A woman who was allegedly sexual assaulted by her Uber driver in the beginning of the year detailed in nightmare of an ordeal head of a multiparty lawsuit that is set to be filed against the company this Wednesday in California.
Liz, 37 years old, had to fight off her Uber driver that was allegedly groping her underneath her skirt from the front seat while he was driving around in circles before he then pulled over, and forced her to get in the back seat and continued to attempt to rape her, according to legal documents.
Something, a ride that should have taken maybe five minutes at the most ended up being a 23-minute torture of me trying to leave his car, Liz said.
“It was one of the most devastating things that have ever happened to me,” the Californian married mother of three said during a Tuesday night phone interview, in which she used a fake name.
“Liz” said she rarely ever even used the app prior to ordering a car on the night of Feb. 11, when she was staying in Chino Hills, a nice area right outside of Los Angeles.
“I had had a couple of drinks and wanted to go across the street to the gas station and my friend had suggested getting an Uber. So I thought I’d try it, and it turned into a nightmare,” Liz said.
I noticed the first sign of trouble when the driver insisted that she sit next to him in the front seat because there was “too much stuff” for her to sit in the back, according to Liz.
She said, “I was kind of reluctant to get in the front seat but again this like was maybe my second or third time taking an Uber in my life, so I was like, okay, this is normal.”
Liz said “He had tried to start reaching up my skirt … I kept pushing him away and he was getting more forceful so I tried to open the door and he locked the door and I tried to open it.”
The driver pulled over after about 20 minutes and forcefully pushed Liz into the back seat of the car, where he attempted to rape her, she said. After a 3 minute, frantic struggle, he unlocked the door and she rolled out of his car onto the street and safety.
Liz said, “I have pretty long legs, so he got tired of his door getting kicked.”
Liz, completely distraught ran back to her hotel and called 911 from the front desk because her cell phone was still inside of his car.
The alleged attacker even came back to her hotel to drop off her phone, but Liz said that her attempts to try and file a complaint through Uber went ignored. Not only that, but the company blocked her account and didn’t even refund her $7 hell ride.
Liz at first decided not to press charges because she was raped in her 20s and because that police investigation went completely nowhere, she explained over the phone. However, after speaking to her therapist and friends, they eventually convinced her that she needed to take legal action.
According to her friends and therapist, they told her, “You should do something about this, because there’s not just you but hundreds of other women this is happening to, and how many times are you going to let this just get shoved into the dark? It needs to be brought out into the light.”
Uber had just recently released its second report on sexual abuse just last month after acknowledging in 2019 that nearly 6,000 people had been attacked while they were using their ridesharing app in the last 2 years prior.
Last year, Uber had gotten out of a $59 million fine because they had failed to turn over their sexual assault data in a deal with California regulators. Uber and Lyft, to date, have both failed to honor their 2021 pledge, which was to release the names of abusive drivers.
Initially, Uber declined a request for comment or to be inerviewed in connection with Liz’s lawsuit before they finally issued a statement, reading “Sexual assault is a horrific crime and we take every single report seriously. There is nothing more important than safety, which is why Uber has built new safety features, established survivor-centric policies, and been more transparent about serious incidents.”
“While we can’t comment on pending litigation, we will continue to keep safety at the heart of our work.”
According to Liz’s lawyers, they claim that Uber’s efforts to try and promote themself as a safe alternative to drinking and driving has made it a sexual predator magnet. Perfect for men angling to be alone with intoxicated woman.
They are seeking millions of dollars in compensation on behalf of hundreds of women throughout the State of California in state court.
“There is so much more that the company can be doing to protect riders: adding cameras to deter assaults, performing more robust background checks on drivers, creating a warning system when drivers don’t stay on a path to a destination,” Adam Slater, the lawyer representing the women said.
Slater, of Slater Slater Schulman LLP added on saying, “But they refuse to, and that’s why my firm has 550 clients with claims against Uber and we’re investigating at least 150 more.”
Liz agreed with their statements stating that either Uber needs to fix the problem or completely shut the company down.
She added, “I just hope that in the long run that the company has the heart to do something about this.” she said.
“You know, to put themselves in other people’s shoes and to know that they would never want their daughters or their sisters or their mother to ever go through something like this. That’s all.”
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