In a rare case of personal and emotional strength, a Lyft passenger who was sexually harassed by her Lyft driver shares her ordeal with everyone.
The woman shared her ordeal over her Facebook page and presented the case of a ride with Lyft on March 20th in San Francisco, California.
On her page, the woman claims that "I had a Lyft driver named Shivam sexually harass me while driving me home. I want to share this with all of you to avoid any rides with him on Uber/Lyft. He drives a black Honda Accord, license plate 7ZMP948."
The Facebook statement goes on to claim that the ride started out with two passengers, the victim, and her friend. They got into the car at 10:18 am and immediately after the driver dropped off her friend he started to act differently.
She claims that the Lyft driver, Shivam said to her "I have a problem. I have an erection." To which the passenger claims that she asked him to repeat his question, he did and added: "I don't know what to do about it."
To this reply, the woman did not remain paralyzed with fear, she took out her keys and made them into a makeshift knuckle duster between her fingers, preparing to defend herself. At which point, she claims that her driver Shivam repeated himself again.
The woman then took off her high heeled shoes and was preparing to escape and run for her life, She wrote on her page "I'm freaking out internally but remained calm. I said, 'I'm sorry, I can't help you with that. I need to go back home to my boyfriend who is a police officer. Can you please drive up?'"
She then called her mother telling her to be ready for everyone outside the house, at that point they were only a few blocks away from her home. The driver Shivam, according to the woman's claims, fell silent and dropped her off a few houses short of her address. The woman then ran home and asked one of her friends to call Lyft to complain.
Th same woman had been through something similar before, with Uber. She stated that "I have been through this with Uber years before and they couldn't tell me if that specific driver would not be driving with them anymore. Lyft has a similar policy but has ensured me that I will not see this driver again moving forward. I am still waiting for a response from Lyft because this is not an adequate solution, since he may sexually harass and assault another passenger if he continues to drive with them."
In the meantime, the woman has fielded an official complaint with the police as well as sending all relevant information to Lyft.
Based on her personal experience, she tells everyone that "This was a disgusting experience no one should have to go through, but this can happen to anyone. I shouldn't have felt 'lucky' that I got home safe and neither should anyone else. If anyone finds themselves in this kind of situation, please try to stay calm to think of all the possible courses of action/escape, call someone on speaker, and know how to defend yourself."
Lyft’s response to the situation was “Per our Privacy Policy we aren’t able to disclose the details of Trust & Safety investigations. I can assure you though that the decision that we reached was made after serious consideration of all of the information at hand. This report was handled according to our standard procedure, and the actions were taken with this driver reflect the severity of your report.”