An Uber driver who was stranded with a teenage passenger on I-95 in Virginia during a blizzard last weekend is being rewarded for his excellent customer service.
DaVante Williams, an Uber driver from Washington, D.C., sat for nearly six hours in his vehicle overnight with a teenage passenger after a severe snowstorm left hundreds of drivers stuck on a 50-mile stretch of the I-95 highway in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area.
Williams, who was attempting to navigate his way from downtown D.C. to Williamsburg, Virginia, was determined to get the girl home safe to her parents.
“My passenger, she was so distraught,” Williams told NewsNation’s Marni Hughes on Tuesday. “Apparently, I picked her up from Union Station, and her train was canceled due to derailment. So she only could call for Uber, and I was her driver.”
As conditions worsened, Williams offered to buy the teen a hotel room so she could get some rest before making the trip home the next morning. “I had to explain to her parents that, ‘Hey, I’m not anyone crazy. I’m just trying to get your daughter somewhere safe,’” Williams said.
He continued, “I wind up having to put her in a hotel because she wasn’t old enough to get a room. So I wanted to make sure she was comfortable. And I didn’t want to leave her stranded.”
Williams’ good deed has since gone viral, with Uber retweeting his appearance on NewsNation Now. “Not all heroes wear capes,” the ridesharing app wrote on its official account. “Thank you, DaVante!”
Aside from an outpouring of thanks, Williams has also been offered a job as a lead driver at Ride Alto, an upscale rideshare company that operates in D.C.
“I received an offer to be a lead driver for Ride Alto, where I will be pretty much in the office, just being a supervisor,” he told NewsNation Now.
Meanwhile, the company is delighted to have him aboard. “We are thrilled,” a spokeswoman for Alto told CNN. “DaVante is exactly the type of customer and safety focused leader we are looking to help lead our DC presence.”
