The frustrating ordeal of a Toronto woman left stranded in a Calgary snowstorm has now sparked an investigation by the city’s Livery Transport Services department.
Lorena Sanchez said she was booted out of her Uber last week on 36 Street N.E., unprepared for the snowstorm blasting the city, unaware of her surroundings and three kilometres from her intended destination — the driver insisted his map showed they’d reached the end of her trip.
After seeing the Global News story on Sanchez’s ordeal, city officials launched an investigation into the ride gone wrong, saying people in the Livery office — which regulates taxis, limousine and ride-sharing companies in the city — found the incident “very alarming.”
“As a driver, they’re providing a service to get the customer from Point A to Point B, and just the fact of the road conditions, it was early in the morning, it was dark, it was snowing, we had a tourist in the city of Calgary and obviously unaware of her surroundings and just being left in the middle of nowhere as per her complaint,” said Cory Porter with the Livery office.
“So we find that very concerning that she would just be left stranded there.”
Porter said the Livery has been in contact with Uber — which is cooperating along with conducting its own review — and has been able to identify the driver involved and have reached out to get his account of what happened.
He said investigators would be contacting Sanchez on Friday afternoon to speak to her directly about her experience.
“This is something that we don’t want anyone to have to go through,” Porter said.
“It’d probably be pretty scary for a newcomer in the city, unaware of her surroundings, early morning. So we just want to make sure that this type of behaviour doesn’t happen again and obviously if there’s any wrongdoing on the driver’s part, we’ll take a course of action on the driver’s part.”
Porter said if the driver is found to be at fault, the penalty could range from getting more training to being fined to having his Livery licence revoked.
Porter said the Livery takes any complaint very seriously and encourages anyone who has an unpleasant experience with a Calgary taxi, limousine or ride-sharing company to contact the city through 311.
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