Bengaluru: Uber driver's carelessness injures baby

Bengaluru: Sandeep Kumar, a 32-year-old city-based software professional, who is currently in London, is deeply anxious about his 16-month-old baby girl, who got injured due to the carelessness of an Uber driver.

On May 26 he got a call from home informing him that she had suffered a deep cut near her right eye. A resident of Begur, Sandeep has been trying to get in touch with Uber and already escalated the matter from London. However, to his utter disappointment, after several attempts the private cab aggregator responded on Sunday noon with an automated message.

Sandeep told this newspaper that the incident took place around 7.30 pm on Saturday, when his wife Veena along with his father-in-law had taken the girl for a routine vaccination at Devarachikanahhalli.

“We take our daughter for regular check-ups to the family doctor who has his clinic in Devrachikanahalli in BTMLayout 4th stage, “ he said.

While returning she had booked an Uber cab. After a wait of over 30 minutes, the cab driver, Shankar, reached the clinic. While Veena tried to board the cab from one rear door, her father, who was holding the girl, tried to board from other.

But even before they could board the driver moved the cab. The car wheels narrowly missed trampling the feet of Veena’s father, but the sharp edge of the door grazed through the right eye of the baby.

“It resulted in heavy bleeding, followed by a bump inside her eye,” said a worried Sandeep.  He added that the driver did not even bother to stop the cab and sped away.

Veena told this newspaper that when she tried to trace the driver she couldn’t find the cab number in the trip. The number and details of the driver was erased.

“Thankfully, I had his number in my call log as I had made a call to him to know about his whereabouts. But when I dialled his number he kept cancelling the calls,” she said.

Sandeep also wrote a mail to the cab aggregator. He stated, “Not sure what sanity checks you perform while selecting drivers. This is sheer negligence by one of your driver due to which my little daughter was hurt and escaped a major tragedy. I really wanted to know how you would respond to this.” But to his disappointment, the company allegedly reverted to him on Sunday noon with an automated reply and refused to disclose about the action taken against the erring driver. The family is now contemplating to file a formal complaint with the police.