An Uber driver saddled with mounting debt died when he threw himself in front of a Manhattan subway train this week — the seventh hack to commit suicide since November, industry sources said Saturday.
Fausto Luna, 58, jumped in front of an oncoming A train at the 175th Street and Fort Washington Avenue in Washington Heights on Monday, according to the sources.
Luna had become depressed about the debt, which he was unable to pay, the sources said. The amount, and the nature of the debt was not immediately clear.
Over the summer, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law a first-of-its-kind, one-year cap on e-hail cars, including Uber and Lyft vehicles.
The City Council, in a 39-6 vote, approved a one-year moratorium on the issuance of new for-hire-vehicle licenses while it studies the impact that the rapidly growing industry is having on the city.
Those new regulations also come on the heels of six recent driver suicides — mainly by yellow cabbies who said Uber’s unchecked expansion led to their own financial ruin — and driver groups inside City Hall heralded the new laws with cheers of “Driver power!” and “Shame on Uber.”
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