Lawsuit: Amazon Delivery Crash Was Caused by Company’s Relentless Algorithms

Amazon is being sued over crashes by drivers rushing to make deliveries while following the company’s schedule. While the e-commerce giant says it is not liable, one lawsuit blames Amazon’s algorithms for a crash that paralyzed an aspiring doctor.

In March, an Amazon delivery van slammed into a Tesla Model S that was stopped behind a disabled car on Atlanta’s busy Interstate 75, mangling the rear end of the car and giving aspiring doctor Ans Rana — who was in the back seat — life-changing brain and spinal-cord injuries, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The 24-year-old, who spent months in the hospital clinging to life, was able to slowly recover enough to be released from the hospital, and now lives with a sister who looks after him.

Rana now reportedly gets around in a motorized wheelchair, unable to do simple tasks he once took for granted such as feeding himself, changing channels with a remote control, or playing video games.

In June, Rana filed a lawsuit claiming that Amazon is liable for the accident. The suit mentions the company’s algorithms, apps, and devices the company uses to manage its logistics operation.

Amazon says it isn’t legally responsible for the accident because the driver worked for Harper Logistics LLC, one of the thousands of small businesses launched in recent years to deliver Amazon packages.

Rana’s attorney, Scott Harrison, is reportedly focusing on Amazon’s algorithms in an attempt to prove that the company controls the operation. The suit claims that far from just being a customer of Harper Logistics, Amazon actually manages it from afar.

The lawsuit states that Amazon closely tracks delivery drivers’ every move, including “backup monitoring, speed, braking, acceleration, cornering, seatbelt usage, phone calls, texting, in-van cameras that use artificial intelligence to detect for yawning, and more.”

The suit adds that if drivers fall behind schedule, Amazon employees send text messages “complaining that a certain driver is ‘behind the rabbit’ and needs to be ‘rescued’ to ensure that all the packages on Amazon’s route are delivered in compliance with Amazon’s unrealistic and dangerous speed expectations.”

Amazon Logistics has been a defendant in at least 119 motor vehicle injury lawsuits in 35 states so far this year, reports Bloomberg, adding that if Rana’s lawsuit prevails, then the legal strategy could help the growing number of complaints against the company’s delivery operation.

In another lawsuit, a Texas couple claimed they were injured in a February crash with an Amazon delivery van, and sought more than $1 million in damages. The case, however, was later dismissed.

In Massachusetts, a man filed a lawsuit after suffering brain injuries during a head-on collision in January with a delivery van. The driver allegedly fell asleep and drifted into oncoming traffic. Amazon has reportedly not yet responded to that lawsuit, which was filed in September.

Personal injury lawyers around the U.S. are advertising their expertise to people who have been hurt in crashes involving Amazon delivery contractors, Bloomberg reports.

Amazon spokeswoman Maria Boschetti told Bloomberg that the company has invested more than $1 billion in technology, pay, and training programs to improve the safety of its delivery arm.

The spokeswoman added that the investments have helped significantly decrease accidents, stop sign and signal violations, driving without a seatbelt, and distracted driving.

Amazon is “committed to the safety of drivers and the communities where we deliver” and works closely with its delivery partners to “set realistic expectations that do not place undue pressure on them or their delivery associates,” she told Bloomberg.

While Boschetti did not deny the increase of motor vehicle injury lawsuits filed against Amazon, she said the company’s “accident rate” — which reportedly measures the number of incidents against total miles driven — is down in the first nine months of 2021 when compared with the same period in 2020.

Boschetti, however, did not disclose Amazon’s accident rate.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.