A January traffic stop in San Tan Valley ended with a 79-year-old deaf Lyft driver slammed onto the pavement, bleeding from handcuffs he says were cinched so tight they cut his wrists.
Tom Garro, a Sun City resident who has spent years behind the wheel for Lyft, says Pinal County sheriff’s deputies took him down during a Jan. 9 stop while he was driving a passenger to a Walmart in San Tan Valley. Garro, who is deaf and uses American Sign Language to communicate, later told an interpreter the encounter left him shaking and too frightened to keep driving for the ride-hailing app.
According to Phoenix New Times, the deputy who pulled Garro over cited him for lacking valid insurance and for driving 60 mph in a 45-mph zone. Garro denies he was speeding and later showed proof of insurance coverage to a judge. The outlet reports that deputies threw Garro to the ground, pinned him against a pickup truck and handcuffed his hands behind his back so tightly that he bled. He was then taken to Banner Ironwood Medical Center for treatment…