The motorcyclist involved in the road crash that led to the death of a BRAC University student had used a false address for registering on ride-hailing service Uber, said police.
“Motorcyclist Sumon Hossain used a false address for Uber registration. The addresses stated in his national ID card and bKash [mobile money transfer service] account details were also false,” Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Tejgaon division Biplob Kumar Sarkar told the media on Sunday (Apr 28).
Twenty-one-year-old Fahmida Haque Labannya was killed on Thursday (Apr 25) when the motorcycle she was on was rammed by a cover van near the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in Dhaka.
The motorcyclist subsequently rushed her to the Suhrwardy Hospital in a critical state, where doctors on duty declared her dead.
The covered van sped away after the incident. The motorcyclist also escaped after taking Fahmida to the hospital.
Police arrested motorcyclist Suman from Dhaka’s Mohammadpur the next day while the covered van’s driver Abdur Rahman was arrested late on Saturday from Ashulia, at the outskirts of the capital.
Senior police officer Sarkar said that initial investigations and footages from CCTV cameras revealed that both of the motorcyclist and the covered van driver were speeding.
“The covered van hit the motorbike while overtaking it. Labannya flung from the motorbike due to the impact and was crushed under the wheels,” he said.
Deputy Commissioner Sarker said that the address motorcyclist Suman gave at the Suhrawardy Hospital was also a false before blaming ride-sharing service Uber for not co-operating in the hunt for the motorcyclist.
Uber authorities cannot evade responsibility for registering a rider without verifying the address, according to the senior police officer.
Uber Bangladesh’s Senior Manager Armanur Rahman, who was at the media briefing, failed to come up with an answer when the reporters asked about police’s allegations.
In response to several queries on drivers’ registration, passengers’ safety and its operation in Bangladesh, the only thing the Uber official said that the accident was unfortunate before adding “We need to work so that these types of incident do not repeat."