An Uber passenger in Philly ambushed the driver, shooting him in the back and causing a crash

For the second time in as many months, a driver for a ridesharing company has been shot in Philadelphia, police said.

In the latest attack at 10 p.m. Thursday, a male passenger shot an Uber driver in the back and left arm, causing him to crash his car into a pole at the intersection of Cobbs Creek Parkway and Delancey Street, police said.

The 50-year-old driver was located on the street by paramedics who rushed him to Lankenau Medical Center, where he was listed in critical but stable condition.

The motive of the gunman, who fled on foot, is not known, a Police Department spokesperson said Friday.

The department does not keep statistics on the number of rideshare drivers who’ve been attacked, the spokesperson said.

Uber officials, meanwhile, decried the attack on the driver.

“Violence has no place on the Uber platform,” an Uber spokesperson said. “Our hearts are with the driver as he recovers from this horrifying incident. We’ve removed the rider’s access to the app, and stand ready to assist law enforcement with their investigation.”

Angela Vogel, general secretary of the Philadelphia Drivers Union, called on Uber and similar companies to end policies that she said make it harder for drivers to protect themselves. She noted that drivers are banned from carrying licensed guns and can be fired when they refuse passengers, even if their worries are legitimate.

“What is going to make us safest is for drivers to feel entitled to tell passengers to get out of their car, to refuse a trip, to be able to control their own safety, and not worry that they’re going to lose their job,” she said.

Founded in 2015 by drivers for ridesharing companies including Uber and Lyft and delivery network companies including Grubhub and DoorDash, the Philadelphia Drivers Union now has more than 5,000 members, Vogel said.

In addition to wanting the right to be armed and to refuse service to unruly passengers, she said, many also want passengers to have to identify themselves.

Thursday’s attack follows the shooting of a Lyft driver in the city’s Fairmount section at 3 a.m. March 9. The 42-year-old driver survived an ambush by a gunman who fired a dozen bullets at his car, which was idling at the corner of 24th and Poplar Streets.

The driver, who was waiting to pick up a passenger, suffered a graze wound to the back and was able to drive to the rear entrance of police headquarters, at 15th and Callowhill Streets, where he received help.

The gunman remains at large.

Uber drivers and those of Lyft, its chief rideshare competitor, have been victims of deadly attacks in Philadelphia last September, in Pittsburgh in February, and in the Washington suburbs, also in February.

To increase safety for drivers and passengers Uber has introduced a number of features in its app over the past several years, the company said.

Those include an emergency button and a 911 integration pilot program in more than 1,800 places, including Philadelphia, that enables riders and drivers to use the emergency button to digitally send to 911 dispatchers key trip details, including the caller’s name, the make and model of the Uber car, license plate, and GPS.

The company said its RideCheck feature automatically asks drivers and riders if they are OK in the event of a crash or unexpected long stop, while the Follow My Ride feature in the app allows drivers to share their trip route in real time with family or others.

Drivers and riders can report incidents and accidents via the app or through the Safety Incident Reporting line, which is staffed 24 hours a day, the company said.