‘I was in shock’: Uber driver speaks out after passenger exits her moving SUV in the O’Neill Tunnel
A 29-year-old woman was critically injured Monday morning when she got out of the moving Uber in the tunnel and was struck by another vehicle.
The driver who was behind the wheel of the vehicle that a Boston woman exited Monday morning during rush hour in the O’Neill Tunnel says her passenger appeared distraught before the incident.
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Luz Ayala, a driver for Uber, told WBZ that she had just dropped off a passenger at Boston’s Logan Airport when the 29-year-old woman knocked on her window. The woman didn’t have the Uber app but said she needed to get home to Mattapan.
Ayala told the station she agreed to drive the woman and shut off the Uber app.
“I have been there, desperate,” the driver said. “In places where I don’t know what to do and nobody helps you.”
Uber said the company has no record of the trip and the ride described by state police did not take place on the app.
Police said the ride-share driver, Ayala, left the airport using the Sumner Tunnel and accessed I-93 southbound via the Haymarket on-ramp. While driving southbound on the interstate, inside the O’Neill Tunnel near Exit 23, the 29-year-passenger got out of the Mazda CX-9 from the rear passenger door. She was then struck by a Jeep Cherokee driven by a 31-year-old Charlestown man.
Both Ayala and the Charlestown driver remained at the scene and have been interviewed by police.
Police said Monday that the crash, and the reason the 29-year-old got out of the car, remained under investigation.
Ayala told WBZ that her passenger thought they were going the wrong way. She heard the backdoor open as the woman jumped out of the car, gone from the backseat all of a sudden.
“I was in shock,” the driver told the station. “I didn’t understand what was going on. Then I saw her behind my car.”
The 29-year-old woman was rushed to Tufts Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. Ayala told WBZ she’s a responsible and safe driver, but she can’t drive for Uber or Lyft while the crash is under investigation.
She said she feels “traumatized” by the incident.
“She suffers from something because a normal person wouldn’t do this,” she said of her passenger.
