Uber driver let teens ride on roof, 1 fell off and died: prosecutors

Ryan
Mullen and Danyal Cheema, as seen on a local news
broadcast.
ABC7/YouTube

• An Uber driver accepted $40 to let two teenagers ride on the
  roof of his Toyota on September 23, a court in the New York City
  area heard.
• One of the boys, Ryan Mullen, fell from the SUV’s roof and
  hit his head, an injury from which he later died.
• Driver Danyal Cheema was arraigned in court on Monday, and
  pleaded not guilty to a manslaughter charge, according to local
  news reports.

An Uber driver let two teenage passengers ride on the roof of his
SUV for a stunt, and one of them died, according to news reports
of a court case.

Danyal Cheema allegedly accepted an extra $40 from three boys in
exchange for letting two of them ride on the roof on a trip in
Long Island, New York, this September, according to prosecutors
cited by
ABC7 and
NBC New York.

During the trip, 15-year-old Ryan Mullen fell from the roof and
hit his head, an injury which later led to his death, the outlets
said. The third passenger, a 16-year old boy, filmed the stunt
for Snapchat, the reports said.

Cheema was arraigned at the Suffolk County Criminal Court Monday,
the news reports said, and is charged with a single count of
manslaughter.

In an interview with ABC 7, Suffolk County District Attorney Tim
Sin said the boys were picked up by Cheema just after midnight at
a Long Island 7-Eleven convenience store, and “had been
drinking.”

The
7-Eleven where Muller and his friends were picked up by the
Uber.
ABC
7/YouTube

After Mullen had fallen from the car and seriously hit his head
during the stunt at “a speed of up to 30 miles-per-hour,” Cheema
dropped them off at one of their houses in Huntington, without
calling 911, ABC 7 reported.

Mullen died of his injuries in his sleep that night, ABC 7 said.
The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head according
to the medical examiner’s office,
NBC said.

Read more

: 

Uber
wants to test self-driving cars in Pennsylvania again — seven
months after one of its cars killed a pedestrian.

“This was an incredibly bad decision by the defendant, and a bad
decision by the boys involved, obviously,” Sini said to ABC 7.
“But at the end of the day, that defendant is an adult contracted
to safely bring those boys home, and he failed to do that.”

The maximum sentence for the charges is 15 years in prison, and
ABC 7 reported that police say Cheema has confessed on
video. The
Daily Beast reported that at the arraignment Cheema pleaded
not guilty.

Cheema did not comment on Monday and was given a bail of
$200,000. His licence was also suspended, ABC said. Business
Insider has requested comment from his attorney.

In a statement to ABC7, an Uber spokesperson said: “Words cannot
describe how deeply troubled we are by this incident. Our
thoughts are with the rider’s family during this difficult time.
This driver has been permanently removed from the app.”

Business Insider has also contacted Uber for comment.