Woman Takes OLA From Bengaluru Airport & Has The Most Horrific Experience Of Her Life

We all swear by the comfort of cab-calling apps these days. There are so many different services they’ve introduced that make not just commuting, but also things like ordering autorickshaws, calling for food, postpaid payment options easier. But what about passenger safety? Particularly female passengers. Sure, many of them have emergency SOS buttons in the apps that passengers can click, and even share their live tracking with family members, but how effective is it all?

Recently, a woman narrated her harrowing ordeal with Ola cabs in Bengaluru that might stamp a huge question mark on female passenger safety while using the service.

Twitter user Akanksha Hazari was travelling from Bengaluru Airport to the city in an Ola cab, which she termed the scariest ride of her life, and rightly so.

The driver turned off the GPS directions that Ola initiates the moment a passenger is picked up.

It is to be noted that sometimes, if the route deviates, then you may even be charged extra. The driver in this case did it to avoid the toll, citing lack of cash to pay the toll as a reason.

He took a road that was unlit and barely any traffic. Akanksha was uncomfortable with the road and asked him to head back and take the original route.

However, her pleas were ignored, and he asked her to get out of the car.

She used the Emergency button the Ola app and got a call back from an Ola executive.

The trip continued but then again the driver began with his antics again. When Akanksha tried to tell him to stop talking on the phone, things began going south.

A little later, the driver altogether stopped his car and began making his calls again.

As for the safety executive who was supposed to be tracking the ride, there was no response.

The driver gets out of the car and continues to talk on phone in Kannada. Panic rises for Akanksha because her battery is low and she doesn’t know what to do.

When she finally gets through to an executive, the driver ignores the calls from the Ola executive too.

Finally, he takes the executive’s call, and after a verbal fight, gets back in the car to continue the trip.

Finally, Akanksha reaches home, safe, but definitely not feeling it.

In her tweets that follow this account, Akanksha raises some important questions that the cab service company definitely ought to lend their ears to.

The Bengaluru police noted Akanksha’s tweets and asked her to DM them details about the driver and the cab.

This isn’t the first incident of horror cab rides that have come to light. Some action and laws need to be put in place to make sure this doesn’t continue to happen. The first thing that Ola can actually do here is to ensure they have quicker and effective responses to their Emergency button.

An Ola Spokesperson has responded to the incident with the following statement:

“We deeply regret the experience that the customer had to go through. The driver in question had been off-roaded immediately, and has been blacklisted from the Ola platform. Safety of customers is our top priority and we are committed to ensuring that initiatives like the in-app Emergency button, a 24×7 Safety Response Team, and Ola Guardian amongst others, help our customers feel safe when they use the Ola platform. We have extended support to the police in sharing all information to help them with the investigation”.

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