An Uber driver threw himself in front of a Manhattan subway train this week, the seventh hack — and first to work for the taxi app — to commit suicide in just under a year.
Fausto Luna jumped in front of an oncoming A train at the 175th Street and Fort Washington Avenue in Washington Heights on Monday, according, authorities said.
Luna, 58, of Washington Heights, was saddled with mounting debt and had become depressed about the money he owed, industry sources told The Post on Saturday. It was not immediately clear why he wracked up so much debt, the sources said.
Luna, originally from the Dominican Republic, lived only about a block-and-a-half from where he died for about 20 years, a neighbor said on Saturday, as another man left a bouquet of white flowers by his doorstep. “To offer condolences,” the person said, before walking off.
Uber said Luna worked for the company since 2013, and called him a highly-rated driver with consistent earnings over time, who owned his vehicle, which was paid for in full.
“We are devastated by this news and our deepest sympathies go to Mr. Luna’s family and loved ones during this difficult time,” said Uber spokeswoman Alix Anfang.
Over the summer, Mayor 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.
In June, cash-strapped yellow cabby Abdul Saleh, 59, hanged himself in his Brooklyn apartment.
In May, another yellow cab driver Yu Mein “Kenny” Chow flung himself in the East River off the Upper East Side.
In March, Nicanor Ochisor, 65 — another yellow cabby — hanged himself in his garage in Maspeth, Queens.
Corporate black car driver Douglas Schifter, 61, killed himself with a shotgun outside City Hall on Feb. 5.
In December, livery hack Danilo Corporan Castillo, 57, wrote a suicide note on the back of a summons he received — and then jumped out the window of his Manhattan apartment.
And in November, livery driver Alfredo Perez hanged himself.
“We know change can’t come fast enough, because this business model operated unchecked for so many years, but change is coming and it will get better,” Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said in a statement. “Death and despair follow this business model of low pay, saturation and predatory lending everywhere Uber and company go across the globe.”
At a TLC meeting on Wednesday, driver Raul Rivera argued that the city could have prevented the recent suicides.
“Everyone wants to blame Uber and Lyft for the horrible suicides and the crazy mess that the taxi industry is in today,” Rivera said. “If you ask me who’s to blame, I blame the city. I blame the city council, I blame the TLC for letting the ride-sharing apps do as they please with zero oversight.”
“If another driver takes their life before you do the right thing, I will personally start a petition to have the TLC reformed and have the TLC chairperson removed,” he declared.
In a statement, Ryan Price, executive director of the Independent Drivers Guild, said that the organization has secured a grant from the Black Car Fund to launch a mental health program geared toward for-hire drivers.
A community vigil, organized by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, will be held in Luna’s memory at 2 p.m. Sunday, starting at 175th Street and Fort Washington Avenue.