NEW YORK, A Pakistani driver, who worked for Uber, and three of his four passengers were killed when a speeding motorist traveling in the opposite direction veered into their lane and hit them head-on over the weekend in Long Island, a suburb of New York City, police said Monday.
Farhan Zahid, 32, the driver, died on the spot along with three of his passengers. The fourth passenger, a woman, was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
According to investigators, the car that hit Zahid’s Uber was speeding, which played a key role in the deadly collision. But, they said that probe is not yet complete.
The speeding wrong-way driver was also killed.
Meanwhile, Zahid’s distraught wife, 26-year-old Hifsa Ahmad , said she’s at a loss about how to tell the couple’s three young children that their father won’t be coming home.
“The kids have been asking me since yesterday when their father is coming,” she told Newsday newspaper. “Why is he still at work? Why isn’t he coming?’ They really don’t understand.”
Zahid and Ms. Ahmad were married in Pakistan in 2014. She had lived on Long Island, as do most of her family, since 2008. Zahid followed his wife to the US in 2016 and found work as an Uber driver to support his wife and their kids — son Ayan, 6, daughter Mishal, 3, and son Ahaan, 16 months.
“I have no support; he was working; he was the only one,” Ms. Ahmad tearfully told the newspaper. “He was a good partner. A good husband. He was really nice.”
Ms. Ahmad added that she was getting ready to open a beauty parlor in Bayshore, Long Island, next month and the family was planning to travel to Pakistan in October to attend wedding of Zahid’s sister .
An Uber representative said Zahid had been driving for the company for about two years.
“Our thoughts are with the families of Mr. Zahid and the four others who lost their lives in this heartbreaking crash and we hope the survivor makes a full recovery,” the company said in a statement.
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