An Uber customer faces criminal charges for leading police on a high-speed chase after his driver let him take over during a 300 mile trip to upstate New York.
Bronx 20-year-old Juan Carlos hired Uber driver Corey Robinson, 43, to drive him from Philadelphia to Herkimer Community College in Herkimer, New York on Saturday, the New York Daily News reports.
Robinson was sleepy, and apparently asked Carlos to take over driving the rental car so he could take a nap.
“At about 5:35 a.m., the State Police were monitoring traffic on Interstate 81 in Kirkwood, N.Y., a town near the Pennsylvania border, when a 2016 Hyundai Sonata went by at 86 miles per hour, the police said,” according to The New York Times.
“Troopers attempted to stop the car, but it sped up and they eventually lost sight of it.”
Robinson woke up to a jolt and asked why Carlos why he was driving so fast. Carlos said he was speeding because the cops were in hot pursuit, Robinson told police. Robinson said he demanded that his passenger pull the car over, but Carlos refused.
Carlos veered off the interstate and took a detour – State Route 17 east to North Road to Sanitaria Spring Road – and eventually smashed into a guard rail near the town of Colesville, New York, according to a state police statement.
The men were about 84 miles from their destination when they crashed. The men were taken to UHS Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City, N.Y. and treated for minor injuries. Police later arrested both men, though they released Robinson without charges, according to Vice.com.
“Carlos was charged with unlawfully fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle 3rd degree, driving without a license and several other traffic violations,” the state police statement said.
Uber issued a statement Wednesday that accounts for both the driver and passenger were suspended, and the company was “reaching out to the authorities to assist in their investigation,” according to the Times.
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