Woman forced to jump from moving car to escape man posing as Uber driver
WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT: A young woman has suffered a broken ankle and a serious head injury after she was forced to jump from a car she thought was her Uber.
Elizabeth Suarez was on her way home after enjoying a night out with a childhood friend in the Park MGM hotel in Las Vegas in mid-July.
After receiving the notification that her Uber was arriving soon, Ms Suarez headed out to the valet where she saw a car matching the description on the app.
“He gestures over to me, I open the car door and I say ‘hi, are you here for Liz?’ and he says, ‘yeah, get in’,” she told Fox5 News.
But shortly after taking off from the Vegas hotspot, she received a call that left her feeling sick. It was her Uber driver asking where she was.
“My heart sank because I knew I was in the wrong car, I have no idea who this guy is, I’m in trouble,” she recalled.
Not wanting to cause a scene, she casually ended the call before telling the man behind the wheel she had changed her plans and wanted to be dropped off on the corner.
He didn’t respond and proceeded to accelerate, Ms Suarez recalled. Terrified by what he’d do if she called the police, she took to Snapchat and issued a silent plea for help.
But when she tried to discreetly take a photo of her driver, the flash went off.
Driving into an alleyway, he started swearing and screaming at Ms Suarez to leave her wallet and mobile phone.
“I thought, ‘what if he’s gonna kidnap me … rape, kill me, anything?’ All these thoughts are going in my head and I froze,” she said.
On a whim, she opened the door of the car travelling an estimated 60km/h and launched herself out, sustaining a head injury, badly broken ankle and fractured wrist.
“Liz was rushed to Sunrise Hospital where she immediately went in for emergency surgery to have a rod and screws placed in her ankle,” her friend Kate Deparini revealed in a GoFundMe page that she made to cover the sizeable hospital bill.
“Although she escaped and will be okay, she has a long road to recovery ahead of her,” Ms Deparini wrote.
“She will be out of work for six to eight weeks as she rehabilitates her body and begins the healing process.
“She also has the burden of over US$35,000 ($49,000) of unexpected hospital bills to worry about.”
Yahoo7 News has contacted Uber for comment.
