On October 4, 2021, a rider named Justin Hartley was riding his 2007 Harley-Davidson (model unspecified) in Virginia Beach, Virginia when something terrible happened. An Amazon subcontractor driving a Hertz rental truck with an Amazon logo on it reportedly turned into his lane, striking Hartley. He sustained several injuries, the most serious of which resulted in the amputation of his left leg below the knee.
In January, 2022, Hartley filed a lawsuit against three entities: the individual driver who hit him, Amazon Logistics, and the e-commerce giant Amazon itself. As Hartley’s attorney, Kevin Biniazan, told local newspaper the Virginian-Pilot, the crash was preventable. “The unrealistic expectations that are put on the drivers are fueling these negligence cases. The driver was so entranced in making his delivery that he did not see our client,” Biniazan said.
Now, if this is among the first such incidents you’ve heard regarding Amazon delivery drivers causing serious injury to other road users—riders, pedestrians, and toddlers alike—you might think that it’s a tragedy. At the same time, you might also mentally assign most (or all) of the blame to the individual driver. After all, you might reason, Amazon delivers millions of packages—so occasionally, injuries involving delivery vehicles are bound to happen, right?
Unfortunately, this incident is far from the first similar legal complaint filed against either Amazon or its delivery subcontractors. In fact, it’s not even the first motorcyclist who’s been seriously injured or even killed due to a combination of factors involving Amazon’s last-mile delivery methods. You could, if you were interested, literally spend hours reading nothing but investigative journalism on this topic. Pro Publica, BuzzFeed News, and Bloomberg are among some of the heavy hitters that have dug deep into substantive allegations that Amazon is so concerned with delivery speed and volume that safety often falls by the wayside.
Back in September, 2013, it was an Amazon subcontractor whose van hit and killed Amazon’s own chief financial officer, Jill Covey. She was out for a bicycle ride when the van reportedly turned left, directly into her path. She screamed—the van’s driver later said—but the van hit her anyway, and she died. That particular driver wasn’t yet using any version of an Amazon logistics app, but critics of Amazon’s logistics practices in 2022 argue that the close-to-home nature of this incident should have made the company reconsider how it addressed delivery safety concerns.
Instead, in the nearly a decade since Covey’s untimely death, Amazon’s increasing reliance on apps that rule every tiny aspect of their drivers’ lives—to the point of asking them to do things that many allege are either not possible or, at least, not possible to do safely—keeps coming up in multiple accounts. Justin Hartley’s lawyer, for example, cites driver requirements to use the Amazon Flex app if they are working for Amazon Logistics. The app covers every minute aspect of any given driver’s entire delivery route, including navigation, instructions on when to take breaks, and so on.
The Flex app, which evolved from an earlier version called Rabbit, also sends text warnings to drivers if they fall behind the pace expected for package delivery. According to the lawsuit, the text messages say that a driver is “behind the rabbit,” and that they must hustle to get all their assigned packages delivered on time. Drivers can be penalized with pay reductions or simply not being scheduled if they require “rescue” too often. It's not clear what exact number constitutes “too often,” but if you’re out driving packages around, chances are good you’re doing it because you want to take home a paycheck.
Hartley’s case and allegations are sadly one of the latest in a line of similar cases and allegations that stretch back almost a decade. His hospitalization, medical treatment, and physical therapy haven’t been cheap—and he’s been unable to return to his previous job as a welder. Other crashes involving Amazon subcontractors have reportedly resulted in profound injuries including paralyzation—not to mention multiple deaths.
In September, 2019, U.S. senators Richard Blumenthal, Sherrod Brown, and Elizabeth Warren co-signed a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, which read in part, “Innocent bystanders—as young as 9 months old—have lost their lives and sustained serious injuries from drivers improperly trained and under immense pressure by Amazon to meet delivery deadlines. It is simply unacceptable for Amazon to turn the other way as drivers are forced into potentially unsafe vehicles and given dangerous workloads.”
In response to a 2017 wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of 84-year-old grandmother Telesfora Escamilla, a lawyer for Amazon argued in a court filing that “the damages, if any, were caused, in whole or in part, by third parties not under the direction or control of Amazon.com.” Using delivery subcontractors appears to be a way to shield the company from taking responsibility for the pain and suffering caused—and that’s just one case where legal representatives for the firm have made similar arguments.
With this brief slice of historical context, it’s difficult to see how Hartley’s case might eventually find resolution. Amazon almost certainly has more legal (and financial) resources than any one individual who alleges they’ve been hurt by its actions. In any case, here’s hoping that Hartley is able to both heal and receive some measure of justice.
