What we give is what we receive in return.
So when a driver did more than what’s necessary for a passenger in need, he found himself at the receiving end of someone else’s kindness.
DaVante Williams is an Uber driver and is just doing what his job asks him to do – get people to where they need to be safe and fast. But these two things became a bit difficult to achieve when Mother Nature intervened.
A severe winter storm created a 50-mile standstill on I-95.
Among the stranded motorists were Williams and his passenger. He told CNN that he picked up the girl at Union Station at about 2 in the morning. Her train was among one of the many cancellations that night.
The girl was on her way home from Washington D.C. to Williamsburg, Virginia. And for someone who’s still out in the cold in the early hours after midnight, one can only imagine how difficult everything was for her physically, emotionally, and mentally.
20 miles into the trip, Williams realized something was wrong.
“I noticed trucks and cars, there’s a ton of red lights ahead of me,” he said to the news outlet.
From where he was sitting, he just saw every driver’s worst nightmare – a river of red lights as far as the eyes could see. He tried to take an alternate route but the police in the area just diverted him back to the clogged interstate.
Other roads were also inaccessible at that time due to downed trees and power lines. Their trip was estimated to last two hours and a half, but when his GPS updated, it added another hour and a half.
He kept on checking on his passenger.
With the conditions worsening and options dwindling, he could only offer drinks and snacks. Williams, unfortunately, doesn’t have blankets in his car and he was paying close attention to the gas while they’re running the heater.
“She’s telling me she’s okay, but I could hear her on the phone talking to family and friends and I can hear that she’s just exhausted, emotional, and just tired,” he said to CNN.
Fortunately, they were able to follow a work truck and found themselves back to DC.
From there, he decided to take the girl to a hotel. He didn’t want to leave her all by herself at Union Station so he tried to convince her parents to get a room for her.
He paid for the accommodation with his own money, an act of generous kindness to a total stranger. He even offered to drive her to Williamsburg for free once the roads cleared. She was picked up by a family friend and got home safe the following evening.
Williams, only wanting his passenger to be safe, was lauded for his service.
The girl’s parents thanked her for what he did because he “didn’t have to do it”. Uber reimbursed him for the hotel room cost and was praised by the company.
But to make things even better, his act of generosity opened new doors for him. He was offered a part-time job as a lead driver in an upscale ridesharing company.
“We are thrilled,” a spokeswoman from Alto said in an email to CNN. “DaVante is exactly the type of customer and safety-focused leader we are looking to help lead our DC presence.”
