Sarah Milburn, 24, took an Uber after a night out with friends in Uptown Dallas, buckled her seatbelt in the back of a Honda Odyssey driven by Anan Yusufzai — and nearly died on the way home.
The driver sped through a red light at a busy intersection of McKinney and Fitzhugh Avenues and was T-boned by a Ford F-150 pickup truck.
The Odyssey flipped upside down with Sarah trapped in the back. The rescue workers cut her out of the back of the van and rushed her to Baylor University Medical Center.
Tragically, the car accident crushed her spine and left her a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the chest down.
In January 2017, she filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the driver, the owner of the Honda, Uber Technologies, and Honda Motor Company. She says:
It could have been anyone. Millions of people trust Uber with their lives, and they obviously aren’t doing it the right way.”
The big question now is whether she can hold Uber accountable for failing to adequately vet its drivers. Her lawyers say the driver had a criminal history and was driving an uninsured vehicle that did not belong to him.
Unless a settlement is reached, a jury in Texas will now decide if Uber recklessly allowed a dangerous driver to shuttle passengers around while advertising a “safe ride.”
Source: Uber, Honda hit with safety lawsuit by woman paralyzed in Dallas crash
Miss Milburn made a contact to Uber by the app. Uber fixed a price for a transport of a person from A to B. Uber billed and cashed the amount for the transport and issued a receipt. With this process, Miss Milburn concluded a contract with Uber for a transport. If Uber does not execute the contract by themselves, but sub-contract the transport to a third party, Uber must ensure, that the third-party is insured for all damages that may rise from the execution of the contract. If the third party is not able to cover any damage, Uber as prime contractor has to cover any damage. I doubt that this liability may be excluded by Uber by statements in their conditions of business. (Immagine drug producers sub-contracting production of drugs to drug producers in India, refusing any liability in case of bad production by the sub-contractor.)