Uber Driver Admits to Murder. Are Ride Shares Safe?

Jason Dalton was an Uber driver. He admitted to shooting eight people with a gun while in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This occurred back in February of 2016 with only two of those eight surviving the onslaught. To make it stranger, he claimed that the devil controlled him through the app. He pled guilty, but that certainly doesn’t shed light or solve the issue of danger in the backseat of a car that doesn’t belong to you.

The issue in question is simple: who’s at fault? And if it’s not the ride share companies, then are these rides really, truly safe for passengers? Potentially not.

How Uber and Lyft Avoid Responsibility for Actions of Their Drivers

It was different back then when taxis were the norm, and the common adage applied here. Taxi drivers were employees of the taxi companies. The issue here with companies like Lyft and Uber is that drivers are still to this day considered “independent contractors,” fully liable of their own actions with no penalty to the company for wrongdoing.

This allows Lyft and Uber to never take action in determining the level of safety in those drivers starting an account and managing rides on their own for all the fees they could possibly want—a big difference in comparison to taxis and other forms of public transportation. The fact is Uber or Lyft can’t monitor everything a driver does.

It’s important to note that even as Jason Dalton stood in court for the final day of jury selection, confessing at the very last moment for the murders, anyone could see that darkened habits were all lurking inside. This was especially the case a few months later when Dalton was dragged away during a particular case involving 16 felony charges. More murders and incidents later, and it was clear—he was a serial killer utilizing a vehicle as a way to nab victims.

The question remains: is that necessarily Uber or Lyft’s fault?

A Company Can Take Measures to Ensure Drivers Are of Sound Mind

After all, when you pick a person up, you may easily have the ability to lock the doors and take that person wherever you want to go. An Uber or Lyft driver essentially has power and control. That may be something Uber or Lyft would want to address in terms of the mental capacity and stability of their drivers. That may ultimately mean they would have to regard their drivers as employees and not independent contractors from now on.

What do you think? Consult an attorney on the matter if your Uber or Lyft driver committed a crime.