Uber driver behind wheel in double-fatal Amsterdam crash; Four dead since December
A fatal traffic accident that left a 64-year-old man and his 33-year-old daughter dead was caused by an Uber driver, the ride-sharing platform reportedly confirmed to website TaxiPro. The crash happened on January 3 just after the victims dropped family off at Schiphol Airport.
Uber drivers are said to be involved in crashes that killed four people in Amsterdam over the past six weeks. The Uber driver in the January 3 crash is still in custody having allegedly used cannabis.
The victims -both from Amsterdam- were struck and killed when they got out of their vehicle after it broke down at the intersection of the A9 and the A4. "Our thoughts go out to the families and relatives of the victims, and we are currently providing our full assistance in investigating the accident," Uber Benelux leader Thijs Emondts told Het Parool.
That is not enough, Labour city council member Dennis Boutkan suggested. He called on the transportation inspectorate to launch an investigation, telling the newspaper that "Uber's working methods are unsafe and unhealthy; drivers earn too little and Uber drivers navigate via an app that diverts their attention away from traffic."
A female cyclist, 24, was killed in Amsterdam Nieuw-West after an Uber driver, 21, struck her during the early morning hours of January 13. Amsterdam alderman Sharon Dijksma said she was "very concerned" by the incident and others.
Another driver for the ride-sharing service hit a pedestrian on the Rozengracht on Dec. 4 after the morning rush hour. The pedestrian died at the scene.
Uber has previously said it wanted to incorporate speech recognition into the drivers' portion of the app. The hope is that drivers will no longer need to operate the app with their hands while simultaneously driving.
