This browser does not support the Video element.
SEFFNER (FOX 13) - An Uber ride turned deadly when an intoxicated passenger got agitated and climbed out of his ride on Interstate 75, Florida Highway Patrol said Monday.
The driver was identified as Tiffany Pittman, who told FOX 13 the passenger was passed out when someone put him into her car Sunday night.
Pittman was driving her passenger, 28-year-old Sheng Lin, from a restaurant in Brooksville to his destination in Brandon and was heading south on I-75 when he woke up and, according to Pittman, was angry.
"It was 11 minutes before I got to his house; he's hitting my seat, pounding, making grunting noises and then he yells, 'Stop!'" she explained, adding she began pulling over on an exit ramp. "Before I could put it in park, he was already opening my door and getting out."
Pittman said she tried to stop Lin, but he didn't get very far.
"I even yelled to him, rolled down my window and was like, 'You're on the highway!'" she recalled. "He was in my blind spot and then all of a sudden I just hear, 'Boom!'"
Two cars hit Lin, who died at the hospital.
Pittman, who said she was only driving Sunday because she needed some extra money to pay a bill by Monday, feels awful this happened.
"It was my Uber rider, so I start getting upset," she said. "I'd rather take a beating if he would still be alive...I even asked the tow truck guy, I was like, 'How do you get over something like this?' He says, 'Well, I see it all the time.' He said, 'You just got to know it's not your fault and try to get past it.'"
According to FHP, charges are not expected against the Uber driver.