Lyft Facing Lawsuit For Alleged 2017 New Jersey Sexual Assault

Lyft faces a lawsuit from New York woman alleging she was kidnapped and gang-raped by a driver.

The lawsuit was filed by Alison Turkos, who says she was victim of the incident in 2017 when she requested a Lyft while out with friends in Brooklyn. The suit says she was held at gunpoint by the driver and taken to New Jersey to meet with two other men before being raped. Turkos reported the rape shortly after to the New York Police Department, which investigated before the case was transferred to the FBI.

The suit says Lyft failed to cooperate adequately with investigators. It also says the company failed to protect her and other women because of inadequate screening and hiring practices.

“Lyft 'apologized for the inconvenience that I'd been through' and informed me they ‘appreciated the voice of their customers and were committed to doing their best in giving me the support that I needed,’ ” Turkos wrote in an essay on Medium. “However, to my utter shock, Lyft informed me that I would still be expected to pay for the original estimated cost of my ride and I would be ‘unpaired’ from the driver in the future — I'd later learn he remained a Lyft drive.”

Turkos’ lawsuit is the latest in a string of suits the California ride-share company has faced in the last two years over sexual assault. CNN reported in 2018 that at least 103 Uber and 13 Lyft drivers had committed sexual assault in some manner while working.

Lyft issued a statement addressing the lawsuit, saying: “What this rider describes is awful, and something no one should have to endure. The unfortunate fact remains that one in six women will face some form of sexual violence in their lives — behavior that's unacceptable for our society and on our platform. In this case, the driver passed the New York City TLC's background check and was permitted to drive.”

The lawsuit is the second Turkos has filed in 2019 stemming from the 2017 rape. She filed a suit against the NYPD in January over alleged mishandling of the investigation before it was handed to the FBI.