An Uber ad on the side of a car in Berlin. A student was hit by an Uber driver on Friday, Aug. 26, 2016. (Flickr/Alper Çuğun)
An Uber driver struck a University of Connecticut student on North Eagleville Road this past weekend.
“On Friday, Aug. 26, 2016 just before midnight, [UConn Police and Fire] personnel responded to a motor vehicle versus pedestrian accident on North Eagleville Road near the College Square complex,” UConn Police Chief Hans Rhynhart said in an email.
The pedestrian received immediate medical assistance by UConn police and then by members of the UConn Fire Department, he said.
The student looked battered up when he was being put into the ambulance and his “face was pretty bloody,” said Jana Cortese a seventh-semester psychology major, who was at the scene of the accident.
The student, who was hit, was taken to Windham Hospital in Willimantic and then airlifted to Hartford Hospital, where “The pedestrian was treated for his injuries and then released from the hospital Saturday morning,” Rhynhart said.
“The accident scene was processed by the Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section (CARS) Unit of the Connecticut State Police and the road was reopened a short time later,” Rhynhart said.
The apparent damage to the car was a smashed window, Cortese said.
“That driver was supposed to be picking up one of my friends and he [the Uber driver] cancelled right before [he was supposed to pick them up],” she said.
The driver was not arrested at the scene and the accident is still under investigation. The names of the Uber driver and the pedestrian have not yet been released.
Annabelle Orlando is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at annabelle.orlando@uconn.edu. She tweets @AnnabelleOrland