Its happened again, barely 3 months after an Uber driver mercilessly assaulted one of his passengers and dumped him in Hokandara, another UBER passenger was attacked in the early hours of Sunday morning - this time with a knife. Both cases have one thing in common, that there was nobody to complain to as Uber does not maintain an office in Sri Lanka to manage such serious situations.
In a story that is going viral on Facebook, Pujana Zachary Wethasinghe says he and his friend were attacked by the knife-wielding Uber driver who was incensed because they were on a credit card hire and not a cash one. They were traveling from Mirihana to Colombo 3. When they told the driver that they did not have any cash on them and explained that Uber was charging them anyway for the ride the driver had said passengers ought to know that they could not take card hires in the late hours. Wethasinghe and his friend had then told the driver that this was not really their fault but if it was unfair the drivers should settle it with Uber. At this point, the driver had told them to get off and not wanting to argue they had done so. The driver had dropped them off at some lonely by lane and had loitered there without leaving. They had thought that he was waiting until they found another ride and his friend had taken a picture of the car. Seeing this the driver had attacked him with a knife and attempted to stab him in the stomach. Fortunately, his friend had deflected the attack by hitting the driver with a bottle they had bought along.
The driver had then got in the car and tried to run them over but luckily they had run into a by lane and hidden in a neighbouring house until they could escape from the murderous Uber driver. Wethasinghe says he never thought something like this would ever happen to him. If one is polite and nice this type of thing cannot happen or so he thought. He says it was a good thing the driver did not stab him while they were still in the car since they would have had no place to escape to. He asks everyone not to ride an Uber ever again and if one has to then see that you ride with another person.
He ends his post by saying that for two days he tried to reach Uber Sri Lanka but to no avail.
