Lyft sued by 17 who allege assault on ridershare platform

Lyft is going through authorized motion filed by 17 passengers and drivers who declare they had been sexually or bodily assaulted whereas utilizing the rideshare platform.

Attorneys say the alleged incidents, occurring throughout plenty of states, embody 13 of sexual assault and 4 of bodily assault.

“Lyft has created a nationwide disaster,” Adam Wolf, associate at Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Sensible (the agency that filed the lawsuits and arbitration claims), stated at a press convention Wednesday. “That is occurring in every single place. It may possibly and can occur wherever Lyft is working, as a result of this systemic failure, it cuts to the very core of how Lyft does enterprise.”

The attorneys declare in one of many filings that the corporate doesn’t carry out satisfactory background checks, permits culpable drivers to maintain driving for Lyft, and has “didn’t undertake and implement cheap driver monitoring procedures designed to guard the protection of its passengers.”

In an emailed response to the allegations, Lyft spokesperson Gabriela Condarco-Quesada stated the corporate is “dedicated to serving to hold drivers and riders secure.” She added, “Whereas security incidents on our platform are extremely uncommon, we understand that even one is just too many. Our purpose is to make each Lyft journey as secure as attainable, and we’ll proceed to take motion and spend money on know-how, insurance policies, and partnerships to take action.”

Lyft contended within the assertion that the attorneys made plenty of false or deceptive claims when discussing the circumstances through the Wednesday press convention. The corporate pointed to plenty of its security options, together with its partnership with ADT, a driver-required neighborhood security schooling course, annual driver screenings, and the power to share the journey’s ongoing location with a contact.

Tracey Cowan, associate at Peiffer Wolf, stated through the press convention that whereas Lyft “claims that its drivers can decline any journey they like,” the corporate “persistently refuses to provide drivers the knowledge they should keep away from a harmful journey,” including that Lyft ought to implement issues like extra complete background screenings and put sprint cameras in each automotive.

The circumstances are the newest amongst a collection of lawsuits which were filed towards Lyft and competitor Uber lately as each firms work to fight questions of safety. Final month, attorneys with California agency Slater Slater Schulman filed a complaint against Uber representing girls who say they had been assaulted by drivers who they had been linked to by way of the platform.

In a long-awaited safety report revealed final yr—the primary ever from Lyft—the corporate disclosed that from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2019, it had acquired greater than 4,000 experiences of sexual assault from customers of the platform. On the time the corporate careworn that greater than 99% of journeys happen with none incident.