I was using Lyft to get to the airport. This was a quick business trip while Bonnie stayed home. If I expect to do a lot of walking at my destination, I usually take my walker — and Bonnie and I both use it. This time, though, I was alone and wasn\u2019t expecting a lot of walking, so I left it at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sitting in the back seat, I saw a sign telling me the driver has mostly received perfect (5 out of 5) ratings and that my comfort and safety were his highest concern. And, of course, tips are greatly appreciated. I didn\u2019t mind the sign. The driver is running a business and doing what he can to improve his profits. If his sign accomplishes that, good for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I exited the car at the airport, before I was completely out of the back seat, the Lyft driver started to pull away. It was a compact car and I\u2019m six feet tall, and it takes me a while to exit in that situation. The right rear tire clipped my right heel. When it happened, I didn\u2019t know if I was injured or not — but I was angry that the driver didn\u2019t wait until I was completely out of the car. I look my age, more or less, and it\u2019s not breaking news that seniors are slower and sometimes clumsier at doing things than younger people are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The driver stopped immediately. I yelled at him and he kind of looked at me and shrugged. I might have slammed the door a bit more forcefully than I usually do and went into the terminal. I didn\u2019t notice any pain as I walked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I figured this was a one-off mistake on his part and that he didn\u2019t mean to injure me. There had been minimal conversation in the car and nothing for him to get mad at me about. I surmised that if I reported this, he would suffer consequences. Having a \u201cblack mark\u201d on your record is never a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I debated with myself whether or not to report it. Was his error big enough to warrant him getting a black mark? Rightly or wrongly, I decided it was. Had he immediately jumped out of his seat to make sure I was okay, and apologized profusely along the way, I might have decided differently. But his indifferent \u201cs@%t happens\u201d shrug struck me the wrong way. He seemed to be in a rush to get to his next fare and my welfare was my own problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although I didn\u2019t seem to be injured immediately, if some lingering pain showed up, I wanted a record of the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn\u2019t have a lot of time before my flight took off, so I waited until I started to get texts when I was near my destination airport before I did anything. Lyft sent its standard: \u201cDid you enjoy your ride? Rate Antonio\u2019s performance from one to five. How much of a tip do you want to leave Antonio?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a space to write an extended comment, so I wrote that he started to drive away before I was totally out of the car and his tire clipped my foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lyft offered me the chance to chat via text with one of their reps to get this problem resolved. I could have spoken to a live person had I wanted to, but I was still on a full plane and would be for a few more minutes, so I opted for the text chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I explained what had happened. I inferred that the rep was female, although I could be wrong. She asked me if I was injured? \u201cI\u2019m not sure,\u201d I replied. \u201cI\u2019m not in pain now, but right now I\u2019m still on the plane. I\u2019ll know more after I walk to baggage claim, and I\u2019ll know even more tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She told me she had contacted the driver and he and I would be separated from him in the system — presumably meaning he would never be my driver again. I don\u2019t know if<\/s> what other repercussions, if any, Antonio faced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She kept pressing me to declare myself okay — and I kept demurring. \u201cI need more time.\u201d She gave me a deadline to keep texting or the claim would be declared resolved, I waited until a minute before the deadline and said I still needed more time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By now, a different rep had been assigned to the case and needed time to orient herself with the situation. That agent never got back to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next day I received a text message from a lawyer representing Lyft. Apparently, a claim had been opened, and she was there to find out the status of my injuries — and whether or not I was going to sue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I decided to wait for a few days to see if any lingering pain existed. So I temporized with, \u201cI\u2019m consulting a lawyer about this. I will give him your contact number and the claim number.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I write this, it is a week after the incident, and I have no physical pain whatsoever from the incident. \u201cNo harm no foul,\u201d as announcers are fond of saying in basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Except there was a foul. Antonio drove away too hastily and I could have been hurt \u2013 or worse. The fact that I wasn\u2019t was fortunate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But since I\u2019m not injured, I\u2019m not going to sue either Antonio or Lyft. That sounds like way too much hassle and since I wasn\u2019t hurt badly, a judge (or jury) wouldn\u2019t likely award me very much, if anything. I could fake injury, of course, but that\u2019s not my style at this time of my life. Back when I was \u201churting for money,\u201d possibly I would have used some trickery in order to get some cash, I\u2019m not sure, but not today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lyft, of course, is ultimately responsible, but this was a freak incident that could have just as easily happened to Uber or any cab company. So, I\u2019m still going to utilize Lyft to get back and forth to the airport. But I probably will start saying, \u201cI\u2019m slow\u201d when I exit the back seats of cars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ironically, had I taken my walker with me this never would have happened. The driver would have been forced to get the walker out of his trunk (or wherever he had stored it), and by that time I would have been well out of the car.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was using Lyft to get to the airport. This was a quick business trip while Bonnie stayed home. If I expect to do a lot of walking at my destination, I usually take my walker — and Bonnie and I both use it. This time, though, I was alone and wasn\u2019t expecting a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[558,557],"tags":[561,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":894564,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894563\/revisions\/894564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}