SAN FRANCISCO—Ride-sharing service Uber has reached a settlement with the family of a girl struck and killed by one of its drivers in 2013.
Six year-old Sofia Liu was walking with her family on New Year’s Eve in 2013 when a driver using the Uber X app hit the child, her mother and brother while they were as a pedestrian crossing.
Immediately after the accident, Uber issued a statement, part of which reads, “The driver in question was not providing services on the Uber system during the time of the accident. The driver was a partner of Uber and his account was immediately deactivated.”
The family attorney, Christopher Dolan, said that it didn’t matter whether or not he had a passenger with him; he was searching for a passenger to pay fare, and was thus in Uber’s employment.
While the terms of the settlement are undisclosed, the family’s attorney said the following in a statement to CNET: “The family will only say that while nothing will ever bring Sofia back, they are grateful to the American judicial system for providing them a way to resolve the legal issues raised by Sofia’s death.”
Uber classifies its drivers as independent contractors, rather than employees, so that it doesn’t have to pay drivers for car expenses and other employee benefits. This keeps fares low for customers, but draws regulatory concerns, as well as ire from the taxi industry, in many of its locations in 250 cities in 57 countries. Uber maintains that it is a service that merely connects drivers with passengers, but its opponents argue that it behaves like an employer in many cases.
Uber’s regulatory future is uncertain. In a June ruling that granted a driver $4,152.20 for expenses and other costs, the California Labor Commissioner’s Office said that Uber should classify its drivers as employees rather than independent contractors. In similar cases in five other states, it was ruled that the drivers in question acted as independent contractors.
