A London Uber driver has been suspended after a passenger filmed him apparently watching a video on his smartphone.
Daisy Riley, 26, claims she caught the worrying footage after taking one of the cars through the capital on her way home from work.
She said she filmed the driver with his eyes fixed on the screen of a phone he is holding in one hand as the car travelled at around 25 mph through Putney on Wednesday evening.
Minutes after, he asked his passenger to give him a five-star rating on the minicab app.
Nothing says safe like the @UberUK driver watching a video on his phone while he’s driving you… pic.twitter.com/85NQlgnFRv
— daisy (@daisyyriley) May 27, 2015
Student nurse Ms Riley uploaded the short video to Twitter alongside the caption: “Nothing says safe like the @UberUK driver watching a video on his phone while he’s driving you.”
Her post was re-tweeted dozens of times within hours after the incident in Upper Richmond Road.
“He was watching the video for a while,” she told the Standard.
“[We were] travelling at about 25mph. I recorded it and think he caught on to it so he put his phone away.
“When I was nearly home and he reminded me to give him a five star rating.
“He was probably watching on and off for less than a minute.”
An Uber spokesman said the clip was “hugely concerning”, and insisted that “safety is our number one priority”.
He added: “We have opened an investigation into this incident and asked the rider for more information. In all incidents of a serious nature its our policy to suspend the driver while we investigate.”
Source: London Evening Standard