A silver Malibu involved in a crash during a police chase in downtown Toronto last month was a rental driven by a 39-year-old UberX driver, the Star has learned.

Last month, police were pursuing a black Acura SUV in a chase that ended in a collision with the UberX car, sending eight people to hospital.

There were four occupants in the Uber X vehicle, according to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which investigates whenever an interaction with police results in serious injury, death or sexual assault allegation.

Toronto police and SIU investigations into the incident are ongoing.

Alice Pereira, of Avis Budget Group, confirmed an UberX driver carrying passengers was behind the wheel of one of its cars — even though the rental contract specifically excludes anyone from using the vehicle to pick up passengers for money.

“It is a clear violation of the rental agreement to utilize a rental vehicle to carry passengers or property for hire. We are cooperating with the Toronto police on the matter,” she wrote in email.

UberX is an app-based service that uses private vehicles to carry paying passengers. City council will vote next month on whether to set up a two-tier system to govern both the taxi industry and transportation network companies such as Uber.

Philomena Comerford, president and CEO of Baird MacGregor Insurance Brokers LP, said any renter using a rental vehicle “conceivably exposes the rental car company, passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists to uninsured claims.”

The rental car company can argue that it did not give consent for the vehicle to be used to carry paying passengers and therefore “the legal entanglements will be inevitable.”

Rita Smith, of the Toronto Taxi Alliance, said that when an UberX driver uses a rental car it is “a total violation of everything Uber says they do to inspect cars, drivers’ ownership, registration, insurance etc.,” she wrote in email.

“If this fellow was able to be driving a rental which could not have satisfied any of Uber's supposed requirements, how reliable is Uber's system on the whole?”

Uber Canada spokeswoman Susie Heath stated the company does not allow rental cars to be used on the UberX app.

“Our internal registration and rigorous checks processes help prevent such vehicles from gaining access to the platform,” she wrote.

If a customer reports the UberX driver, or vehicle, is different than registered, Uber’s “response team” can cut off his or her continued access to the app.

Craig Hirota, of the Associated Canadian Car Rental Operators, said Tuesday the major car rental companies have had little to say on the subject, making it difficult to gauge just how widespread the practice is.

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And there’s “no real way to control what your customer does when they’ve taken possession of it (a vehicle),” unless a problem arises.

Their reticence may stem from an interest in servicing the market down the road, as has been done in some U.S. jurisdictions where Uber is regulated and operating legally.

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