Uber driver hits, kills 6 yr. old. Is “Not our problem” an appropriate response?

> the driver wasn’t carrying an Uber passenger at the time of the accident.

> Liu’s death is a far more tragic example of Uber evading responsibility for what happens through its service.

Obviously this is a terrible accident, and likely to raise emotions, but I really don't understand the story here. A man accidentally hit and killed pedestrians. A man works for a company. Those two things do not appear to intersect act all. I understand that the work involves him driving a car, but he was not doing that job. It mentions negligence in "hiring", but they never say any thing wrong with the driver's record leading up to this accident.

My father has driven a commercial truck for over a decade and had a similar accident this past year while driving his own car on his own time. It was horrible and has been tough to deal with for all involved, but no one has ever been audacious enough to try to say that the company that he works for might be negligent. He has a great driving record, but he had an __accident__. That is all there is to the story unless you are involved personally.

This is a tragedy, and unless there are details not being discussed in the article, a terrible accident that two families alone will have to live with and we should but out of.

He wasn't working for Uber at the time.

I am an independent contractor, working for several companies. If I make a mistake while working for Company A, is Company B liable because they also employ me at other times?

Whether or not the driver was carrying a fare at the time of the accident is pretty much irrelevant. The key question is was the driver carrying fares that night, i.e. relatively recently before the accident. I'd tend to believe he was, being NYE, but I guess we don't know. I'd also tend to believe if he wasn't working at all that night, if he was "off," Uber would have probably pointed that out in their statement. "The guy hadn't even been working for us at all that day!!!"

So it really makes no difference if he had a fare in his car. If he was working that night, he was working, he was just in between fares. And the whole independent contractor thing means nothing. If I were the family's lawyer I'd have no problem arguing that driving a cab in the city is an "inherently dangerous activity." [1]

But hey, I expect nothing less than Uber's "not our problem" response given their Objectivist CEO.

[1] http://www.williamskastner.com/employers-may-face-vicarious-...

Probably a better article (on a related issue) is:

'Uber driver accused of assault passed "zero-tolerance" background check despite criminal history'

http://pando.com/2014/01/06/exclusive-uber-driver-accused-of...

There, the issue of liability seems much less clear-cut

Uber drivers aren't employees. Nor are they independent contractors. Uber is crystal clear that they only operate as an intermediary for hiring a private driver. Sure, there's some value-add, like keeping track of the money, but if it got to that, a good lawyer would be able to get them off the hook.

They issued a statement "expressing our condolences," which is really all that should be expected here.

Yes, actually it is. Uber didn't have anything to do with the accident.

This is a little wild-eyed considering the nature of the Uber–driver relationship and the crime in question. Question: if a NY taxi driver had been in the same accident, is the taxi company liable?

I really don't get it. Is the car company responding because it was their vehicle? Is the street costruction company issuing statements because it was their street? Is the driving instructor giving condolences because it was his training? Nobody other than the driver is responsible for this! It's terrible and sad, but this stuff happens.

Does Uber have a policy that their drivers only work for a certain stretches of time or do the drivers pretty much just make their own hours?

If the accident was a result of over-exhaustion or something I could see a case where Uber would be liable for not policing strict rest periods for drivers.