{"id":851899,"date":"2026-09-18T08:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T08:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/851899\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T08:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T08:20:18","slug":"woman-was-killed-on-freeway-after-uber-driver-ordered-her-out-of-car-uber-must-pay-40-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/851899\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman was killed on freeway after Uber driver ordered her out of car. Uber must pay $40 million"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After a night out with a friend, Emily Normandin-Parker called an Uber but never made it home. <\/p>\n

The 23-year-old UCLA graduate was hit and killed by another car on the freeway after her Uber driver pulled over on California 73 and ordered her and her friend to get out of the vehicle. <\/p>\n

Judge Richard Stone ordered Uber to pay $40 million to Normandin-Parker\u2019s parents, concluding that the company is responsible for its driver\u2019s conduct, according to a news release from Panish, Shea, Ravipudi, the law firm representing the couple. The amount was determined after a five-day arbitration process and hearing. <\/p>\n

Carol Normandin told The Times that the legal victory felt \u201chollow\u201d as Uber had not accepted responsibility in her daughter\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

In August 2023, according to the release, Normandin-Parker\u2019s friend, Luna Moore, got sick in the Uber and the driver, Vu Tran, stopped at a freeway gore point, the triangular area by the freeway\u2019s off-ramp. Tran demanded payment for a cleaning fee and allegedly ordered the women out of the vehicle. <\/p>\n

Normandin-Parker was intoxicated and was killed by a driver on the freeway, according to the release. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe chose to pull over there and demand money and kick them out of the car,\u201d Normandin told \u201cGood Morning America<\/a>.\u201d \u201cThey argue, Emily gets hit while they\u2019re arguing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news outlet reported that, according to the arbitration award, Tran drove near Normandin-Parker\u2019s body before taking the next exit. He didn\u2019t render aid or call 911 but called Uber to seek a cleaning fee, according to the law firm\u2019s release. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo family should have to suffer the loss of a child, and our thoughts continue to be with the Normandin-Parker family,\u201d an Uber spokesperson said in a statement. \u201cWhile we respect the arbitration process, we believe the arbitrator was wrong in holding Uber legally responsible for the tragic events of that night.\u201d <\/p>\n

Judge Stone wrote in the arbitration that Tran stopped at an \u201cunsafe and illegal\u201d gore point and could have used the MacArthur Boulevard exit ramp and stopped at a safe place instead. <\/p>\n

\u201cTran showed far more worry for his new car than he did for his passengers,\u201d Stone wrote in the arbitration. <\/p>\n

Tran is no longer a driver with Uber, according to the statement. He reportedly had completed nearly 6,000 trips with a 4.96 rating and didn\u2019t have previous incidents involving unsafe freeway stops or rider injury. <\/p>\n

But, according to the release, Uber also received multiple complaints about Tran\u2019s \u201creckless behavior\u201d after one customer said that he provided \u201cthe least safe\u201d ride he had experienced. Uber told customers it was reviewing Tran\u2019s account, but evidence at the arbitration showed that the company didn\u2019t review Tran\u2019s incidents. <\/p>\n

Stone also ruled that Uber has a duty to protect its passengers and is accountable for harm caused by drivers. He rejected Uber\u2019s claim that Proposition 22, which granted Uber an exemption from California employment law<\/a> to continue treating workers as independent contractors, prevents Uber from being held liable. <\/p>\n

The award provides $20 million each to Normandin and her husband, Ken Parker, for the death of their daughter. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to describe the reaction because it\u2019s a terrible thing that happened,\u201d Parker told The Times. \u201cMy reaction was relief … a hollow sense of victory. It\u2019s important that the judge did what he did because there have been additional deaths since Emily, and unless Uber changes the way it does business, there will be more.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t bring Emily back,\u201d Normandin said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want money. We just wanted Uber to do what it says it\u2019s going to do, which is bring her back home safely.\u201d <\/p>\n

The couple created the Emily Normandin-Parker Foundation to honor their daughter\u2019s memory and advocate for stronger rider safety protections. Her family intends to use the money to fund the foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a night out with a friend, Emily Normandin-Parker called an Uber but never made it home. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[359882,28,6906,359883,6461,8609,130384,13794,359885,1269,359881,359884,38687,88223,359880,11270],"class_list":["post-851899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-arbitration-award","tag-business","tag-car","tag-carol-normandin","tag-daughter","tag-death","tag-freeway","tag-friend","tag-judge-richard-stone","tag-news-release","tag-normandin-parker","tag-previous-incident","tag-uber","tag-uber-driver","tag-vu-tran","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}