Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
This story is the first-person account of a woman who was stranded on the highway by an e-hailing driver in Petaling Jaya.
On 13th June 2024, at 12.30pm in Petaling Jaya, I was forcibly dragged out of the car by the driver and abandoned on a busy highway. I published the story on my Instagram and it went viral.
View this post on Instagram
Image via @Mayahere3535.
Immediately, I was hit with comments like “Let’s hear both sides of the story” and “This woman is seeking attention.”
Since some people aren’t convinced about how serious it was what happened to me, here is the full story as told to In Real Life Malaysia.
I was picked up by a standoffish and rude driver.
That morning, I hailed a ride through inDrive, an e-hailing ride app, to get to Colony Star Boulevard KLCC from my apartment in Petaling Jaya. A few minutes later, a man driving a Toyota Vios arrived.
At the beginning of the ride, I politely requested the driver to take a non-toll route. However, I was rudely scolded by the driver, who told me that, “As a passenger, you don’t have the right to ask for a non-toll road.” I was shocked by this but I kept quiet during this time.
As if to make things more uncomfortable for me, the driver rudely raised the volume of the radio until it was as loud as possible. I asked him to turn down the volume, because I’m sensitive to loud noises and it was getting difficult to hear or think clearly. However, he ignored me and pretended not to hear me.
As a woman, I’ve been forced to learn to pick up on things that can lead to danger, hoping to never need to be in a situation that requires me to think of my life. With each additional thing my suspicions grew that this man was unstable and dangerous, and ultimately my fear came true.
I reported the behaviour to inDrive’s customer support.
I decided to report this driver’s behaviour through the inDrive support chat. I was put through to a support chat person and explained my problem. I told them about how my driver had rejected my request to take a non-toll road and ignored me when I asked him to turn down the radio volume.
However, inDrive support chat kept cutting the conversation short, and when I restarted the chat I was told to fill out the form again. They kept insisting I fill out a form even though I told them that they already had the info. It was very confusing, frustrating and put me in a lot of distress.
Although I reported it, the act of reporting was punished by inDrive, instead of being taken seriously by them. Society tends to dismiss women like me for being “dramatic” or “paranoid” but directly as a result of that, the worst-case scenario did happen to me.
The driver flew into a rage when he read my complaint.
This is where the worst part happened. While he was still driving me to the destination, the driver received a notification about my complaint from the inDrive app.
Reading my complaint, he immediately flew into a rage and stopped the car in the middle of the highway. He started going on a loud rant, demanding that if I was so insistent on not taking a toll-free road, that I should get out of the car and walk instead.
I was shocked, because we were in the middle of a busy highway and it would be dangerous to get out. I started feeling alarmed and called 999 out of fear for my safety. Seeing this, he started getting even more angry, demanding that I get out of the car.
At this point I was afraid for my life, and I wasn’t sure if he was going to attack me on the spot, or worse, cause an accident on the highway that would injure us both. I started recording a video on my phone in case I needed to make a police report and show proof of what happened.
The driver forced me out of the car onto the dangerous highway.
It was then that the driver got out of the car and walked around to open the passenger door. I started screaming for my life, because I was afraid he might beat me up. I shouted “Don’t touch me!” multiple times, but he ignored me. There was nothing I could do to stop him.
He reached into the car and threw my metal flask at my face. Then he grabbed my arms and legs and forcibly dragged me out of the car. I was in a lot of pain from being pushed around like this, and I suffered a cut to my knee and shin which was bleeding profusely.
I started having a panic attack while on the side of the highway, because I had no idea how to get off the highway and I could have been hit by a car. Fortunately, a kind stranger stopped to offer me a ride. He drove me to the nearest police station, where I filed a report against the driver.
Within days, the police arrested the driver and he was charged with assault for hitting me with the water flask and was fined RM2000.
(Editor’s note: In addition, the e-hailing company inDrive has permanently banned the driver from using the platform.)
inDrive could have handled the situation better.
While I don’t blame inDrive for not penalising the driver on the spot, they should not have notified the driver while the ride was still ongoing. Also, why did they keep ending the support chat while I was still talking to them? This was not adequately explained no matter how many times I brought it up. Were they intentionally ignoring my complaints?
Even when I was at the police station trying to contact them, they kept ending the support chat.
When I asked for the chat history, they told me they couldn’t access their previous chat records. It sounds suspicious, doesn’t it?
Furthermore, inDrive would’ve been notified when the driver cancelled my ride shortly after my report, but they did nothing to rectify this situation.
Screenshot provided to In Real Life
The driver’s actions aside, inDrive is doing too many things wrong. They have plenty of ads saying safety is priority but they have nothing to show for it. I need them to actually care for their customers.
The impact on my mental health.
The entire ordeal was traumatising and I do not wish for it to happen to anyone, not even my worst enemy.
There are many commenters who said I was over exaggerating my story for sympathy, even going as far as to say I planned it in advance because I took a video halfway through.
But what would you do if someone decided to pull you out of a vehicle on a busy highway and you’re not physically capable of stopping them?
Would you have kicked and punched him in self defence if you were a small defenceless woman?
What would you have done to protect yourself before the driver started getting violent?
The entire reason I am bringing this to light is to spread awareness of this driver and of how inDrive handled the case. Aside from releasing a statement, they have not taken any concrete accountability.
In comparison, other companies would issue an apology and some compensation for the painful experience I went through.
They might be just an app, but if the drivers that use the service could be anyone from any background, then it’s not a good service at all and is potentially dangerous, especially for women who cannot defend themselves against a violent driver.
What do you think of this story?
Submit your thoughts to hello@inreallife.my and you may be featured on In Real Life Malaysia.
Read also: I Was Targeted By The Dead Monkey Highway Scam in Perak
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