The Miami-Dade County Mayor’s Office is considering the withdrawal of a $ 250 fine that a Miami International Airport (MIA) inspector imposed on a Uber driver for failing to speak English correctly, local media reported today.
Mike Hernandez, a spokesman for the county council, told El Nuevo Herald newspaper that “the mayor is very likely to withdraw the fine” from the driver of Uber penalized, Cuban Carmen Echeverria, 54.
“We do not think it is such a serious breach, especially since July 1 (new) state rules take effect,” and overrule most of the existing local ordinances on passenger transport companies, Hernández added.
A video posted yesterday by the Telemundo channel 51 recorded by the same sanctioned with his mobile phone shows the moment in which an agent explains the reason for the fine.
The incident occurred last weekend at the Miami International Airport (MIA), when Echeverria stopped its vehicle to leave two passengers and got out of the car to unload the luggage, at which time an airport security manager addressed To her in English.
“She (EcheverrÃa) looked at me as if she did not understand me, so I called my colleague Mario González to translate that he was greeting her,” said the report of the fine agent Detra Johnson, according to the South Florida.
When the agent understood that the driver of Uber did not understand English or spoke, he made the decision to fine Echeverria, who has been working for Uber for two years and decided to record with the phone the moment he receives the ticket.
“I felt discriminated against,” the woman told Telemundo 51.
