Former Uber driver charged in girl’s crosswalk death in S.F. 
 
 Syed Muzaffar, 57, of Union City was charged Monday with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in connection with a crash in San Francisco that killed a 6-year-old girl. Syed Muzaffar, 57, of Union City was charged Monday with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in connection with a crash in San Francisco that killed a 6-year-old girl. Photo: San Francisco Police / San Francisco Police Department Photo: San Francisco Police / San Francisco Police Department Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Former Uber driver charged in girl’s crosswalk death in S.F. 1 / 4 Back to Gallery 
 
 San Francisco prosecutors charged a former Uber driver with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in connection with a crash in San Francisco last year that killed a 6-year-old girl. 
 
 Syed Muzaffar, 57, of Union City surrendered Thursday after the charge was filed and posted $50,000 bail. He is to appear Wednesday at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco. 
 
 The crash that killed Sofia Liu happened at 8 p.m. Dec. 31, when Muzaffar, driving a Honda sport utility vehicle, failed to yield to the girl, her mother and her 4-year-old brother as they crossed Polk Street in a crosswalk near Civic Center, police and prosecutors said. 
 
 Muzaffar had a green light and was making a right turn from westbound Ellis Street to northbound Polk Street in the SUV when he hit the three in the crosswalk, authorities said. Sofia’s mother and brother were hurt but survived. 
 
 Prosecutors opted to charge Muzaffar — who no longer drives under contract with Uber — with vehicular manslaughter as a misdemeanor and not a felony after finding no evidence of gross negligence. 
 
 “The evidence in this case does not support gross negligence,” Muzaffar’s attorney, John Hamasaki, said Tuesday. “This is not a case about distracted driving. The evidence will show that Mr. Muzaffar was not talking on the phone or texting and was not engaged with an Uber device.” 
 
 Hamasaki said Muzaffar “has been devastated by the death of Sofia Liu and continues to grieve every day for the Liu family.” 
 
 Huan Kuang, the victim’s mother, “cannot stop crying,” she said Tuesday at a news conference at her attorney’s office. 
 
 The last thing Kuang remembers before the crash, she said, is seeing light from a cell phone shining on the Uber driver’s face. “He keep looking at phone,” she said, bobbing her head down to demonstrate. “I cannot forgive him.” 
 
 Kuang said she is still receiving medical care for injuries to her eye, arm and leg. Her son has recovered physically but is in counseling. Every time he sees another child, he asks, “Will you play with me?” because he misses his sister, she said. 
 
 The girl’s family sued Muzaffar and Uber in January, alleging that Muzaffar was logged on to the company’s UberX app when he fatally struck Sofia and was waiting to receive and accept a ride request. The driver’s attorney also has said he was between fares. 
 
 Uber has maintained in court papers that Muzaffar was never an “employee, agent, joint venture or partner of Uber.” Attorneys said he had, however, passed a background check. They said he had not been carrying a fare, heading to pick up a fare or responding to a request to pick up a fare — and thus had no reason to be interacting with his smartphone. 
 
 Chronicle staff writer 
 
 Carolyn Said contributed 
 
 to this report. 
 
 Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee ||||| In his ruling on the ban, the judge said Uber drivers lacked the necessary authorization to drive vehicles and acted as unfair competition to the existing taxi industry. 
 
 The move comes after legal action was taken against the California-based company by the Madrid Taxi Association. 
 
 The judge said his ruling was not a philosophical statement on the free market or the sharing economy but was a precautionary measure based on existing Spanish law. 
 
 The position of Uber was not heard in court as the company is domiciled in the US state of Delaware for tax purposes. 
 
 "This is a highly unusual judicial ruling on commercial matters," Uber said in a statement provided to The Local by email. 
 
 "This decision is incompatible with the general political recognition in Spain and in the European Union of the benefits of sharing resources and the sharing economy in a moment of high unemployment and fragile economic growth," the company said. 
 
 "Uber will continue to comply with Spanish legislation and is currently looking at an appeal against these sudden and unusual proceedings." 
 
 The ban is the latest salvo in the battle against Uber in Spain. Both Madrid and Barcelona have previously announced financial sanctions against Uber drivers, while Catalonia recently said it was considering impounding vehicles with drivers having to pay €6,000 ($7,500) to have their cars released. 
 
 The Spain ban also comes a day after the taxi-booking app was banned in Dehli because of the alleged rape of a passenger by an Uber driver. ||||| Thailand ordered U.S. online taxi booking company Uber to cease operations on Tuesday, in the latest hit for the rideshare app that has been banned in the Indian capital New Delhi over an alleged rape by a driver and faces further restrictions in Europe and Asia. 
 
 The Southeast Asian nation's Department of Land Transport said drivers picking up fare-paying passengers via Uber's app were neither registered nor insured to drive commercial vehicles, and that Uber's credit-card payment system did not comply with regulations. 
 
 Bangkok’s move comes as the start-up also battles criticism in the U.S., with detractors saying it gives drivers an unfair deal and doesn’t screen employees well enough and as such endangers the safety of users — claims the San Francisco-based Uber denies. 
 
 "They have to stop operations immediately," Thiraphong Rodprasert, director-general of the Thai Department of Land Transport, told reporters after meeting officials from Uber and rival cab-hailing apps GrabTaxi and EasyTaxi to discuss regulating Internet taxi services. 
 
 The meeting was arranged before a passenger in New Delhi reported she had been raped by a driver contracted to Uber. That incident brought taxi apps to the attention of Indian authorities leading to a ban on all unregistered Internet taxi firms from operating in the capital. 
 
 Taxi booking apps have irked drivers at traditional cab services across the globe. Consumers are increasingly using the smartphone software to find people willing to drive them, rather than booking a cab by phone. 
 
 In Thailand, Uber's app acts as a matchmaker between owners of private vehicles and passengers, and has its own fare structure. GrabTaxi and EasyTaxi work with traditional taxi firms, using regular meters to calculate fares. 
 
 Effective immediately, drivers who use personal vehicles for commercial use could be fined $61, and the transport department is working to implement higher penalties, Thiraphong said. 
 
 The Uber representative who attended the meeting declined to comment. 
 
 In neighboring Vietnam, Uber was to discuss means of regulating its service with transport ministry officials on Monday, but cancelled the talks citing "important circumstances.” 
 
 Transport Minister Dinh La Thang called for regulation after public criticism that followed a deputy transport minister calling Uber's operations illegal. Uber told local media it works with transport companies so that its drivers are licensed and insured. Uber also provides passenger insurance, media reported. 
 
 In Indonesia — Southeast Asia's most populous country — private drivers using apps such as Uber to pick up fare-paying passengers are acting illegally, though the law has never been enforced, said Izzul Waro, an adviser to Jakarta's Transportation Agency. 
 
 "Many taxi companies don't have a formal permit to operate from the government. They operate by themselves. This is usual in Indonesia," Waro said. Uber does not have a permit, he said. 
 
 Uber declined to provide immediate comment on its operations in Vietnam and Indonesia, citing the "crisis" in India. 
 
 The ban comes on the same day that a Spanish judge banned the taxi service throughout Spain. And San Francisco on Tuesday arrested an Uber driver over the death of a 9 year-old-girl allegedly hit by his car, Bloomberg reports. The incident happened on New Year's Eve last year. Rio De Janeiro and Portland, Oregon, have charged that the app violates local license requirements, according to the news service. 
 
 Al Jazeera and Reuters
– A former Uber driver has been charged with manslaughter after a crash that killed a six-year-old pedestrian last year. Authorities say Syed Muzaffar hit the girl, her brother, and her mother while they crossed at a crosswalk in San Francisco, the Chronicle reports. A lawsuit filed early this year pointed to distracted driving on Muzaffar's part, saying he was waiting for a ride request on Uber's app. The company, which was also named in the suit, says Muzaffar wasn't dealing with a fare at the moment of the crash and shouldn't have been looking at his phone. Driving an SUV, Muzaffar was turning right at a green light when the crash occurred, officials say. He has been charged with misdemeanor, rather than felony, manslaughter because prosecutors didn't see evidence of gross negligence—such as driving under the influence, the Chronicle notes. The charges are the latest in a string of problems for Uber, which was banned by judges in Spain and Thailand today amid concerns over the authorization of drivers, the Local and Al Jazeera America report. This weekend, a New York Times op-ed attacked the company's data-collection policies; it's currently facing a lawsuit from the city of Portland, Oregon; and it's been banned in Delhi after a driver allegedly raped a passenger.