Uber sued by over 500 women passengers for sexual assault by drivers

Uber could be sued by more than 500 women across the United States who were allegedly assaulted by drivers during the rides. Complainants claim that even though the company has acknowledged this crisis but the response is slow and inadequate. 

“Women were ‘kidnapped, sexually assaulted, sexually battered, raped, falsely imprisoned, stalked, harassed or otherwise attacked’ in their rides,” said a complaint that was filed on Wednesday by Slater Slater Schulman LLP in San Francisco. The complaint was filed by the law firm based on claims of about 550 clients. The firm also claimed that “Uber has known about the sexual misconduct by some of the drivers, including rape, since 2014”

“While the company has acknowledged this crisis of sexual assault in recent years, its actual response has been slow and inadequate, with horrific consequences,” said Adam Slater, a partner at Slater Slater Schulman. “There is so much more that Uber can be doing to protect riders: adding cameras to deter assaults, performing more robust background checks on drivers, creating a warning system when drivers don’t stay on a path to a destination.”

Earlier, the ride-hailing faced several lawsuits for sexual misconduct by drivers.  In 2018, it agreed to settle a class action case when 2 women said they were taken advantage of by drivers after they had consumed alcohol. Uber has long defended itself by asserting that it can’t be held responsible for behavior of its drivers, who aren’t employees but rather are contractors.

However, in its recent safety report, Uber said it conducts elaborate background checks of drivers before and during their time with the company.

“Sexual assault is a horrific crime and we take every single report seriously,” Uber said in a statement. “There is nothing more important than safety, which is why Uber has built new safety features, established survivor-centric policies, and been more transparent about serious incidents. While we can’t comment on pending litigation, we will continue to keep safety at the heart of our work.”

As per the safety report, which was released two weeks back, it received 3,824 reports of the five most severe categories of sexual assault in 2019 and 2020, ranging from “non-consensual kissing of a nonsexual body part” to “nonconsensual sexual penetration,” or rape.

(With inputs from agencies)