A California woman who said she was sexually assaulted after getting kicked out of an Uber filed a lawsuit against the ride-share, claiming the company is partially responsible for the circumstances that led to the attack.
The woman, who threw up in the car because she was drunk, says she was left eight miles from her drop-off location in Sacramento without a phone to call for help when she encountered an assailant, she claims in the lawsuit, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Attorneys for the woman, who filed the suit in San Francisco on Monday under the pseudonym “Jane Doe,” say the Uber driver’s actions go against the company’s public messaging on rider safety. The company, which has partnered with organizations that advocate against drunk driving, has positioned itself as a safe alternative, the suit says.
However, the victim says she has never felt less safe in her life.
“I’ve never felt more vulnerable in my life, and it never would have happened if I didn’t get in that Uber,” she told the Chronicle through her attorneys. “I hope no other woman has to feel how I felt — abandoned, scared and destroyed.”
On the night of the attack, May 28, the woman had been at a concert in Sacramento and used the Uber app to call for a ride home in nearby Rosemont, the lawsuit says.
“Because Jane Doe had drank too much, she vomited in the vehicle during the ride,” her attorneys said in the complaint. “After she vomited, Jane Doe’s Uber driver made the choice to abandon her at a random and unsafe location.”
After she was dropped off near a parking lot of a gas station, Doe says she was approached by a man and woman who offered to help her, according to the lawsuit.
Instead, the pair took Doe to an apartment where the man held her captive, choking her and sexually assaulting her at knifepoint. She escaped the next morning through a window after her attacker fell asleep, according to the report.
“After finding the opportunity to escape, Jane Doe immediately sought help at a local school, and she was subsequently taken to a hospital and interviewed by local authorities,” the lawsuit claims.
A criminal investigation is pending, and no arrests have been made, her attorneys said.
Doe’s mother reported the driver’s actions to Uber, but it was not immediately clear if the company took any disciplinary action against the driver. According to the lawsuit, Uber did not escalate the report or follow up with Doe or her mother.
Instead, Uber sent her mother a generic email thanking her for reaching out with her experience and included links to the Uber Resources Hotline, the National Sexual Assault Hotline and law enforcement reporting.
One of Doe’s attorneys, Sarvenaz Fahimi, says that Uber allows its drivers to cancel the ride at any time, but that there is no guidance given to the drivers on when its appropriate.
Uber did not immediately return The Independent’s request for comment and clarification on its guidance for drivers canceling rides.
Fahimi also noted that the company allows its drivers to charge passengers a cleaning fee if they vomit or otherwise soil the vehicle.
“So as much as that’s not fun for a driver, there’s a remedy for it,” Fahimi said.
Fahimi continued: “And the drivers should be prepared for that, considering that Uber partners with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Anheuser, and is profiting off of someone in this situation.”
The ride-share giant has long been plagued by sexual assault and harassment allegations.
Uber received reports of sexual misconduct every eight minutes from U.S. riders from 2017 through 2022, The New York Times reported last month. According to the report, over six years, more than 400,000 Uber trips in the U.S. resulted in reports of sexual assault and sexual misconduct.
Uber’s 2022 safety report disclosed 12,522 sexual assault and misconduct reports over the same time period. The tech company addressed the large discrepancy in a statement posted on the company website after the Times published its report.
While addressing the report, Uber’s Head of Safety for the Americas said that the “vast majority” of the hundreds of thousands of misconduct reports were “less serious and non-physical in nature,” like flirting or staring.
Most of these 400,000-plus reports have not been subjected to a “rigorous” process that vets allegations and weeds out false reports made “with the goal of getting a refund,” Nilles said.
Uber claims that 99.99 percent of trips end without any issue. Roughly 0.006 percent of the 6.3 billion trips in the U.S. in the six-year span ended with a sexual misconduct or assault report, according to Nilles. The most serious reports accounted for 0.00002 percent — or 1 in 5 million trips — she said.
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