drivers in many ways when they encounter such situations.
“We absolutely condemn any violent activity or threats of violence towards any driver-partner or their belongings,” Uber told SBS Malayalam.
A screen shot of the Uber taxi app. Source: AAP
"In 2018 we rolled out safety products and features for driver-partners after receiving their feedback. We launched Share My Trip to give driver-partners the ability to share information about their trip like where they are on the map. We also launched an emergency assistance button as part of an in-app safety toolkit for both riders and driver-partners.”
“Driver-partners also benefit from many of the same transparency and accountability features that riders do, such as the fact that every trip is GPS tracked.
“We also have a dedicated law enforcement team who are on call to work with police 24/7 to respond to urgent matters and assist in investigations,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement given to SBS Malayalam.
