An Arlington, Virginia woman claimed to have jumped out of a Lyft when the driver refused to take her to her destination.
When Katlyn got into the vehicle Saturday afternoon, she said she quickly realized something was wrong.
“He actually almost hit the person in front of him, which left me gasping. I mean, I was a foot away from him,” she recounted.
Katlyn added that the driver then changed the address in his navigation system to one that was far from where he was initially going and did not answer her questions.
“He just ignores me, and I’m like, ‘Sir, hello? Do you listen me?’ and at this point I’m standing next to him trying to see what he’s doing from the back seat, and he’s just ignoring me,” she explained. “At this point I’m yelling, I got frantic, because who just ignores someone like that?”
The woman said she then got a message from the Lyft app saying it didn’t appear to be going where she was going, and to click a link if she needed help.
At one point, the car slowed down and Katlyn said she saw her opportunity.
“I was, like, ‘I’m not going to find out where you plan to take me,'” he said. “I grabbed my stuff, started fumbling to open the door, and jumped out.”
Katlyn reported the incident to Lyft, and the company reportedly informed her that they were taking her concerns seriously. But the next day, Lyft deactivated her account, according to what she denounced.
Katlyn received an email from Lyft saying the company deactivated her account due to “alleged security violations” because she “jumped out of the car while the vehicle was in motion.”
“I’m like, ‘What? I’m a victim here,'” she insisted. “It was so backwards. It didn’t make sense to me.”
He said he had to protest several times before Lyft finally restored his account.
The company also sent him a message that read in part: “This type of behavior by a driver is completely unacceptable and is something we absolutely do not tolerate in the Lyft community. Please know that the concerns you have brought to our attention have been investigated and I have personally followed this driver to take appropriate and necessary action.”
Katlyn’s tweets about the experience went viral and have been viewed more than two and a half million times.
The woman indicated that she is sharing the experience to try to prevent it from happening to other people.
“This is way beyond me. This is about women’s safety in general, and something more needs to be done,” she stressed.
For his part, a Lyft spokesperson gave the following statement to Telemundo 44:
“Safety is paramount to Lyft. We take reports like this seriously and always work to take immediate corrective action. Unfortunately our first response fell short and therefore we have reactivated the passenger’s account and contacted her to offer our support,” the statement read.
“Since day one, we’ve worked hard to design policies and features that help protect drivers and passengers alike, and we’re always looking for ways to make Lyft an even safer platform for our community.”
Experts make the following recommendations to reinforce security when requesting a trip in a private vehicle:
- Share location and trip from the app
- Verify driver and vehicle data
- Stay alert while traveling
- Locate alert and help button in the app
