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Woman Drives Her Own Uber Home After Driver Falls Asleep

Woman Drives Her Own Uber Home After Driver Falls Asleep

The driver nodded off and swerved right into traffic

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

A woman was forced to drive her own Uber home after the driver of the car fell asleep and started to swerve dangerously into traffic.

Tejaswini Divya Naik, 28, was trying to get back to her home in Mumbai from the nearby - well, nearby in Indian terms - city of Pune.

So, as you would anywhere in the world, she got out her phone and hailed over an Uber. It arrived at about 1pm, and - for a while - everything seemed to be going swimmingly.

However, after a bit it became clear the driver was in no condition to be in charge of a vehicle. Tejaswini started to notice his head nodding, and the driver nodding off asleep. He was also shaking his head frequently in order to keep himself awake.

Jam Press

In the end, he suddenly swerved across to the left and nearly ploughed straight into an oncoming car in the middle of the road.

If they'd have collided, there's a decent chance both of them would have been killed.

That's when she checked the driver and discovered he had completely conked out. Fast asleep.

Showing a remarkably calm head, Tejaswini managed to wake the driver up quickly, and he swerved across right and back into the correct lane.

Jam Press

She then got him to pull over to the side of the road and convinced him to let her take over so that they could both get to her destination at least without getting hurt.

That meant that she could take the wheel, and he could grab a short amount of kip in the passenger seat, which she says he did until they arrived at her address.

Describing her ordeal, Tejaswini, who works in the Bollywood film industry, said: "Just before we reached the highway I saw signs that the driver was sleepy."

Jam Press

"He was drifting off into sleep and trying to shake his head off, which people do when they are tired.

"I was on calls with my dad, work colleagues and a close friend who's getting married this April.

"It was during this third call that the driver swerved left into an oncoming vehicle and then swerved back to the centre of two lanes.

"And then I saw his head droop down."

Jam Press

She continued: "The car swerved into the divider and I don't know how I was calm throughout this entire thing.

"Maybe because I didn't want my friend on the phone to panic, so I told him 'Listen I'll call you back once I'm home yes?'

"I then asked the driver 'Bhaiya, aapko neend aa rahi hai?' ["Brother, are you feeling sleepy?"] which woke him up just in time and he swerved back just two milliseconds before we crashed horribly.

"I've always heard to not wake a person up with a start because you don't know their sudden jerk reactions and it could go either way.

"So, I think that's why subconsciously I was calm through it all."

Jam Press

"I had to convince him for about the next five mins to stop the car to let me drive.

"I told him that I don't have any issues driving and I love to drive.

"Both absolutely true statements but at that point, I knew if I wanted to reach home safely without zero risk I had to drive."

Obviously, she refused to pay for the ride, but at least she got home in one piece.

She contacted Uber via Twitter and Instagram, but claims they only came back to her the next day. Tejaswini says they've apologised but did not compensate her, and told her to get the police involved instead.

Jam Press

She added: "I got a call from Uber's Incident response team the next morning on Saturday.

"I told them I didn't pay a single penny to that fellow and they told me they'll get back with an update.

"They were kind and apologised for what I went through. He heard me out completely.

"But they didn't even talk about compensation though.

"I received a call saying that I'll have to file a First Information Report (FIR) with the police to claim my compensation, which apparently will be cut from the driver's insurance.

"I told him that it will get difficult because the highway doesn't come under either the Pune or the Mumbai police jurisdiction and that's another problem.

"I'll end up dealing with running from one place to another but he said that's the only way, that I'll have to file the FIR.

"And when the police contact Uber only then the matter of the compensation will be taken forward.

"They informed me that my case has reached the highest point of escalation and that they've already barred their driver partner's access."

LADbible has contacted Uber for comment.

Featured Image Credit: Jam Press

Topics: World News, Weird, Cars