Australian Woman Says Uber Driver Dragged Her Out of Car and Ran Her Over

In a Facebook post published last week, Sascha Pangallo said that “psychotic/mentally unstable [Uber] driver” pulled her out of the car and ran her over, “possibly” breaking her leg and leaving a blood clot.

The 24-year-old from Queensland, Australia said in the post she that ordered a car from the ride service on Friday night after work “as I do on the daily.” From there, the ride turned into an absolute nightmare. Pangallo wrote:

“After refusing to put my destination into his GPS he requested my directing (which I had no problem with) however I was on an important phone call and during one of the directions he snapped and screamed at me in a very aggressive manner. He then pulled the car over continued to scream “get out of my car” multiple times whilst getting very physical, grabbing me and trying to drag me out of the car. He soon realised that there were 4 on lookers witnessing the whole thing and yelling that they were calling the police – he then panicked and ran back around to the driver side door, jumped in to his 4WD – and hit the accelerator like an absolute maniac. My door was still open as I was frantically trying to grab my bags out of the car and before I could get away I was thrown to the ground and my leg was being run over.”

Unsurprisingly, Pangallo vowed to never use the service again. Uber said that they were assisting law enforcement in the area.

“We have a strict policy to deactivate any partner that exhibits aggressive or abusive behaviour and we have removed this driver from our platform,” a Uber spokesman told the Daily Mail Australia. “Safety is our top priority and we will work with the authorities on their investigation,” the company added. “Our thoughts are with the injured woman and we wish her a full and speedy recovery.”

Uber’s words sound a bit hollow given the volume of troublesome incidents that have plagued the company—including incidents of drivers harassing and even raping their female passengers. In March, the company updated its safety protocols and highlighted their extensive background check of potential drivers. The Daily Mail, however, notes that the driver who allegedly attacked Pangallo was licenced, “which means that [Queensland] completed a criminal background.”