Uber, Lyft and DoorDash mentioned in statements that they’d constructed their platforms with security in thoughts, with options like the flexibility to attach discreetly with folks at ADT, the safety agency, or to share location info by means of ride-hailing apps.
It’s arduous to match how harmful gig driving is with different professions, although the Bureau of Labor Statistics makes some fatal occupational injury tallies public. However Gig Staff Rising argues that the dangers of gig work stand out for greater than merely the variety of deaths.
As a result of gig drivers are sometimes categorised as impartial contractors somewhat than staff, they typically obtain much less assist from the businesses they work for when one thing goes fallacious, the report mentioned.
In some circumstances, Gig Staff Rising mentioned, households of useless drivers by no means heard from the businesses they drove for, or didn’t obtain loss of life advantages or help with insurance coverage claims or funeral companies.
DoorDash mentioned it had spoken with Ms. StokesOliver’s household and helped it make an insurance coverage declare.
In August, Isabella Lewis, a Lyft driver in Texas, was killed in a seemingly random assault by a passenger who the police believed was a terrorist. After capturing her within the head, the person pulled her out of the car and drove over her whereas fleeing in her automotive. He later died from wounds from a shootout with the police, according to news reports.
Ms. Lewis’s sister, Allyssa Lewis-Brown, mentioned the loss had nonetheless not totally sunk in.
“It nonetheless hasn’t hit that I’ll by no means get to see her once more,” mentioned Ms. Lewis-Brown, 23, who remembered her sister as caring and protecting. “That simply form of blows my thoughts. You suppose you’ve got extra time with folks.”
She mentioned she hoped her story and the driving force loss of life report would spur ride-hailing corporations to discover a technique to maintain drivers safer, maybe by rigorously screening passengers earlier than they will use the companies. Lyft, she mentioned, by no means spoke along with her.
“The least you could possibly do is pay for funeral bills,” she mentioned. Lyft mentioned it had tried to achieve Ms. Lewis’s household however had been unsuccessful.
