Toronto will look into new rules for ride-sharing after Uber drove away with kid
Move comes after mom says Uber wouldn’t connect her or police with driver
Toronto city council adopted a motion Thursday directing staff to recommend regulatory changes for ride-sharing companies in emergencies, after an Uber drove away with a 5-year-old girl last month.
CBC Toronto first reported on the incident earlier this week. The child's mother, Julia, said Uber representatives refused to help connect her or Toronto police with the driver, despite explaining the emergency situation. Within about an hour and a half, officers were able to find the young girl with the unwitting driver without assistance from Uber.
Coun. Mike Colle's motion is looking for companies like Uber and Lyft to take greater accountability to directly assist customers and police in emergency situations like this.
"We're going to ask them to basically alter the rules, or we may make changes to compel them to basically change their rules for emergency safety reasons," said Colle.
"This type of thing could happen to any of us … the police should be able to contact these drivers in case there's an emergency situation."
Colle's motion says the city's current regulatory framework doesn't provide any remedy to passengers in an emergency, nor any penalty for operators. The requested review would look at the current rules and recommend additional licensing requirements for vehicle-for-hire companies and drivers.
At city hall Thursday, Julia said she connected with Colle after he read CBC's story, and the councillor told her he wanted to help. CBC is only using her first name to protect the identity of her daughter.
"To see that there is actually some action being taken now on the political side of things gives me a lot of hope that not only is this being taken very seriously — and it's being considered something quite urgent — but that perhaps we can really affect change here," she said.
"I'm trusting the process and I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes."
In a statement for the original story, an Uber spokesperson said the safety of everyone who uses the platform is the company's top priority.
The company said its support team followed Uber's standard protocols, which are designed to protect the privacy and safety of all users. Uber also said its team advised the rider to contact law enforcement and, when police reached out, the company shared its protocol for an expedited request. Once Uber received the request the company says it supported the solution.
Julia previously told CBC Toronto she's looking for the ride-sharing company to commit to changing its emergency response procedures so that others don't experience what she did if minors are left in an Uber.
"I made it very clear, you can offer me $1 million. If there are no policy changes, I will not be accepting that, I need to see policy change here," Julia said.
"No one should have to go through what we went through."
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With files from Farrah Merali and Lane Harrison