Uber driver who struck, killed young girl is convicted of vehicular manslaughter

Enlarge / A woman walks into the Uber Corporate Headquarters building in San Francisco, California on February 05, 2018. (credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images)

A now-former Uber driver who struck a San Francisco family with his car on December 31, 2013—killing a six-year-old girl named Sophia Liu in the process—was convicted of vehicular manslaughter on August 2.

In addition to the fatality, driver Syed Muzaffar also seriously injured Liu’s mother, Huan Hua Kuang, and her five-year-old brother, Anthony, while driving a Honda Pilot SUV through a crosswalk at Polk and Ellis Streets. In January 2014, the family sued Muzaffar and Uber for wrongful death and other complaints.

As Ars reported previously, Muzaffar had only been an Uber driver for a month and did not have anyone in his car at the time of the accident. Uber has previously argued that because Muzaffar “was not providing services on the Uber system during the time of the accident,” the company is not responsible. That lawsuit was ultimately settled in July 2015.