An Uber driver is accused of seriously injuring a passenger by bashing him on the head with a hammer in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood, authorities said Friday.
Patrick Karajah, 26, of Pacifica pleaded not guilty Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court to charges of assault with a deadly weapon and battery with serious bodily injury. He is free on $125,000 bail.
Karajah allegedly picked up the victim and his two friends from a bar at about 2 a.m. Tuesday. While driving the two men and one woman to their destination, he got into a dispute with the victim over the route he was taking, according to court documents.
Karajah, who was driving for the basic UberX service, stopped near the intersection of Ellsworth Street and Alemany Boulevard and forced the victim and his friends to get out, according to documents.
Once the victim was out of the vehicle, Karajah struck him on the side of his head with a hammer, and then drove away, authorities said.
When police arrived, they reportedly found the victim slipping in and out of consciousness on the sidewalk, suffering from severe fractures and trauma to the head. Karajah was later arrested at his home in Pacifica.An Uber mouthpiece states that the company takes "reports like this very seriously," by which she means that Uber shysters are ready to shout "independent contractor, terms of service, user agreement" at the victim if he comes out of his coma. And to pay idiot bloggers to post most pro-Uber crap on their blogs.
Update (9/28): Fixed, as per comments.
I still don't know what Uber is.
ReplyDeleteThat is all. Except that I hope that injured man comes out okay.
You messed up the paragrpah order on your cut and paste. Confused the hell out of me for a minute there.
ReplyDeleteFixed. Thanks for the heads' up.
ReplyDeleteUber is a ride service app pimped by libertarians like Megan McArdle and neo-cons like Matt Yglesias who hate regulation. It collects money from you when you use its app to secure a ride from a psychopath or rapist, and shares a bit with the pyscho/ rapist, but seeks to avoid liability when the inevitable occurs.
:YOU UNDERSTAND, THEREFORE, THAT BY USING THE APPLICATION AND THE SERVICE, YOU MAY BE EXPOSED TO TRANSPORTATION THAT IS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS, OFFENSIVE, HARMFUL TO MINORS, UNSAFE OR OTHERWISE OBJECTIONABLE, AND THAT YOU USE THE APPLICATION AND THE SERVICE AT YOUR OWN RISK."
Pay us, sit back, and enjoy your rape!
It used to be that anyone using their vehicle for hire was subject to an entirely different insurance and licensing rate schedule, and drivers for hire had to be licensed as such and bonded.
ReplyDeleteI imagine Uber thinks they've cleverly gotten around those limitations, but, all it takes is one judge, in a case like this one, to lower the boom on the fuckers, and all their market capitalization goes *poof*.
It would be one thing if they were competing honestly with taxis, but they're not. If they had to compete fairly, they would promptly evaporate. Here's hoping that a judge in either the criminal or civil suits that are inevitable sets that process in motion.
I'm sure UberAlles will take the complaint as seriously as it did complaints that drivers have treated blind passengers like shit.
ReplyDelete