Life shatters when someone you love dearly leaves for work to never come back. On the morning of 11 June, at 4 am, my father, Rakesh Arora, took an Uber and left from Noida for the Delhi airport to catch a flight to Bengaluru. Twelve minutes later, at 4:12 am, we got an iPhone crash notification from his phone on our phones.
We didn't understand what that was. We checked his location, and it wasn't moving. It was stuck at the Delhi-Noida Direct (DND) flyway.
My mother and I went to the location to see what had happened. When we were driving up to the location, I saw a cab that had crashed into a stationary truck, which caused us to panic a lot. We parked our car and ran to the cab.
I was unable to understand what had happened, so I asked the bystanders, 'Where is the passenger?' They said, "That's the passenger." And then... I lifted his head and I saw that his head had an injury... and he was not conscious, not breathing.
The police were also present, but no one had moved him from the car. I begged the police to help me get him out of the cab. After a lot of pleading and begging, the police took him in the police car to AIIMS Trauma Centre, but he was no more.
'Telling My Sister Dad Was Dead Was Hardest'
I was around 7:30 or 8:00 pm in the US when I made a call to Juhi, my sister, who lives in the US. It wasn't easy for me to give such a heartbreaking news to her. The news broke her too.
"When I picked up, my sister was just crying, and she said, "Papa died." I was unable to process anything she was saying. She then showed me her hands covered in blood, and said that he met with an accident. At that time, I only knew enough, and I just didn't know how to react. I was unable to understand what I could do because it was such a final statement. It wasn't like that, it was an accident and there were injuries... there would be more to it. I kept telling her to ask the doctors to do something because this can't be it."Juhi Arora, Victim's Daughter
Juhi took a flight from New York and reached home at around 1-2 pm next day. By the time she got here, the first thing she saw was him lying on the floor, and that again just seemed the end.
'Pained That Uber Didn’t Reach Out for Days'
My father booked the cab at 4 am, and that Uber trip ended at 11 am. For four days, no one informed us. The destination changed, but no one informed us from Uber.
Only after we spoke about it on social media, that's when Uber reached out to us. We have reached out to the leadership at Uber, but we haven't received any response. We only get calls from their customer support executives.
Even the driver lied to us. I met him at the AIIMS Trauma Centre. He had an injury on his knee, but he was fine. When I tried speaking to him, he told me that the tyre of his cab burst, he lost control, and the cab hit the truck. But we have photos to prove that the tyres didn't burst.
'Uber Needs To Take Accountability'
It's right that Uber is an aggregator. Just like Amazon, where there are various sellers, Uber brings together different drivers. But for us as consumers, we see the face of Uber.
We look at the interface and book an Uber cab, and no one says that we are going to book a cab for an individual. So, at that place, Uber can step in as a tech giant and implement changes.
We already know that the technology exists because we got notified by Apple that way. You should also make sure that the car is fit to drive.
You should talk to the drivers and limit their driving time... All of this can be managed through tech so that drivers don't drive for long hours. The driver is also human. Their lives are also at risk.
You are not transporting products and earning money. You are carrying someone's father, brother, mother, or sister. So, please wake up.
'All Our Dreams Are Now Shattered'
My father was a professionally trained peptide chemist. His dream was to advance the peptide industry in India. He trained at a time when very few people were in this field, making him highly specialised.
With this vision, he set up one of India's first peptide labs. He brought in services and instruments from the US that weren’t available in Indian labs at the time, and also acted as their distributor when this was still a new concept here.
I will be getting married this November without my father by my side. It’s incredibly tough and honestly hard to even process. We have good people around us offering support, but no one can ever take his place.
I never imagined I’d have to get married without him there. I always wanted him to walk me down the aisle, but now there’s nothing I can do...
(Delhi Police has registered an FIR against the driver under Section 281 for rash and negligent driving, Section 125A for the simple injury the driver sustained, and Section 106 for causing accidental death under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Police sources told The Quint that the vehicle has been seized, and an investigation is underway, even as the driver is currently out on bail.)
The Quint had reached out to Uber for a response over a week before this story was published on 16 July. After the story went live, Uber shared a written statement, saying, "We’re deeply saddened by this tragic incident, and our thoughts are with the rider’s family during this incredibly difficult time."
Uber also informed us that the driver's access to the app has been revoked. "We connected the rider’s next of kin with our third-party insurance partner, and we’re standing by to support law enforcement with any relevant information they may need," the statement added.
(All 'My Report' branded stories are submitted by citizen journalists to The Quint. Though The Quint inquires into the claims/allegations from all parties before publishing, the report and the views expressed above are the citizen journalist's own. The Quint neither endorses, nor is responsible for the same.)