The family of a Corona man who was hit by a car and killed says he was left behind on the 91 Freeway when his Uber ride pulled over to let out another passenger who had to throw up. Now the family is suing the ride-hailing company, alleging the driver’s negligence led to his death.
The crash that killed 21-year-old Cory Hunter occurred just before 3 a.m. on Sunday, May 21. At the time, the California Highway Patrol only identified Hunter as a pedestrian who somehow had made it to the fast lane of the 91 near the Serfas Club Drive exit in Norco.
Hunter died at the scene after an oncoming Toyota Corolla hit him, the CHP said. But his family said police left out that Hunter was only on the freeway after his ride left without him.
“They said that he was just walking on the freeway,” said his mother, Rhonda Hunter, of Norco. “He could have been homeless. He could have been a guy on drugs. My son never did drugs.
“People thought maybe he committed suicide,” she said. “He did not — he was left there.”
According to Hunter’s family, their attorney and the attorney of the Uber driver, the group of five friends were out drinking the night before in Downtown Fullerton when they agreed to take an Uber ride home. They piled into the van that arrived for them and were headed back to Riverside County when one of them said he was sick.
The driver pulled over to the right-hand shoulder some distance away from the Serfas Drive exit. Hunter was seated in the van’s middle row; he got out to allow the sickened passenger to exit. Within seconds, the rest of the passengers also got out.
The friends who were with Hunter and the driver, according to their attorneys and the lawsuit, all agreed that somehow in the minutes after they pulled over, Hunter disappeared.
His friends called out for him repeatedly, but they heard nothing, said Peter Corrales, the family’s attorney. A short time later, they got back in the van and left.
“There’s only three ways…
Read the full article here
