Uber must face rape victim suit over attacker’s window decal
- The court ruling comes as the ride-hailing industry has faced scrutiny over passenger safety
- A litany of sexual assault complaints has pushed Uber to take measures, such as introducing a feature that allows users to text ‘911’ from its app
Uber Technologies must face negligence claims by a woman who says she mistakenly got into a car bearing the company’s windscreen decal and was subsequently raped by the driver.
US Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Corley in San Francisco ruled on Friday that the woman could proceed on claims that Uber should have instructed the alleged assailant, a suspended driver for the ride-hailing service, to remove and return the decal. The victim claims the Uber logo gave her assurance she was getting a “safe ride”.
Corley’s decision reinstates the case based on an amended complaint. Uber got the original lawsuit dismissed last November after Corley decided the rape did not take place within the scope of the driver’s employment.
Uber declined to comment on Friday’s ruling.
The ruling comes as the ride-hailing industry, including Uber’s competitor Lyft, has faced scrutiny over passenger safety. A litany of sexual assault complaints by both passengers and drivers has pushed the company to take measures such as the introduction of a feature that allows users to text “911”, for calling police, from the Uber app.
According to the complaint she filed in June 2019, the woman thought the car that picked her up at a San Francisco Bay area shopping centre in August had been dispatched by her fiancé, but the driver took her to a secluded location and raped her. She claimed Uber knew the driver was a “menace to women” because it suspended him in June 2018 after a woman complained that he had “behaved disturbingly” while giving her a ride.
