A few days ago, American boy Andrew Peters took an Uber ride-hailing car,
He didn't expect that the fare this time was so high that his heart was dripping blood...
This Monday, Andrew just landed in Washington, D.C. by plane from San Francisco.
He hailed an Uber at Dulles International Airport and took him home from the airport.
At the time, he didn't know how long the next journey home would be.
The driver drove him on the famous Interstate 95 (I-95),
From Monday morning, heavy snow began in Virginia, causing about 30 centimeters of snow and the road surface was frozen.
Several sections of Route 95 were affected by snow, and the 64-kilometre-long section was largely paralyzed.
All the cars that drive on these sections are trapped on Route 95, causing a big traffic jam.
The traffic jam was just caught up by Andrew.
This blockage was 9 hours, and he had to be stuck in the car overnight.
He got off the plane and got on Uber, didn't have any water or food with him, and was thirsty and hungry in the car, not to mention how difficult it was.
It wasn't until the next Tuesday that the car was finally able to move slowly, and at one exit, Route 95, was dropped off, which sent Andrew home.
The trip cost him $200 (about 1,275 yuan).
(Note: The estimator on Uber's official website shows that the fare from the airport to the city where the brother's hometown is located is about $160, at this time, the $40 float is normal)
After 9 hours of traffic jamming, Andrew thought he was unlucky enough.
To his surprise, he later received a notice from Uber telling him that the fare had to be paid for $400.
Plus $200 that has already been paid before,
His trip home costs $600 (about 3,824 yuan).
Andrew reluctantly paid the "huge fare", and later felt that something was wrong, so he complained to Uber about it, questioning the reason for letting him make up the money.
Soon, Uber issued a statement saying it had returned the money to Andrew.
The statement also specifically said that although Andrew was refunded, the driver's income would not be affected.
Uber's official website actually wrote such a line,
"Traffic jams can cause your trip to take longer than expected, and your fare may change to compensate for the extra time that drivers are taking up."
The reason why Andrew was asked to make up the money was also because he was stuck in traffic for 9 hours, which took up a lot of the driver's time.
But this traffic jam is not an ordinary traffic jam in the conventional situation at all, whether it is for the driver or the passenger, it is an unguarded accident!
It is estimated that Uber also took these factors into account and agreed to refund Andrew's money afterwards.
Because, such bad luck is really not only Andrew...
The unprecedented traffic jam on Interstate 95 in the United States, thousands of people were trapped on the road, through a difficult day, or even two days,
The government was slow to move, and it took a day to rescue the trapped people.
Snow began to fall on Monday, and some sections of Route 95 were covered with snow and ice, and vehicles drove slowly;
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, multiple sections of Virginia were paralyzed by traffic jams, and the government decided to close several highways.
But the decision was made only on Wednesday morning because of the need to inform the media, broadcast in Virginia and neighboring states, and prepare plans to detour vehicles.
The Government also organized the clearance of Route 95, with 52 snow removal vehicles, 9 motor graders and 16 wreckers reportedly dispatched;
The government evacuated some vehicles from Route 95,
But there are still 50-60 vehicles abandoned on the road, some large vehicles run out of dye and cannot move, and hundreds more are stuck in the road.
Nearly 24 hours, the drivers of these cars had to turn off the engine to save fuel, many people did not have food and water on the car, and could only starve in a cold environment.
At night, the temperature drops to more than minus 20 degrees, people can only sleep in the car, and there is no toilet on the side of the road;
It was not until Tuesday night and Wednesday morning that most of the paralyzed sections were finally cleared and reopened.
The vehicle that had been trapped for a day could finally go.
Thousands of people are trapped on the road, without food or drink, and can only sleep in the car at night.
Some of the more unlucky drivers even waited more than 24 hours before the rescuers cleared 30 centimeters of snow and let them get back on the road.
The people who were trapped on Route 95 this time had everything, but everyone was miserable.
A man driving to work, with children and pets in his car, did not dare to turn off the engine to keep warm, until the gasoline ran out and the car broke down completely.
A driver sent a message to the media for help,
"What if we're going to take my dad to Massachusetts for an important surgery by 7:30 a.m. tomorrow morning and get stuck?"
Another driver complained,
"We left Gaithersburg at 4:50 a.m. to attend Dad's funeral."
"But it looks like we can't go."
NBC reporter Josh Lederman was also trapped,
For hours he didn't see the snowplow or the police, and he could only stare nervously at the gas meter, afraid that the gasoline would run out.
He took the dog with him in the car that day, but he did not prepare to eat and drink in advance, so he could only pick up some snow that melted and gave the dog a drink.
From Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning, waiting for more than half a day the traffic still did not move,
The reporter said that people around have begun to get out of the car and move their bones, and some people are walking their dogs between the gaps in the vehicle.
"I only had some gum and about a third bottle of water in my car," the reporter told local media by phone.
"If it gets worse, I'll have to go out into the wild to find food for the dogs, hopefully not to that extent."
"In case someone gets sick, no one can give him treatment or any other help."
"People just have to wait."
Witnessing this traffic jam was Also Virginia Senator Tim Kaine,
He set off from his home in Richmond, Virginia, that day to work in Washington, D.C., but was stranded on Route 95.
In a boring and anxious waiting time, he launched a tweet and began streaming the trapped process online.
"Yesterday at one o'clock in the afternoon, I started this normal 2-hour drive.
After 19 hours, I was still far from the Capitol.
My office and the Virginia Department of Transportation are figuring out how to help Virginians in this situation.
Please pay attention to safety. ”
"When we were stranded on Route 95 for several hours, a family in Connecticut drove home from Florida in a fully loaded car, passing by in the middle of the night to give oranges to people along the way. Bless them! ”
"Update: I've been on the road for 27 hours."
"Well, it took 27 hours from Richmond to Washington, D.C., and it's great to arrive at the Capitol this afternoon (5th) and start working on voting rights legislation."
Tim Kaine's head of communications also tweeted to confirm that he had indeed arrived safely in Washington, D.C., in good spirits.
If you want to say the most miserable one, I am afraid it is Still Mr. James Murphy.
He is a retired orthodontist who is 93 years old this year.
To escape the cold northern winter, he set off from New York State on Monday morning and drove to Florida for the winter.
Unexpectedly walked along Route 95 to Virginia, trapped by a big traffic jam,
He arrived at his destination on Thursday night, and the time in the car added up to 39 hours.
Mr. Murphy had a meal with his daughter before leaving, and set off with a few cans of Diet Coke, a large chocolate chip cookie and a small jar of peanuts.
He is usually in good health, but he has a pacemaker, his knees are not good, and his daughter did not approve of driving so far by himself, but unfortunately did not stop.
That night he caught up with the big traffic jam, and after 17 hours, the vehicle did not move.
In order to save fuel, he turned off the engine and sang to relieve his boredom.
However, after learning the news that he was stuck in traffic jams, his daughter was in a hurry.
She knew that her dad's car didn't have an on-board charger to charge her phone, and she didn't have a GPS location map, so she couldn't find the location of the car.
The father and daughter could only make contact by phone, and Mr. Murphy didn't know where he was trapped, remembering only the name of the last highway exit he had encountered.
My daughter didn't sleep all night, searching the Internet with the only information she had, listening to news reports.
The next Tuesday morning, she sent an email to the radio station asking for help, stunned the radio reporter in charge of traffic news.
"One woman was worried that her diabetic husband had not eaten for hours."
"A couple with a baby is trapped."
"A young girl spends the night alone in the car, terrified, going to college in North Carolina."
"I couldn't help them, but when I heard that the 93-year-old was trapped, I felt like I had to help him."
With the help of reporters, Mr. Murphy took Route 95 at an exit,
My daughter wanted to find him a hotel nearby to rest, but all the hotels were fully booked.
Finally, with the help of well-wishers, it was difficult to find a conference center room.
Meanwhile, Mr. Murphy is struggling to find his way to the hotel,
In the middle of the wrong way, illegal turn was stopped by the police,
The police were very distressed about him, and even helped him check the route with the online map, wrote it on a note, and asked him to take it and set off.
In the end, it was a hotel employee who drove out to find him and successfully brought him back to the hotel.
From Monday morning to Tuesday night, mr. Murphy stayed in the car for more than a day.
On Tuesday night, he was finally able to lie in bed and get a comfortable night's sleep.
Mr. Murphy departed again on Wednesday morning,
Although Route 95 had reopened by this time, just in case, the hotel staff led him to Route 17 and pointed him in the right direction.
After that, the journey was relatively smooth, and he finally reached his destination on Thursday night.
"The weather here is nice and I'm fine."
In fact, what makes the American people more angry than simply being trapped by snow is that
Obviously, the weather forecast has said in advance that it will snow, but the government has not arranged preventive and disposal measures in advance.
As a result, the preventive measures did not work, and the snowplow rescue was also so crotch-pulling, which made people dissatisfied.
A driver complained to reporters after he was "saved",
"They got water this morning. But what is the use of water? ”
"I haven't eaten for 24 hours, my car has run out of gas, I've called the Ministry of Transport six times, and no one has come."
"Just be angry, do they treat taxpayers like this?"
Another woman told reporters she was trapped for 14 hours and didn't see the snowplow until the next morning.
"I'm not angry about the snow."
"Just disappointed with the way they handled it."
In the face of these grievances, transportation department officials and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam explained,
It was because it rained before the snow, and the rain washed away the antifreeze on the road, which failed to achieve the preventive effect.
After that, the snow began to snow, and the speed of the snow removal truck could not keep up with the speed of the snow,
Then it got dark, the temperature dropped, and it started to freeze, which was even harder to handle.
In addition to this, several tractor trailers on the highway overturned, causing confusion in the clean-up effort.
Some vehicles blocked the fast lanes, and the work vehicles also blocked,
Heavy snow also caused some traffic cameras to lose power,
In short, it took more time to finally dredge Route 95.
However, the outgoing governor Ralph Northam also said something that made people even more angry when they heard it.
"We're warning, and people need to pay attention to those warnings."
"When a snowstorm hits, the fewer people on the highway, the better."
Listening to the meaning of this, it is like those who are trapped are ignorant of their own understanding, but they want to go out on a blizzard day, and they deserve to be trapped, and they also add chaos to the rescue.
Governor Ralph Northam and his government have not apologized or reflected at all.
Nor did it mention whether the relevant measures had been perfected so that similar incidents could be handled more efficiently in the future.
Soon, the governor's words caused a burst of wild squirts from netizens.
Ralph Northam blamed the people driving On Route 95 for not apologizing for the government's apparent dereliction of duty.
Give this guy a raise.
(The news says that the weather forecaster calls the virginia governor "bastard".)
Gov. Ralph Northam said to Senator Tim Kaine: "Why don't you listen?
"Extra Resources" = (by sunlight)
This traffic jam is basically over,
But people's anger is far from over...