According to the News Times, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal called for ridesharing giants Uber and Lyft to take new steps to protect passengers from drivers accused of sexual abuse. His actions stem from two people in separate cases in Fairfield County who said they were assaulted by their rideshare driver.
“Everywhere in CT and our country today, people will call Uber and Lyft because they feel it is safer than driving themselves,” Sen. Blumenthal, D-CT, said during a news conference. According to the senator, both companies are “failing to take significant steps to make their riders safer.”
The steps the senator is calling for from the ride-hailing companies include adding fingerprint-based background checks, for the companies to immediately report cases of sexual assault to law enforcement agencies, and to share information on drivers banned from their rideshare platform with competing companies. These are steps that we at Estey & Bomberger have been calling for for years. Now action is finally being taken.
The senator’s move happened after two drivers in Connecticut were accused of sexually assaulting a passenger. One of the drivers had been previously convicted, while the other began working for Lyft after being banned from Uber. Citing a report by CNN, the senator states that last year, 103 drivers were accused of sexually abusing people through Uber. Of these cases, found by the news network, 31 drivers were convicted of sexual abuse.
“There are no comprehensive reliable statistics because Uber and Lyft don’t want to know,” the senator added, noting that the abuses reported ranged from forcible touching to rape. If you believe that you or a loved one is a survivor of sexual assault by an Uber or Lyft driver, please contact the compassionate legal team at Estey & Bomberger for a free, 100% confidential consultation.