Caught on dashcam: B.C. Uber driver attacked by passenger

After losing his yoga business during COVID-19, Aman Sood began driving full-time for Uber. But after being attacked and injured by an irate passenger during a ride last Tuesday, he’s not able to work.

“I have to pay my rent, my insurance, the car instalments and everything. So yeah, I don’t know what to do," said Sood. 

The altercation began when Sood picked up a passenger in Abbotsford who was angry the Uber app suggested a different route than the one he wanted to take.

“He said the words that, 'I don’t want to talk to a (expletive) Uber driver.' And then I stopped the car, I requested him to leave the car," Sood told CTV News.

"'I don’t want to continue, because you are not respecting and using bad words,'” Sood recalled telling the passenger.

That’s when the man screamed and lunged at Sood, punching him in the head. The terrified driver unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped out of the car, but the attack continued on the street. Sood was left with injuries to his neck and arm, and hasn’t been able to drive a full day for Uber since

“When I am trying to drive, after maybe 10 minutes 20 minutes, I keep my arm on the steering wheel, it’s getting numb and I felt like electric shock. And I also feel all-day extreme headaches and time to time dizzy,” said Sood, adding “I don’t know how long it will take to recover.”

Sussanne Skidmore, the president of BC Federation of Labour, said app-based workers like Sood should be able to access benefits like most others in this province who are injured on the job.

“They should be classified as workers, but they are currently not covered by workers compensation because they are deemed contractors. The employer doesn’t have the same responsibilities to the employees,” said Skidmore.

She believes Uber should offer benefits to its drivers. In an email to CTV News, Uber said it supports a nation-wide side set of standards for drivers that would include occupational accident and injury coverage, but the province needs to enact a package of reforms for app-based workers first.

Skidmore believes Uber and the provincial government both have a role to play to protect people like Sood who rely on the gig economy to make a living.

“We need to make sure these workers are classified as workers, and that the employer can’t shirk its responsibilities around workplace injury prevention and compensation,” she said.

Sood agrees.

“100 per cent there should be medical coverage,” he said. “Same like any other person in Canada. Why we are not covered when others are covered?”

Reacting to the violent attack on its driver that was caught on dashcam, Uber said in a statement: “The behaviour in the video is disturbing and unacceptable. We’ve banned the rider's account, been in touch with the driver, and stand ready to work with police on any investigation.”

The Abbotsford Police Department has said the dashcam video is being reviewed and the incident is being investigated.  

A week after being assaulted on the job, Sood says he’s not ready physically or emotionally to pick up passengers again, and may never return.

“I am looking an alternative situation, alternate job,” he said. “I have to quit maybe Uber.”