Uber released its highly anticipated safety report last Thursday revealing 5,981 incidents of sexual assault in 2017 and 2018. Although the report identifies 21 categories of sexual misconduct, it defines “sexual assault” as a reported instance of rape, attempted rape, non-consensual kissing of a sexual body party, non-consensual touching of a sexual body party, and non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part.
According to the data, about 58 percent of those reporting sexual assault were passengers, while 42 percent of those reporting sexual assault were drivers, although it is unclear whether drivers were reporting sexual assaults of passengers. Of the 464 reported rates, nearly 92 percent of the victims were passengers, while about 8 percent were drivers. Uber’s report comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by 19 women accusing Lyft of failing to enact basic safety measures that would have likely prevented drivers from sexually assaulting them, failing to investigate their reported assaults, and refusing to provide information to police to help investigate those assaults.
If you or someone you know has been assaulted during the course of an Uber ride, please contact the experienced attorneys at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner by calling (713) 222-7211 or toll free at 713-222-7211.