Two separate groups of Uber passengers say they endured terrifying rides in Phoenix last month after their driver allegedly acted dangerously behind the wheel.
Yuki Momohara told AZ Family that she and her boyfriend were riding in an Uber on Dec. 19 when she suddenly feared for her safety.
“He went from the complete right lane to the left lane to go onto the exit, and then he almost hit a wall,” Momohara said.
Video allegedly recorded inside the vehicle and shared by the outlet shows the car swerving across lanes, narrowly missing highway barriers, and at one point driving over a sidewalk. In the footage, Momohara and her boyfriend can be heard urgently pleading with the driver to stop, repeatedly telling him to slow down and take a turn.
“I am clearly just freaking out and asking this man to stop the vehicle,” Momohara said while describing the video. “At that moment, panic started to hit, and we weren’t even sure what was happening.”
According to Momohara, when the vehicle finally came to a stop, she called 911. She claimed the driver then threatened her boyfriend, telling 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,’” she added.
AZ Family reports that the same driver allegedly picked up another passenger, Eva Carlson, just minutes later. Carlson described a similarly alarming experience.
“I look at the speedometer, and he is going 100 mph and almost rear-ends a car that is going an adequate speed on the highway,” Carlson said. “I had never been in a situation like that before. It was scary.”
According to AZ Family, Uber confirmed that the driver has since been deactivated from the platform. The company did not immediately comment on the incident.
