
[Christine Clarridge
Last December, a Seattle woman was raped in White Center when she got into the car of a man she thought was an Uber driver.
Hers isn’t the only such story. In April, University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson got into a car she thought was her Uber and was killed by its driver. In Las Vegas, a woman jumped out of a moving car to escape a threatening driver who also turned out to be phony. In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a fake driver took photos of female passengers while they were unconscious.
But these kinds of incidents don’t only involve people pretending to be rideshare drivers. More than 3,000 sexual assaults happened during actual Uber rides in the United States last year, according to a a long-awaited safety study released Thursday by the company.
The report divides sexual assaults and misconduct into 21 categories but focuses on the five most serious, including rape, of which there were 235. The company also reported that there had been about 6,000 other incidents of misconduct over 2017 and 2018.
Uber has been making safety changes, and in King County, assault allegations have led to talk of screening rideshare drivers.
Meanwhile, public-safety experts and the companies themselves have issued a number of safety tips for passengers.
If you need help
News reports of sexual-assault allegations could be a trigger for victims and survivors of abuse. Here are some resources:
-
The King County Sexual Assault Resource Center offers a 24-hour resource line (888-998-6423). Additionally, KCSARC can help connect people with therapy, legal advocates and family services (kcsarc.org/gethelp).
-
UW Medicine’s Center for Sexual Assault & Traumatic Stress (depts.washington.edu/hcsats) offers resources, including counseling and medical care. For immediate help, call 206-744-1600.
-
For readers outside King County, the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs lists 38 Washington state providers that offer free services. (wcsap.org/find-help)
-
RAINN: Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network provides a free, confidential hotline (800-656-4673) and online chat (hotline.rainn.org) with trained staff members.