Lyft's First-Ever Safety Report Reveals 1,800 Sexual Assaults in One Year

Though the baseline number of rides increased and overall assault incidence has decreased, it’s still a staggering number.

by · Jezebel
Photo: Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images (Getty Images)

Yesterday, Lyft released its first-ever safety report detailing the prevalence of fatal crashes, physical violence, sexual assaults, and other incidents from 2017 through the end of 2019. The report shows that more than 1,800 people were sexually assaulted during Lyft rides in 2019 alone—a truly staggering figure.

That’s a 64 percent increase in sexual assaults from 2017, and though the baseline number of rides increased even more during that time and overall assault incidence has decreased 19 percent, this is still a horrifying number of human beings who were violated by the people they trusted to drive them.

The report tracked five subcategories of sexual assault: Non-Consensual Sexual Penetration (156); Attempted Non-Consensual Sexual Penetration (114); Non-Consensual Kissing of a Sexual Body Part (203); Non-Consensual Touching of a Sexual Body Part (1,041); and Non-Consensual Kissing of a Non-Sexual Body Part (293).

People who were sexually assaulted by Lyft drivers have sued the company for failing to prevent assault by drivers. Riders and the ride-hailing industry have awaited the release of this report since Lyft committed to the undertaking in 2019, after Uber released its own statistics.

Alison Turkos, a New York woman who was kidnapped and gangraped by a Lyft driver and two others in October 2017, told Jezebel in a statement: “These are not ‘safety incidents.’ Lyft will not be successful in erasing survivor stories and our trauma. This is not a trust and safety report, this is a harm report. Lyft is reporting out on the harm they have caused. I was kidnapped at gunpoint, taken across state lines, and gang-raped, that is not a ‘safety incident.’ I did not file a lawsuit because of a ‘safety incident,’ I filed a lawsuit because I am the victim of a violent crime and Lyft was a part of that. No matter how hard they try to reword it my trauma cannot be erased and their liability cannot be ignored.”

Turkos noted that sexually assault is widely underreported and that these numbers likely don’t capture every rape or instance of unwanted kissing or touching.

Turkos continued: “I’ve been pushing Lyft to publish this since December 2019, not because I needed proof—my PTSD is proof, my night terrors are proof, my debilitating depression is proof—that’s not why I wanted this report. I wanted this report because no one seems to care or to understand what happens when you say to your best friend ‘text me when you get home’ and that text never comes. I hope the board and investors, the people on the Safety Advisory Council, the people in positions of power actually listen to those of us who have been directly impacted and do not put profits over people.”

As for other Lyft problems in 2019, 49 people were killed in car accidents and 4 died during physical assaults, which means all safety incidents tracked occurred during 0.0002 percent of Lyft rides, according to the company’s head of policy development and research. The Times reports that Uber’s statistics are “in line” with this figure, but goes on to say in the next sentence that sexual assaults alone happened during 0.0002 percent of 1.3 billion Uber rides in 2018. That means sexual assaults were actually more prevalent during Uber rides in 2018 than during Lyft rides in 2019. Just great.