What would you do if your driver fell asleep at the wheel?
As reported by Kompas, a user of the ride-hailing service GrabCar named Irfan decided to take the matter of his personal safety into his own hands, claiming in a Facebook post that went viral over the weekend that he had to grab the GrabCars’ steering wheel after his driver, identified by his initial S, became sleepy.
According to the Facebook post, Irfan and his two friends hailed a GrabCar from Palmerah Selatan on Thursday evening. After dropping off his friends, Irfan resumed the journey in S’s GrabCar to Depok. Irfan soon began to suspect something was wrong with S as the car was swerving from side to side to the point that he almost crashed the car into a parked vehicle on the side of Jalan Raya Pasar Minggu.
“The speed was around 60 km/hour, and [S] almost crashed the car into a parked Brio. Spontaneously I screamed, ‘watch out!’ That jolted the driver awake and luckily he could control the car [and avoid the crash],” wrote Irfan.
But S apparently hadn’t learned his lesson. When the car came up to a railway crossing in Pasar Minggu, S almost collided with a motorcyclist.
“This time I reprimanded the driver with a loud tone. When I looked at him, it turned out his head was already facing downwards like somebody who fell asleep listening to a sermon,” Irfan continued.
Fearing for his safety but still wanting to get to his destination, Irfan then took over driving duties from S, who admitted that he had recently taken cold medicine and was exhausted from driving 15 passengers that day.
GrabCar Public Relations Manager Ekhel Chandra Wijaya said the company is investigating Irfan’s story.
“We’re still investigating first to find out what happened, so we can’t comment for the time being. We’re going to verify the truth from both parties – the passenger and the partner driver,” Ekhel told Kompas today.
Ekhel added that the company may temporarily suspend or cut off working ties with S should their investigation prove that he almost fell asleep at the wheel.
