Mumbai Resident’s Harrowing Highway Experience as Speeding Uber Driver Collides with Truck

Dhaval Kulkarni has narrated his horror in a long Twitter post, tagging central and state authorities and cab aggregator Uber, hoping that his close shave will prompt safeguards to avoid a repeat.

Mumbai: 

Each of us has a cab complaint story, ranging from mild inconvenience to plain horror. But a Mumbai-based author and his 11-year-old daughter lived a nightmare this Sunday after they took an app-based cab for a Pune-Mumbai drive and narrowly escaped death.

Dhaval Kulkarni has narrated his horror in a long Twitter post, tagging central and state authorities and cab aggregator Uber, hoping that his close shave will prompt safeguards to avoid a repeat.

Mr. Kulkarni explained that he had traveled to Pune on Saturday to pick up his daughter, and their original plan was to return the following day. However, faced with waitlisted train tickets, they opted for a road trip.

Describing the Uber driver, he noted the driver’s politeness and an impressive 4.93 rating on the app. Mr. Kulkarni shared his positive initial impressions, recounting an instance when his daughter displayed signs of motion sickness, and the considerate driver voluntarily halted the cab for him to purchase necessary medicines from a nearby chemist.

The author got help only after a call to a senior IPS officer. A two-member police team reached the spot and called in an ambulance. Eventually, he reached a hospital and an X-ray examination found blunt trauma to his chest, but no broken bones.

The author blamed highway police, RTO officials and Uber for their poor response to an emergency situation. He tagged Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s office, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Uber, hoping his post would prompt necessary steps to prevent such incidents.