The ride-sharing company and app Lyft is being sued by 19 more women over accusations that drivers sexual assaulted and harassed women as they rode in the vehicles.
The 19 women filed suit Wednesday in the San Francisco Superior Court, echoing a lawsuit filed against Lyft by 14 women detailing similar allegations. Both suits detail disturbing accounts of drivers attempting to rape, grope, and illicit sex from their riders in addition to exposing themselves and masturbating while driving.
The lawsuits outline concerns that the company hasn’t responded adequately to what the plaintiffs perceive to be a “sexual predator crisis” and have purposefully concealed assault and harassment incidents over several years. The lawsuit also states that Lyft has not adequately screened drivers, allowing riders to be in an unnecessarily dangerous environment.
“Lyft’s response to this sexual predator crisis amongst Lyft drivers has been appallingly inadequate,” the suit filed Wednesday said. “Instead of taking a few basic and simple measures to prevent rapes and sexual assault of their passengers, Lyft … has chosen to hide and conceal from the United States public the staggering number of reported rapes and sexual assaults that occur within their vehicles.”
In the newest filing, detailed accounts from several Lyft riders dating back to 2017 and incidents as recent as last month recount horror stories of attempted rape, sexual assault, and other harassment. One unidentified 22-year-old rider in New York City claims that her Lyft driver asked her to give him oral sex and then invited her to have a threesome with another woman before grabbing and licking her breasts. “I was scared. I was in shock because he was kind of aggressive,” the woman said of her experience.
Other harrowing accounts included a driver who suspended the ride to try to climb into the back seat and assault the passenger as well as another woman who ended her ride abruptly after noticing that her driver was masturbating. “I think that the executives at Lyft are tone-deaf to what is happening here. They clearly don’t understand the ramifications of these assaults,” lawyer for the plaintiffs Michael Bomberger said. “Their app and platform are tailor-made for predators, and that’s because there is no true accountability.”
“What these women describe is something no one should ever have to endure,” a statement from Lyft said. “Everyone deserves the ability to move about the world safely, yet women still face disproportionate risks. We recognize these risks, which is why we are relentless in our work to build safety into every aspect of our work. That means continually investing in new features and policies to protect our riders and drivers.” Lyft further claimed to have “launched more than 15 new safety features.”
