More Women Allege Sexual Assault by Lyft Drivers, Say Company Didn’t Protect Them

Twenty women are suing San Francisco-based Lyft, alleging they were sexually abused by their drivers and accusing the ride-hail company of ignoring their complaints, attorneys for the victims said Wednesday.

The alleged assaults, which include rape and groping, happened across the country in states including California, New York, Tennessee and Ohio. Some of the women reported the attacks to police; ultimately, some of their attackers were charged and at least three of them pleaded guilty while one was found guilty. Many of the women reported the assaults to Lyft, with some saying saying they didn’t get updates from the company about their complaints.

Eight of the women were assaulted after Lyft was sued by another group of 14 women in San Francisco in early September.

In the latest lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court, attorneys accuse Lyft of inadequate safety precautions and screening of its drivers, and failure of its app to meet minimum consumer safety expectations.

“During the last three months, Lyft had ample opportunity to make changes to ensure the safety of female passengers,” said attorney Mike Bomberger, of the Estey & Bomberger law firm, which filed both lawsuits. “But instead of protecting women, the company chose to invest in a costly public relations campaign with no regard to safety.”

One week after attorneys filed the lawsuit in September, the company released new safety features on its app. The changes include asking riders and drivers if they’re OK, if their ride has unexplained delays, an in-app “Call 911” button and mandatory driver training.

On Wednesday, a Lyft spokesperson said the company had launched more than 15 new safety features, including criminal background monitoring of its drivers and mandatory feedback for rides rated less than four stars “to ensure we are constantly tracking any level of problematic behavior by drivers.”

“Our work on safety is never done, and we will continue to invest in new features, protocols, and policies to ensure Lyft is the safest form of transportation for our riders and drivers,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

But Bomberger rejected those efforts, calling them “gimmicks” that “don’t work.”

“We know because eight of the women that are part of this lawsuit had their incident occur after these [Lyft safety] features were in play,” he said at a press conference.

Thirteen of the women in the latest lawsuit chose to remain anonymous, and are identified as Jane Roe.

One of the victims, Jane Roe 2, said Lyft’s new safety features would not have helped her the night she was raped while on a ride in Massachusetts.

“My cell reception was low,” she said. “So anything they have that’s phone-based would not have worked in my case.”

The victims are seeking damages to cover past and future medical expenses, according to the lawsuit.

According to the earlier lawsuit, attorneys uncovered 100 cases of reported sexual assault by Lyft drivers in California over a one-year period between 2015 and 2016.