Man stabbed while working for Uber in Dallas calls on company to do more for driver safety

An Uber driver who was stabbed in the neck while on the job Tuesday night in northeast Dallas says he was frustrated that the company deactivated his account after the attack, temporarily preventing him from being able to work.

Uber said Wednesday it was following company policy and that it had reinstated Joshua Escandon’s account.

Escandon, 49, was walking to his car in the parking garage near Whole Foods at The Shops at Park Lane when he heard footsteps. He then felt someone come up and grab him from behind.

“What is happening?” he thought. Then he felt the sting in his neck from being slashed with a knife.

The assailant ran away and Escandon briefly chased him before calling 911 to be taken to a hospital.

He said the attack, as far as he knows, was completely random. Dallas police said Wednesday no arrest has been made in the case.

After getting stitches and being bandaged up, Escandon said he needed to complete more rides because he has multiple bills due in the next few days.

Instead of being able to conduct business as normal, he was told his driver account was frozen so Uber could investigate the incident.

An Uber spokeswoman confirmed Escandson reported the incident to the company and that it temporarily deactivated his account. The company investigates all incidents as soon as they’re reported, which sometimes involves having to deactivate accounts, Gabriela Condarco-Quesada said.

Theaccount was reactivated late Wednesday afternoon.

“What this driver went through is terrifying,” Condarco-Quesada said. “We have been in touch with them and hope they recover soon.”

Earlier Wednesday, Escandon said he was unable to work and couldn’t access the money he had previously earned that was credited to his account. Because Uber is one of his major sources of income and he’s had to live paycheck to paycheck since moving to Dallas less than a year ago, he was afraid he’d be without a car, place to live and phone service by the end of the week.

Escandon said his situation should raise concerns of how large companies treat employees injured on the job even if they are private contractors. He said Wednesday afternoon he’s happy his account is active again but called Uber’s response cold and said it doesn’t fix what happened and that the company should offer more crisis resources for drivers.

“It’s overwhelming, and the way they’re treating me is not acceptable,” Escandon said through tears.

Escandon set up a GoFundMe account to help cover his expenses when he was worried he’d be unable to work again.

“I’m sitting here with a stab wound in my neck wanting to work but unable to,” Escandon said Wednesday morning before his account was reactivated. “I don’t mind working or I’m going to lose everything, and nobody is around to help me.”

Other people have called for Uber to take more responsibility for the safety of its drivers, especially if they are injured on the job. Unlike Escandon’s situation, most of those cases, including one as recent as last week in Illinois and a separate incident in April in Canada, occurred when a passenger attacked the driver.

In other situations, like in February in California and last August in Las Vegas, Uber appears to have swiftly offered financial assistance to the drivers.

The passengers involved in these incidents were banned from the app.