6 ms·

I’m Suing Lyft

113 points by jbegley 7y ago

LeoPanthera 7y ago
archive.org mirror, because important stories like this one shouldn't be at risk of disappearing behind the Medium paywall: https://web.archive.org/web/20190918020021/https://medium.com/@alturkos/why-im-suing-lyft-6a409e316d1f https://web.archive.org/web/20190918020021/https://medium.co...
- 40four 7y ago
  Thanks. I was intrigued by the story and comments, but have zero interest in subscribing to medium. Also, since she chose to make it a 'premium' article that means she will make money from it right? Makes me have an eyebrow raised.
  - 40four 7y ago
    What a horrible story. I can't imagine how terrible of an experience thay must have been. Just wish I knew more details about the police investigation. Why isn't this guy in jail? Did it go to trial? If not, why? She knows his car, apparently his name/ pseudonym, wasn't he questioned? I get the feeling the police department failed her more than anything. I'm not sure how much Lyft can even do here. They aren't law enforcement.
axaxs 7y ago
That poor lady. I hope she really sticks it to Lyft, mainly so companies will learn that providing non-existent or piss poor customer service is expensive.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  I can't fathom the fact that they didn't deplatform the driver after a customer reports a sexual assault occurred (even if temporarily while reconciliation with a police report is performed), or that they still charged for the ride.
  - axaxs 7y ago
    Right? And I didn't necessarily mean only the complaint stage. I'd consider hiring a potential sex offender, but worse and more realistically, allowing him to stay employed after such a complaint, piss poor customer service, not only to her obviously but every future rider.
    - fearingreprisal 7y ago
      It's a little unclear what Lyft's response to the driver actually was. One article ( from heavy.com ) says that "Lyft continued to allow this driver to continue driving for Lyft under a different name", which suggests the possibility that the driver may have been suspended and re-registered under a psuedonym. The implication is that this is fine by Lyft, which is unclear. Please don't take me as being unsympathetic, I certainly am not. Here's some food for thought: If you were falsely accused of a crime of this nature, heaven forbid, your life pretty much depends on you receiving the full due process of the law granted to you by your rights as a citizen. Cases like this can take years of litigation to resolve, which is very unfortunate. This is not because the legal system does not care about women, it's because the legal system cares about the rights of the accused. Unfortunately sometimes this can mean guilty people being able to fall through the cracks, but if you can think of a better system for guaranteeing individual rights we'd all like to know. Until proven guilty you are presumed innocent. Unless remanded to custody, you are free to go about your life in the meantime. If you were fired from your job at the first hint of accusation, the ramifications for you as an individual could be very severe. In this case it sounds like the driver was guilty. However, I'd advise you and many other people to resist the urge for lynchings, kangaroo courts and witch-trials.
      - axaxs 7y ago
        I replied to another comment, if you care. They should be able to tell whether or not the driver went 80 miles out of the way. That'd be a great starting point. Another user commented on paid leave. That sounds like another fantastic option. Or something as simple as pairing the driver with only day time, male riders during the investigation period.
- allthecybers 7y ago
  > I hope she really sticks it to Lyft I agree. This is not just piss poor customer service but IMO (criminal?) negligence to not protect other passengers from this person until the allegations are either proven or disproven. Also it is a shit response to charge the person for the ride. Seems like the only way these companies will change these days is getting sued and shamed into doing the right thing. It boggles the mind why management at these companies can't put themselves in the shoes of the victim er customer. Guess its time to #deletelyft
  - buildzr 7y ago
    > but IMO (criminal?) negligence to not protect other passengers from this person So, what's your suggested fix? We should let any unproven accusation be enough to deny someone their income? As far as I can see, the only reasonable course of action is to provide as much data as you can about the driver and location of the vehicle to police and let them sort it out before acting against the driver.
    - ISL 7y ago
      This kind of situation is what "paid leave" is for. Ride-share companies have the extra employee/contractor divide, but in this case, getting the driver off the road is probably worth the cost in both damages and reputation while the issue is sorted out.
    - prawn 7y ago
      The police themselves would put an officer on paid leave during the investigation, right? Lyft could suspend the driver, paying them temporarily into escrow, then release that if the allegation is false. Not perfect, but that would mean they had acted quickly and the driver didn't go without income if they were innocent. If it started a rash of false claims so drivers could be paid without working, you can investigate the claimant for fraud (?) and flag the driver's account for review. Or look into what taxi companies do in these situations.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
kbos87 7y ago
I have a lot of empathy for what happened to this person. It’s something that obviously nobody should have to go through. But I also have a hard time defining what the ideal would look like here. If Lyft were to immediately act on any accusation of wrongdoing, the 0.001% of bad actors would be prevented from acting badly once again. But we’d also be living in a world where a customer complaint instantly means the loss of income for someone who is likely barely scraping by and supposed to be innocent until they are proven guilty. The problem is that once everyone knows that that is how the deck is stacked, the 99.999% of drivers who never act badly are in an even more vulnerable position and at the whims of their customers. I’m not saying I disagree that Lyft acted poorly here or that I don’t believe the victim. I am saying I don’t see a clear path to fixing this. It seems like a really short sighted move by Lyft and I have to wonder if it’s maybe because it’s nearly impossible for them to sort true from false amongst all of the reports they receive in a given day, especially without the help of a police report.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- mrnobody_67 7y ago
  Really?? A phone call to gather facts vs. a generic email would be a good start, given the seriousness of the situation. Not forcing her to pay for her ride seems like common decency, even at the minor risk of some fraud. It seems that with GPS they should be able to tell she wasn't delivered to her original destination and instead was moved across state lines. Immediate removal of the driver following an official police complaint would be the next obvious step, followed by more personal follow-up, and a cash settlement offer.
  - fearingreprisal 7y ago
    Other articles have pointed out that she hadn't immediately reported the rape to Lyft. The medium article makes it sound like Lyft were completely indifferent to the kidnapping and rape, but the related articles seem to agree that the first contact Lyft had was a complaint regarding her charge. Lyft themselves claim that the police had not given them a subpoena for information until six months after the incident had taken place. I'm very sympathetic towards Ms Turkos and feel for what she's been through, but the way this article is written is very disingenuous.
deogeo 7y ago
> Lyft’s failure to properly investigate the failues of their system that lead to my kidnapping and rape has severely hampered the ongoing criminal investigation. Does anyone know more about this story? Except this line that is not further elaborated, the post says nothing of why the police were ineffective. And as a matter of principle, shouldn't Lyft be compelled with warrants/subpoenas to provide any records required by the investigation? I certainly don't want to rely on the benevolence of corporations for criminal investigations. So I'd classify this story as a failure of the police first, and Lyft only second.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- thatoneyouthrow 7y ago
  Have you considered that the police may have been effective?
- Lazare 7y ago
  Here's some more backstory on the police aspect: https://www.thedailybeast.com/assault-victims-sue-nypd-over-rape-investigations https://www.thedailybeast.com/assault-victims-sue-nypd-over-... So yes, apparently/allegedly, the police did fail, and the FBI is (apparently?) looking into the claims.
jackos 7y ago
Has more details here: https://heavy.com/news/2019/09/alison-turkos/ https://heavy.com/news/2019/09/alison-turkos/
Beefin 7y ago
I truly have empathy for Ms Turkos, but I have trouble diving deeper into both the headline and her steps following the police report. It's been 2 years since she reported the incident to the police and she's not sharing what they did? How is someone able to continue driving, even continue living outside of prison after a kidnapping? The alleged customer support is awful, but it's not Lyft's responsibility to imprison, it's the judiciary system's. The fact that she's not including the police's response is fishy. What grounds is she even suing on? My response may seem callous but hopefully, it encourages people to not get baited into the emotions of a tragic event and look deeper into why she is choosing to redact so much information.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- Lazare 7y ago
  > The fact that she's not including the police's response is fishy. According to another story (https://nypost.com/2019/01/31/nypd-is-an-old-boys-club-thats-failing-sex-assault-victims-suit/ https://nypost.com/2019/01/31/nypd-is-an-old-boys-club-thats...): > But when she reported the rape a few days later, officers were at first “insensitive” about her trauma, then ignored her during the investigation, and finally said her case was “too complex,” according to court papers. She's now suing the police as well. Which doesn't bring us any closer to understanding what happened, of course! (It's interesting to note that in her lawsuit against Lyft, which another commenter helpfully linked, https://www.levinsimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Levin-Simes-Abrams-Alison-Turkos-Lyft-Rape-Lawsuit.pdf https://www.levinsimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Levin-... she seems to describe the police investigation fairly positively, but claims Lyft was "wholly uncooperative", although with no details of what cooperation was requested and refused.)
  - thatoneyouthrow 7y ago
    She did include the police aren't responding.
danso 7y ago
This is kind of a tangent, but one of Lyft’s explanations [0] is that the victim’s first (and only, from what they claim they know) complaint to them was how the trip took 80 min instead of 15, and how it strayed far away from the requested destination. And that for Lyft apparently wasn’t enough to elevate the issue (though they did reimburse the extra part of the fare). The victim’s lawyer argues that, among other things, the excessive trip should alone have warned Lyft. But I guess that unexpectedly long trips, without driver error, might happen often enough that Lyft doesn’t automatically flag them? I can think of one time when I asked the driver to go through the In-N-Out drivethru on the way home (adding maybe 20 min to my trip). I’m sure a non-infinitesimal percentage of riders request lengthy detours (to pick up or drop off a friend). I was surprised that Lyft quickly gave her the reimbursed fee, but without doing any extra follow up with her. At that point, neither she nor Lyft knew that the main issue wasn’t just user error, but an apparent kidnapping and rape. The victim claims Lyft failed to acknowledge her follow-up complaints. I know Lyft might get countless customer messages on any given day, but it’s a surprise to me that a user who reports a large service disparity isn’t (at least temporarily) elevated in the system. Because the unexpected surcharge may likely be a symptom of a bigger problem, as it seems obviously to be the case with he author here. [0] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb57w8/lyft-allegedly-kept-a-driver-on-the-platform-who-held-a-passenger-at-gunpoint-while-two-other-men-raped-her https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb57w8/lyft-allegedly-kep...
- rolltiide 7y ago
  > I was surprised that Lyft quickly gave her the reimbursed fee, but without doing any extra follow up with her. I consider that amazing customer service tbh, and it has solved many of my grievances with trips. I am contributing to this conversation to let you know what some others users like me do, and what Lyft sees.
  - danso 7y ago
    Yeah, I did mean I was “surprised” in a good way, though the policy obviously wasn’t helpful in this specific situation. Do the drivers still get to keep the overcharge?
gouggoug 7y ago
The lawsuit[1] itself gives a lot more details. This is horrifying to think that Lyft does not even cooperate: "45. Throughout the investigation by the NYPD and the FBI, LYFT has been wholly uncooperative." [1]: https://www.levinsimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Levin-Simes-Abrams-Alison-Turkos-Lyft-Rape-Lawsuit.pdf https://www.levinsimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Levin-...
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
  That's the author's allegation, but how would they even know about any communications between the police and Lyft?
  - gouggoug 7y ago
    > That's the author's allegation That's a fair point.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
CriticalCathed 7y ago
There's a lack of substance in this article. Why is it that this alleged rapist, kidnapper, and his associates are not in prison? I don't see why Lyft is responsible for criminal acts performed by their contractors/employees. Even if they didn't do background checks, which they do, why should they be responsible? That said, Lyft insisting she pay for the ride is an incredibly strange twist. Maybe it's a legal maneuver? They've refunded a ride to me for something as simple as a dirty car that caused me to need to dry clean my clothing. edit: From another article, it becomes clear. Lyft didn't know it was an alleged rape. >Lyft says that when Alison Turkos originally reported the incident to them, she didn’t mention the rape and only sent a message to support asking them to look into the ride. They argue that they basically had no way of knowing she had been raped. We’ve read the messages she sent. >We first became aware that this was a safety incident when the Wall Street Journal published an article on May 8, 2018. We received a subpoena from law enforcement on May 14, 2018, six months after the ride took place. We complied with the subpoena and worked with law enforcement for over a year as they investigated. Something about this stinks.
- addielynn 7y ago
  Something seems off here. She is suing Lyft, ok. NO WHERE that I can see, does she demand that her rapists be prosecuted and be sentenced for their crime. Her focus is only on suing Lyft. If I was raped, I would be demanding that my rapists be charged and sent to prison, not only for closure for myself, the security of knowing they are off the street and I'm not in danger anymore, but also knowing they won't be able to do this to another woman! Instead it's all about Lyft not taking her complaint seriously and being insensitive. It appears she didn't even tell them what happened right away. Am I missing something? (Sorry, I'm new to this forum and I posted this response to someone else, not sure if it goes to everyone.)
throwaway33508 7y ago
I would withhold judgment here without more information. Two different investigators at the NYPD and the FBI have all investigated and have not (yet) brought any charges. Given that the identity of the driver is known, this suggests that none of these investigators found her story credible.
- addielynn 7y ago
  Something seems off here. She is suing Lyft, ok. NO WHERE that I can see, does she demand that her rapists be prosecuted and be sentenced for their crime. Her focus is only on suing Lyft. If I was raped, I would be demanding that my rapists be charged and sent to prison, not only for closure for myself, the security of knowing they are off the street and I'm not in danger anymore, but also knowing they won't be able to do this to another woman! Instead it's all about Lyft not taking her complaint seriously and being insensitive. It appears she didn't even tell them what happened right away. Am I missing something?
tzs 7y ago
Reading the plaintiff's complaint, it says that she took a Lyft home. She did not know that anything bad happened on the trip until she looked at her account and noticed that what should have been a 3 mile trip had been an 18 mile trip. She also noticed vaginal pain and bleeding, realized that something bad must have happened during that trip, and went to the police to report kidnapping and rape. A rape kit was administered and the results identified semen of at least two men. Then: > 42. The NYPD opened an investigation. As part of that investigation, ALISON was asked to ride along in the back of a police car and retrace the route that was taken the night of her attack in an effort to help her recover a more detailed memory of what happened to her that fateful night. > 43. As she rode in the back of the police car the night of the reenactment, the horrible memories she had blocked from her mind came flooding back and she remembered the terrifying details of how she was held at gunpoint by the driver, taken across state lines and repeatedly raped in the back of the car by at least two other men. That kind of reenactment has a very high risk of causing false memories. Is NYPD aware of that, and do they take proper steps to avoid it, or did they make plaintiffs case a lot harder right there? This might not tank a civil case, where you only need a preponderance of the evidence, but sounds like something that could make a criminal case hopeless since that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. I wonder if that has anything to do with the apparent lack of progress of the criminal investigation? Police departments really really need to have experts in human memory on hand, and require that those experts be present when investigators do anything that involves the memory of victims, suspects, and witnesses.
- klipt 7y ago
  So they have a rape kit and they know who the driver was, can't they at least see if the DNA matches? Also if the driver took a very different route to what she requested on her phone that alone seems suspicious.
  - TearsInTheRain 7y ago
    Gotta be enough to subpoena the driver's phone's location or get some footage along the route.
jwilliams 7y ago
I saw a Lyft driver clip a car outside my house - I emailed Lyft to let them know. Provided time, registration, make/model, address. They replied saying that was insufficient information to identify a driver. So I left a note for the damaged car and suggested they file a police report. Lost a lot of respect for Lyft that day.
- ping_pong 7y ago
  To be fair, you're just a witness. The right move was exactly what you did after, which is to give all the information to the owner of the damaged car. They can pursue things and you can be their witness. But just randomly calling Lyft and telling them this... what exactly do you expect them to do?
  - edoceo 7y ago
    All those details are insufficient? That's a BS on Lyft. They could try "thanks, we'll look into it". Instead they were dismissive jerks
    - ping_pong 7y ago
      Yes, that's insufficient. I mean, what would Lyft look into? Would they call up the driver, and then ask if they clipped a car? And what if the driver said either yes or no? Then what should Lyft do? This is a civil matter between the driver and the car owner, not the driver and OP. A police report is real and actionable and something Lyft could follow up on. That's something that the person whose car got damaged should pursue, and OP could serve as a witness, which she volunteered to do. That is the proper way to do things.
      - edoceo 7y ago
        Just hold it as a soft flag pending confirmation. How hard is that? It's like a bug report that needs validation.
jdkee 7y ago
It is time we hold ride sharing companies, indeed any company that uses so called "contractors", liable for the damage or criminal behavior committed on company time. Contact a lawyer. Use the legal and criminal justice system to hold them accountable. Sue for damages. Contact your state or federal representative to push for laws to do so.
Simon_says 7y ago
This is ridiculous. She’s suing Lyft because Lyft has money, not because they’re responsible. If a McDonald’s employee rapes me in the McDonald’s bathroom, McDonalds’s isn’t at fault. And what on Earth was going on that she “reported the rape” to Lyft before the police? It’s a crime, not some terms of service violation. If it happened the way she described, the driver should be in jail, not just kicked off the app.

113 points by jbegley 7y ago

archive.org mirror, because important stories like this one shouldn't be at risk of disappearing behind the Medium paywall: https://web.archive.org/web/20190918020021/https://medium.com/@alturkos/why-im-suing-lyft-6a409e316d1f https://web.archive.org/web/20190918020021/https://medium.co...

40four 7y ago
Thanks. I was intrigued by the story and comments, but have zero interest in subscribing to medium. Also, since she chose to make it a 'premium' article that means she will make money from it right? Makes me have an eyebrow raised.
- 40four 7y ago
  What a horrible story. I can't imagine how terrible of an experience thay must have been. Just wish I knew more details about the police investigation. Why isn't this guy in jail? Did it go to trial? If not, why? She knows his car, apparently his name/ pseudonym, wasn't he questioned? I get the feeling the police department failed her more than anything. I'm not sure how much Lyft can even do here. They aren't law enforcement.

axaxs 7y ago

That poor lady. I hope she really sticks it to Lyft, mainly so companies will learn that providing non-existent or piss poor customer service is expensive.

toomuchtodo 7y ago
I can't fathom the fact that they didn't deplatform the driver after a customer reports a sexual assault occurred (even if temporarily while reconciliation with a police report is performed), or that they still charged for the ride.
- axaxs 7y ago
  Right? And I didn't necessarily mean only the complaint stage. I'd consider hiring a potential sex offender, but worse and more realistically, allowing him to stay employed after such a complaint, piss poor customer service, not only to her obviously but every future rider.
  - fearingreprisal 7y ago
    It's a little unclear what Lyft's response to the driver actually was. One article ( from heavy.com ) says that "Lyft continued to allow this driver to continue driving for Lyft under a different name", which suggests the possibility that the driver may have been suspended and re-registered under a psuedonym. The implication is that this is fine by Lyft, which is unclear. Please don't take me as being unsympathetic, I certainly am not. Here's some food for thought: If you were falsely accused of a crime of this nature, heaven forbid, your life pretty much depends on you receiving the full due process of the law granted to you by your rights as a citizen. Cases like this can take years of litigation to resolve, which is very unfortunate. This is not because the legal system does not care about women, it's because the legal system cares about the rights of the accused. Unfortunately sometimes this can mean guilty people being able to fall through the cracks, but if you can think of a better system for guaranteeing individual rights we'd all like to know. Until proven guilty you are presumed innocent. Unless remanded to custody, you are free to go about your life in the meantime. If you were fired from your job at the first hint of accusation, the ramifications for you as an individual could be very severe. In this case it sounds like the driver was guilty. However, I'd advise you and many other people to resist the urge for lynchings, kangaroo courts and witch-trials.
    - axaxs 7y ago
      I replied to another comment, if you care. They should be able to tell whether or not the driver went 80 miles out of the way. That'd be a great starting point. Another user commented on paid leave. That sounds like another fantastic option. Or something as simple as pairing the driver with only day time, male riders during the investigation period.
allthecybers 7y ago
> I hope she really sticks it to Lyft I agree. This is not just piss poor customer service but IMO (criminal?) negligence to not protect other passengers from this person until the allegations are either proven or disproven. Also it is a shit response to charge the person for the ride. Seems like the only way these companies will change these days is getting sued and shamed into doing the right thing. It boggles the mind why management at these companies can't put themselves in the shoes of the victim er customer. Guess its time to #deletelyft
- buildzr 7y ago
  > but IMO (criminal?) negligence to not protect other passengers from this person So, what's your suggested fix? We should let any unproven accusation be enough to deny someone their income? As far as I can see, the only reasonable course of action is to provide as much data as you can about the driver and location of the vehicle to police and let them sort it out before acting against the driver.
  - ISL 7y ago
    This kind of situation is what "paid leave" is for. Ride-share companies have the extra employee/contractor divide, but in this case, getting the driver off the road is probably worth the cost in both damages and reputation while the issue is sorted out.
  - prawn 7y ago
    The police themselves would put an officer on paid leave during the investigation, right? Lyft could suspend the driver, paying them temporarily into escrow, then release that if the allegation is false. Not perfect, but that would mean they had acted quickly and the driver didn't go without income if they were innocent. If it started a rash of false claims so drivers could be paid without working, you can investigate the claimant for fraud (?) and flag the driver's account for review. Or look into what taxi companies do in these situations.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]

kbos87 7y ago

I have a lot of empathy for what happened to this person. It’s something that obviously nobody should have to go through. But I also have a hard time defining what the ideal would look like here. If Lyft were to immediately act on any accusation of wrongdoing, the 0.001% of bad actors would be prevented from acting badly once again. But we’d also be living in a world where a customer complaint instantly means the loss of income for someone who is likely barely scraping by and supposed to be innocent until they are proven guilty. The problem is that once everyone knows that that is how the deck is stacked, the 99.999% of drivers who never act badly are in an even more vulnerable position and at the whims of their customers. I’m not saying I disagree that Lyft acted poorly here or that I don’t believe the victim. I am saying I don’t see a clear path to fixing this. It seems like a really short sighted move by Lyft and I have to wonder if it’s maybe because it’s nearly impossible for them to sort true from false amongst all of the reports they receive in a given day, especially without the help of a police report.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
mrnobody_67 7y ago
Really?? A phone call to gather facts vs. a generic email would be a good start, given the seriousness of the situation. Not forcing her to pay for her ride seems like common decency, even at the minor risk of some fraud. It seems that with GPS they should be able to tell she wasn't delivered to her original destination and instead was moved across state lines. Immediate removal of the driver following an official police complaint would be the next obvious step, followed by more personal follow-up, and a cash settlement offer.
- fearingreprisal 7y ago
  Other articles have pointed out that she hadn't immediately reported the rape to Lyft. The medium article makes it sound like Lyft were completely indifferent to the kidnapping and rape, but the related articles seem to agree that the first contact Lyft had was a complaint regarding her charge. Lyft themselves claim that the police had not given them a subpoena for information until six months after the incident had taken place. I'm very sympathetic towards Ms Turkos and feel for what she's been through, but the way this article is written is very disingenuous.

deogeo 7y ago

> Lyft’s failure to properly investigate the failues of their system that lead to my kidnapping and rape has severely hampered the ongoing criminal investigation. Does anyone know more about this story? Except this line that is not further elaborated, the post says nothing of why the police were ineffective. And as a matter of principle, shouldn't Lyft be compelled with warrants/subpoenas to provide any records required by the investigation? I certainly don't want to rely on the benevolence of corporations for criminal investigations. So I'd classify this story as a failure of the police first, and Lyft only second.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
thatoneyouthrow 7y ago
Have you considered that the police may have been effective?
Lazare 7y ago
Here's some more backstory on the police aspect: https://www.thedailybeast.com/assault-victims-sue-nypd-over-rape-investigations https://www.thedailybeast.com/assault-victims-sue-nypd-over-... So yes, apparently/allegedly, the police did fail, and the FBI is (apparently?) looking into the claims.

jackos 7y ago

Has more details here: https://heavy.com/news/2019/09/alison-turkos/ https://heavy.com/news/2019/09/alison-turkos/

Beefin 7y ago

I truly have empathy for Ms Turkos, but I have trouble diving deeper into both the headline and her steps following the police report. It's been 2 years since she reported the incident to the police and she's not sharing what they did? How is someone able to continue driving, even continue living outside of prison after a kidnapping? The alleged customer support is awful, but it's not Lyft's responsibility to imprison, it's the judiciary system's. The fact that she's not including the police's response is fishy. What grounds is she even suing on? My response may seem callous but hopefully, it encourages people to not get baited into the emotions of a tragic event and look deeper into why she is choosing to redact so much information.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
Lazare 7y ago
> The fact that she's not including the police's response is fishy. According to another story (https://nypost.com/2019/01/31/nypd-is-an-old-boys-club-thats-failing-sex-assault-victims-suit/ https://nypost.com/2019/01/31/nypd-is-an-old-boys-club-thats...): > But when she reported the rape a few days later, officers were at first “insensitive” about her trauma, then ignored her during the investigation, and finally said her case was “too complex,” according to court papers. She's now suing the police as well. Which doesn't bring us any closer to understanding what happened, of course! (It's interesting to note that in her lawsuit against Lyft, which another commenter helpfully linked, https://www.levinsimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Levin-Simes-Abrams-Alison-Turkos-Lyft-Rape-Lawsuit.pdf https://www.levinsimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Levin-... she seems to describe the police investigation fairly positively, but claims Lyft was "wholly uncooperative", although with no details of what cooperation was requested and refused.)
- thatoneyouthrow 7y ago
  She did include the police aren't responding.

danso 7y ago

This is kind of a tangent, but one of Lyft’s explanations [0] is that the victim’s first (and only, from what they claim they know) complaint to them was how the trip took 80 min instead of 15, and how it strayed far away from the requested destination. And that for Lyft apparently wasn’t enough to elevate the issue (though they did reimburse the extra part of the fare). The victim’s lawyer argues that, among other things, the excessive trip should alone have warned Lyft. But I guess that unexpectedly long trips, without driver error, might happen often enough that Lyft doesn’t automatically flag them? I can think of one time when I asked the driver to go through the In-N-Out drivethru on the way home (adding maybe 20 min to my trip). I’m sure a non-infinitesimal percentage of riders request lengthy detours (to pick up or drop off a friend). I was surprised that Lyft quickly gave her the reimbursed fee, but without doing any extra follow up with her. At that point, neither she nor Lyft knew that the main issue wasn’t just user error, but an apparent kidnapping and rape. The victim claims Lyft failed to acknowledge her follow-up complaints. I know Lyft might get countless customer messages on any given day, but it’s a surprise to me that a user who reports a large service disparity isn’t (at least temporarily) elevated in the system. Because the unexpected surcharge may likely be a symptom of a bigger problem, as it seems obviously to be the case with he author here. [0] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb57w8/lyft-allegedly-kept-a-driver-on-the-platform-who-held-a-passenger-at-gunpoint-while-two-other-men-raped-her https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb57w8/lyft-allegedly-kep...

rolltiide 7y ago
> I was surprised that Lyft quickly gave her the reimbursed fee, but without doing any extra follow up with her. I consider that amazing customer service tbh, and it has solved many of my grievances with trips. I am contributing to this conversation to let you know what some others users like me do, and what Lyft sees.
- danso 7y ago
  Yeah, I did mean I was “surprised” in a good way, though the policy obviously wasn’t helpful in this specific situation. Do the drivers still get to keep the overcharge?

gouggoug 7y ago

The lawsuit[1] itself gives a lot more details. This is horrifying to think that Lyft does not even cooperate: "45. Throughout the investigation by the NYPD and the FBI, LYFT has been wholly uncooperative." [1]: https://www.levinsimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Levin-Simes-Abrams-Alison-Turkos-Lyft-Rape-Lawsuit.pdf https://www.levinsimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Levin-...

9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
That's the author's allegation, but how would they even know about any communications between the police and Lyft?
- gouggoug 7y ago
  > That's the author's allegation That's a fair point.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

CriticalCathed 7y ago

There's a lack of substance in this article. Why is it that this alleged rapist, kidnapper, and his associates are not in prison? I don't see why Lyft is responsible for criminal acts performed by their contractors/employees. Even if they didn't do background checks, which they do, why should they be responsible? That said, Lyft insisting she pay for the ride is an incredibly strange twist. Maybe it's a legal maneuver? They've refunded a ride to me for something as simple as a dirty car that caused me to need to dry clean my clothing. edit: From another article, it becomes clear. Lyft didn't know it was an alleged rape. >Lyft says that when Alison Turkos originally reported the incident to them, she didn’t mention the rape and only sent a message to support asking them to look into the ride. They argue that they basically had no way of knowing she had been raped. We’ve read the messages she sent. >We first became aware that this was a safety incident when the Wall Street Journal published an article on May 8, 2018. We received a subpoena from law enforcement on May 14, 2018, six months after the ride took place. We complied with the subpoena and worked with law enforcement for over a year as they investigated. Something about this stinks.

addielynn 7y ago
Something seems off here. She is suing Lyft, ok. NO WHERE that I can see, does she demand that her rapists be prosecuted and be sentenced for their crime. Her focus is only on suing Lyft. If I was raped, I would be demanding that my rapists be charged and sent to prison, not only for closure for myself, the security of knowing they are off the street and I'm not in danger anymore, but also knowing they won't be able to do this to another woman! Instead it's all about Lyft not taking her complaint seriously and being insensitive. It appears she didn't even tell them what happened right away. Am I missing something? (Sorry, I'm new to this forum and I posted this response to someone else, not sure if it goes to everyone.)

throwaway33508 7y ago

I would withhold judgment here without more information. Two different investigators at the NYPD and the FBI have all investigated and have not (yet) brought any charges. Given that the identity of the driver is known, this suggests that none of these investigators found her story credible.

addielynn 7y ago
Something seems off here. She is suing Lyft, ok. NO WHERE that I can see, does she demand that her rapists be prosecuted and be sentenced for their crime. Her focus is only on suing Lyft. If I was raped, I would be demanding that my rapists be charged and sent to prison, not only for closure for myself, the security of knowing they are off the street and I'm not in danger anymore, but also knowing they won't be able to do this to another woman! Instead it's all about Lyft not taking her complaint seriously and being insensitive. It appears she didn't even tell them what happened right away. Am I missing something?

tzs 7y ago

Reading the plaintiff's complaint, it says that she took a Lyft home. She did not know that anything bad happened on the trip until she looked at her account and noticed that what should have been a 3 mile trip had been an 18 mile trip. She also noticed vaginal pain and bleeding, realized that something bad must have happened during that trip, and went to the police to report kidnapping and rape. A rape kit was administered and the results identified semen of at least two men. Then: > 42. The NYPD opened an investigation. As part of that investigation, ALISON was asked to ride along in the back of a police car and retrace the route that was taken the night of her attack in an effort to help her recover a more detailed memory of what happened to her that fateful night. > 43. As she rode in the back of the police car the night of the reenactment, the horrible memories she had blocked from her mind came flooding back and she remembered the terrifying details of how she was held at gunpoint by the driver, taken across state lines and repeatedly raped in the back of the car by at least two other men. That kind of reenactment has a very high risk of causing false memories. Is NYPD aware of that, and do they take proper steps to avoid it, or did they make plaintiffs case a lot harder right there? This might not tank a civil case, where you only need a preponderance of the evidence, but sounds like something that could make a criminal case hopeless since that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. I wonder if that has anything to do with the apparent lack of progress of the criminal investigation? Police departments really really need to have experts in human memory on hand, and require that those experts be present when investigators do anything that involves the memory of victims, suspects, and witnesses.

klipt 7y ago
So they have a rape kit and they know who the driver was, can't they at least see if the DNA matches? Also if the driver took a very different route to what she requested on her phone that alone seems suspicious.
- TearsInTheRain 7y ago
  Gotta be enough to subpoena the driver's phone's location or get some footage along the route.

jwilliams 7y ago

I saw a Lyft driver clip a car outside my house - I emailed Lyft to let them know. Provided time, registration, make/model, address. They replied saying that was insufficient information to identify a driver. So I left a note for the damaged car and suggested they file a police report. Lost a lot of respect for Lyft that day.

ping_pong 7y ago
To be fair, you're just a witness. The right move was exactly what you did after, which is to give all the information to the owner of the damaged car. They can pursue things and you can be their witness. But just randomly calling Lyft and telling them this... what exactly do you expect them to do?
- edoceo 7y ago
  All those details are insufficient? That's a BS on Lyft. They could try "thanks, we'll look into it". Instead they were dismissive jerks
  - ping_pong 7y ago
    Yes, that's insufficient. I mean, what would Lyft look into? Would they call up the driver, and then ask if they clipped a car? And what if the driver said either yes or no? Then what should Lyft do? This is a civil matter between the driver and the car owner, not the driver and OP. A police report is real and actionable and something Lyft could follow up on. That's something that the person whose car got damaged should pursue, and OP could serve as a witness, which she volunteered to do. That is the proper way to do things.
    - edoceo 7y ago
      Just hold it as a soft flag pending confirmation. How hard is that? It's like a bug report that needs validation.

jdkee 7y ago

It is time we hold ride sharing companies, indeed any company that uses so called "contractors", liable for the damage or criminal behavior committed on company time. Contact a lawyer. Use the legal and criminal justice system to hold them accountable. Sue for damages. Contact your state or federal representative to push for laws to do so.

Simon_says 7y ago

This is ridiculous. She’s suing Lyft because Lyft has money, not because they’re responsible. If a McDonald’s employee rapes me in the McDonald’s bathroom, McDonalds’s isn’t at fault. And what on Earth was going on that she “reported the rape” to Lyft before the police? It’s a crime, not some terms of service violation. If it happened the way she described, the driver should be in jail, not just kicked off the app.