Woman threw up, so Uber driver kicked her out. Then, she was sexually assaulted, lawsuit alleges
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- Woman sues Uber after driver abandoned her in high-crime area following vomiting incident, leaving her without phone or keys, lawsuit claims.
- Two strangers who offered help instead sexually assaulted her at knifepoint in an apartment, the lawsuit alleges.
- Uber responded to incident report with sexual assault hotlines rather than investigating the driver’s actions, suit claims.
A Northern California woman filed a lawsuit against Uber on Monday, alleging that her Uber driver dropped her off in an unsafe location after she vomited in the vehicle, and then she was sexually assaulted by two other people.
In the lawsuit filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, the 23-year-old woman, who is listed as “Jane Doe,” alleges that she was picked up by an Uber on May 28 in Sacramento to take her home from a concert but did not make it there after the driver kicked her out for vomiting.
The driver left her near a gas station in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento, which was more than eight miles from her destination in Rosemont, according to the lawsuit. Doe had also left her phone and keys in the back seat. The area was “visibly unsafe” with a “D+ score in local crime grades,” according to the suit.
Doe was then approached by a man and a woman, who said they would help her get home if she paid them, according to the lawsuit. Doe got into their vehicle and was taken into an apartment, where the man allegedly sexually assaulted her at knifepoint, according to the lawsuit. The next morning while the man was asleep, Doe escaped to a nearby school, after which she was hospitalized and reported the crime to police.
The Sacramento Police Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for more information.
“Nobody should have to go through what she went through,” Sarvenaz Fahimi, one of the attorneys representing Jane Doe, said in a statement. “Uber utterly failed to deliver the most basic duties it owed to this young woman. Even worse, Uber didn’t care when the incident was reported. While Uber advertises to passengers who drink and heavily profits from such passengers, it cannot arbitrarily abandon them — Uber cannot have it both ways.”
The company responded in a statement provided to The Times on Wednesday.
“What this individual experienced is heartbreaking, and our thoughts are with them,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement. “While we cannot comment on pending litigation, we are committed to the safety and well-being of everyone who uses the Uber platform.”
The suit alleges that the Uber driver circled safer locations in the area, such as a hospital, but chose to drop Doe off near an abandoned building.
On May 31, Doe’s mother reported the incident to Uber, and the company didn’t offer to investigate the case or say that it would speak with the driver, according to the lawsuit. Instead, Uber responded to Doe’s mother, thanking her for reporting the incident and providing links for sexual assault hotlines.
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