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Uber Driver Forced To Use Pepper Spray After Drunk Passenger Attacks Him (Video)

by Eitan Levine

All in all, this wasn't a terrible Uber ride.

Benjamin Golden, an Orange County user of the mobile app-based car service, was arrested for public intoxication and assault after he drunkenly surge-priced the hell out of his driver's face.

Edward Caban, the driver who was attacked by Golden, caught the incident on tape after he asked Golden to leave the car because Golden was too drunk to supply any useful directions.

When things got violent, Caban was able to fend off the wasted Taco Bell brand manager by using a can of pepper spray he kept in his car.

Caban told CBS Los Angeles,

There have been a lot of situations of late that have made me uncomfortable. That's why I stopped driving [late] at night. But the scary thing is, this happened at the end of my day shift, at 8 o'clock.

There are obvious risks associated with running an Uber taxi late at night. The risks are nothing new, and they're something you 100 percent take into account when you get into this business.

The bigger issue here is, Uber is apparently awful at dealing with employee safety, Caban said.

For starters, unlike in standard taxi cabs, there is no partition between the passengers and drivers, and drivers don't have radio communication with a central dispatch.

Uber also reportedly doesn't have any formal training program or even something as little as a FAQ page telling drivers how to deal with dangerous passengers.

Caban said,

[Uber is] impossible to get a hold of [to] try to talk to about these situations. It's every driver for themselves.

He says he no longer feels safe driving for Uber, even though the company did dish out a lifetime ban to Golden.

Get your sh*t together, Uber.

Citations: Uber Driver Pepper Sprays Wasted Passenger After Being Assaulted (Complex), Caught On Video: OC Man Repeatedly Assaults Uber Driver Before Getting Pepper Sprayed (CBS Los Angeles)