
Lyft Has Been Flooded with Sexual Assault Lawsuits - WalterSobchak
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb5ed8/lyft-has-been-flooded-with-sexual-assault-lawsuits
======
taxicabjesus
On one of my early shifts driving taxi, I dropped two young men off at a club.
The bouncer opened the cab's door and before I realized what was happening, I
had a rather intoxicated young woman to deal with. She knew her address, and
paid her fare when we got to her complex. But she was too wasted to get from
the cab to her apartment.

"[...] I held on to her as we headed in the direction she indicated. She was
in no shape to climb the stairs to her apartment either, and also could not
put the key in the lock.

"There was a look of appreciation in her eyes, then the door closed. I heard
the door lock, and as I walked away I heard a 'thunk', just like a body
hitting the floor. Hopefully she made it through the night." [1]

[1] _22: degrees of intoxication_ \-
[https://www.taxiwars.org/2012/04/22-degrees-of-
intoxication....](https://www.taxiwars.org/2012/04/22-degrees-of-
intoxication.html)

Women have strategies for dealing with horny men in whom they aren't
interested. The article doesn't say if alcohol is a factor in these lawsuits.
Controlling one's alcohol intake a basic requirement for being aware enough to
avoid bad situations, like if a driver parks and follows you to your door,
even though you don't actually need their assistance.

Drivers deal with drunk female passengers all the time. Drivers with integrity
stick to their job.

Someone complained about me once - she told the taxi company that I was
hitting on her daughter. I posted about that in a previous comment, on "103
Uber drivers accused of sexual assault or abuse":
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16963843](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16963843)

"There are certainly women who have problems with their drivers, but slander
is a problem for the drivers too." (my conclusion in comment linked above)

~~~
wavepruner
I've done about 5,000 Uber rides at night driving drunk people.

I once had a young woman who thought I was taking her somewhere that was not
her destination. This was because I had the map on my phone set to "North
always pointing upwards" instead of the usual of having the map facing the
direction I was driving. I do this because GPS can not accurately point you in
the right direction when you're making a bunch of tight turns--something that
is common when you're an Uber driver.

About half-way through the 8 minute drive she started freaking the FUCK out.
It took me a while to figure out why she was getting so upset as I hadn't been
talking to her and I was driving towards her destination. She must not have
recognized where we were. It was so distracting that it was very difficult to
drive safely and I had to pull over. I eventually was able to convince her
that I was driving to her destination after all by switching the map to point
in the direction I was driving.

If I hadn't been able to quickly figure out why she thought I was trying to
kidnap her, I could see how this situation may have spiraled out of control
and led to me being accused of assault.

------
techntoke
Put cameras in the damn cars. It is a minimal cost, and protects drivers too.
This is 100% on Lyft for not requiring these before now.

~~~
DINKDINK
How would those solve the instances mentioned in the article?

>One woman claims that after spending an evening with a friend, she was “raped
and sodomized” by her Lyft driver in his home. In 2016, another woman ordered
a Lyft after a night out. Hours later, her friends walked in on her Lyft
driver allegedly raping her in her bedroom.

~~~
thundergolfer
It would provide pretty useful evidence in court at the least. It’s also a
potential deterrent.

~~~
tomglynch
There is no chance a driver would leave their camera running while doing
something wrong. And if they did, they would delete the evidence after as it's
not feasible for driver's to upload video live from their device to Lyft
during all trips.

~~~
luckylion
> There is no chance a driver would leave their camera running while doing
> something wrong.

Simple solution: ride in progress, camera is switched off? Send an alert. Your
camera is broken? Too bad, you're not getting any rides until it's working
again.

> And if they did, they would delete the evidence after as it's not feasible
> for driver's to upload video live from their device to Lyft during all
> trips.

Lots of criminal energy and knowledge required ... and they'd make themselves
look guilty as hell.

Cameras obviously don't stop crime, but they would help with law enforcement
and stop future crime: if a driver is in jail, they can't assault anybody
else.

~~~
Grustaf
If it's unfeasibly to stream live to Lyft, it could at least livestream the
fact that it is filming. If the footage later "disappears" and the rider
claims she was raped, that's pretty damning.

------
thundergolfer
The stories mentioned at the start are just horrible. The panic button does
seem like a decent idea (why are Lyft so slow to add it) but when a passenger
is heavily intoxicated (ie. passed out) its effectiveness is almost zero.

------
jammygit
What is the situation for regular taxi companies - how often does this happen
per 1000 drivers? What do taxi companies do that prevents/mitigates it
successfully?

~~~
DanBC
> What do taxi companies do that prevents/mitigates it successfully?

In England for taxicabs and private hire vehicles the drivers have to have a
criminal records check. This is the enhanced DBS check. This will be repeated
every few (three?) years.

If they have contracts for childrens services or vulnerable adults services
they'd also be checked against the adult's and children's barred list.

This doesn't stop all sexual assault, but it stops some.

We have a lot of information from London.
[https://taxileaks.blogspot.com/2018/12/tfl-release-latest-
ta...](https://taxileaks.blogspot.com/2018/12/tfl-release-latest-taxi-and-
private.html) (With usual caveats around crime data being very unreliable).

------
webninja
This is awful. Can’t we just legalize a safe and controlled outlet for these
poor men with paid and consenting women?

I mean realistically, who’s going to date an Uber driver? Nowadays the dating
apps are 4:1 men-to-women and women are picky beings.

------
saargrin
"Hours later, her friends walked in on her Lyft driver allegedly raping her in
her bedroom. “

if they somehow got to her bedroom it doesnt sound like something Lyft should
bear responsibility for

