HAMPTON ROADS, Va. — A Lyft driver was violently assaulted by a passenger after driving him from Portsmouth to Chesapeake.
A search warrant outlines how this attack happened back on Aug. 31, 2023 at around 11 a.m. on South Military Highway.
It states the driver said the suspect refused to get out of the car once they reached the destination. Then, the driver felt something hit him in the back of the head and that he almost lost consciousness.
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The Lyft driver fought back and said he saw that the passenger had a hammer and a gun.
The suspect fled in the victim’s car.
Police say a warrant has been taken out for a juvenile suspect, however he has not been arrested yet. They say he is facing malicious wounding and carjacking charges.
They say the car was recovered.
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The News 3 Investigative Team reached out to Lyft.
They issued the following statement regarding the incident: “The behavior described is deeply concerning. As soon as we became aware of this incident, we permanently removed the rider’s account from the Lyft community and have been in touch with the driver to offer our support. We have been actively assisting law enforcement with their investigation.”
The News 3 Investigative Team spoke to the victim in this case, who did not want to be identified, along with other drivers.
Former taxi and Uber driver Jimmy Frost said most passengers are nice, but sometimes drivers encounter unruly passenger, especially if alcohol is involved.
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He said he was not surprised by the recent attack in Chesapeake.
“There has been a myriad of cases of many drivers assaulted, drivers sexually assaulted, drivers robbed, beaten, had their car stolen,” Frost said. “Literally, anything can happen when you are out there on the street by yourself.”
Frost said drivers undergo extensive background checks, however riders do not and you don’t know who is getting into your car.
“This is a dangerous occupation," Frost said. "You are out there at night by yourself, one on one, and they already have a tactical advance being in the back of the car."
Information from Lyft:
Before the ride: We hold all of our drivers to high standards. Before drivers are approved to drive for Lyft and continuously thereafter, Lyft conducts rigorous and thorough background checks and screenings for every driver.
Overview: We require initial and annual background checks, continuous monitoring, as well as mandatory community safety education created in partnership with RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, to make sure that drivers meet our community standards.
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Annual Background Checks: Before giving a ride on the Lyft platform, all driver-applicants are screened for criminal offenses and driving incidents. Our annual criminal background checks are provided by a third-party company, and include a social security number trace, a nationwide criminal search, a county court records search, a federal criminal court records search as well as a U.S. Department of Justice 50-state sex offender registry search.
Continuous Criminal Monitoring and Driving Record Checks: We also conduct continuous criminal monitoring and continuous driving record checks. These checks provide Lyft with daily monitoring and notification of any disqualifying criminal convictions and driving infractions. Any driver who does not pass both the annual and continuous screenings is barred from our platform.
Identity Verification: Additionally, we have an enhanced identity verification process that combines driver's license verification and photographic identity verification to prevent identity fraud on our platform. Potentially fraudulent drivers will be required to provide evidence that they are carrying the approved driver’s license as well as a real-time photo of their face, which will be used to verify that the driver’s identity is authentic.
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Industry Sharing Safety Program: In 2021, in an effort to further enhance the safety of the entire ridesharing industry, we partnered with Uber to launch the Industry Sharing Safety Program [lyft.com], a first-of-its-kind effort to share information about the drivers who are deactivated from rideshare and delivery platforms for the reasons detailed in this report. The Program enables the sharing of information to equip other participating companies with the information needed to take action on their own platform.
During the ride: We’ve developed a series of in-app safety features that allow riders to share their location with family and friends, connect directly with Lyft Support, and quickly and easily access emergency assistance from the Lyft app.
Share Location: Riders can share their exact location and route with family and friends. Once a user enables this feature, a user’s trusted contacts (who they shared their location with) can see trip status and where they are on the map.
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Emergency Help, supported by ADT: If a rider or driver ever feels uncomfortable or needs emergency assistance at any point, they are able to immediately connect with an ADT security professional silently or by voice. Riders are able to choose whether they want ADT to text them, call them, or silently alert 911 on their behalf (to promote focused driving, drivers only have the option to request a call from ADT). If requested by the user, ADT will alert authorities so they can arrive at the user’s live location, equipped with ride details like the vehicle’s make and model, license plate number, and the intended drop-off location. If someone signals they need help and subsequently does not respond to a call or text from ADT, ADT will contact 911 and share the user’s location and other relevant information.
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Smart Trip Check-In: In some instances, if we notice a ride that appears to have ended far from the intended destination, been canceled after pickup, gone off-route or stopped for an abnormal amount of time, we reach out to riders and drivers directly. We will ask the rider or driver if they need help, and, if appropriate, connect them to emergency assistance or our own Safety team. We recently integrated ADT’s capabilities into Smart Trip Check-in, allowing users to easily and silently get emergency help when we notice an irregularity.
Two-way rating and feedback system: Lyft has a two-way rating system. If a user rates their rider or driver three stars or fewer, we’ll make sure they aren’t matched together again. If a user rates their rider or driver four stars or fewer, they’re requested to provide more details about the rating to ensure we’re constantly tracking user feedback. Lyft looks into low ratings and regularly reviews community feedback to inform our policies and product features.
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Contact protection: The app hides contact information for both the rider and driver before, during and after the ride. While riders and drivers are able to call or text one another through the app, personal information, including real phone numbers, are not revealed. Drivers are also not able to see a rider’s drop-off location, whether it’s a specific address or a cross-street, after the ride is complete.
After the ride: Both riders and drivers can report incidents to our dedicated Safety team available through a 24/7 Critical Response Line so that we can take action -- including investigating, removing users from our platform and working with law enforcement when appropriate -- to help to keep our community safe.
How we respond: As soon as a safety incident is reported to us, it is our policy to immediately reach out to the rider or driver to offer support. While every situation is unique, our specialized Safety team works with the rider or driver to determine their specific needs and provide meaningful support to them and their families directly. The following steps are common practice for responding to an incident:
Take Immediate Action: As a first step, Specialists may freeze the account of the alleged offender – either the rider or driver – as well as the accounts of others involved while we investigate internally.
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Gather Information: Specialists reach out to the reporting party to gather information and provide support as needed. Specialists also contact those who might have relevant information, as identified by the reporting party.
Evaluate: Lyft investigates safety reports through correspondence with drivers and riders, third-party statements, route data, timing details, and police reports. Based on this evaluation, Lyft determines how we can best support the reporting party and the appropriate course of action for handling the incident.
Provide Resources: Where appropriate, Specialists also provide additional resources to those who report safety incidents to Lyft, including making those individuals aware of how to reach organizations that provide a variety of services. These services include counseling, emotional support and crisis intervention, as well as information on how to report incidents to law enforcement.
Information from UBER:
“We are dedicated to the safety of drivers and all members of the Uber community. Our work on safety never stops, which is why we’ve invested in critical features like the ability to chat with a live safety agent, record trip audio in the app, and share your trip with loved ones. We also partner with law enforcement agencies to develop and send safety information and tips to drivers.”
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Uber has developed a number of safety features in the app over recent years to protect the safety of drivers and delivery people [uber.com]:
· Emergency button [uber.com]: Uber users are able to reach out to 911 directly by tapping on the emergency assistance button found in the safety toolkit. Calling 911 is available nationwide. The ability to text 911 discreetly is available across 60% of the US.
· 911 integration in 1,800+ jurisdictions: If a driver uses the emergency button in one of these cities, which includes some of the largest cities in the US, our tech and partnership with RapidSOS enables key trip details to be digitally sent to 911 dispatchers including the caller's name, make and model of the car, license plate, and GPS. Read more about itHERE [info.rapidsos.com].
· GPS Tracking: every trip is tracked.
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· Emergency Contact [help.uber.com]: Drivers can add an emergency contact to their account so Uber can contact a loved one if there’s an emergency on a trip and Uber is unable to contact the driver directly
· RideCheck [uber.com] helps make sure drivers and riders are OK in the event of a possible crash or unexpected long stop and available globally.
· Follow My Ride feature [uber.com] available globally in the app for drivers enables them to share their trip route in real time with family or loved ones.
· Audio Recording: Available across the US, riders and drivers have the ability to record audio during a trip. All audio recordings are encrypted and stored securely on the user’s device and no one—not the driver, not Uber, not the rider—has access to it. Uber can only access the recording if the user reports a safety incident and chooses to share the recording with us. You can find more informationhere [uber.com].
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· “Live Help” from a Safety Agent: For situations that don’t require police, fire or medical, Uber users can request a call or text from an ADT agent who can stay on the phone for the duration of the trip and can reach out to 911 if necessary. Video here [youtube.com].
· In 2021, we rolled out anew rider verification[wgntv.com] feature across the US that will provide an extra layer of verification for users who are using anonymous forms of payment such as prepaid cards, gift cards or Venmo.See blog here [uber.com].
§ Users who set up a new account using one of these anonymous forms of payment will be required to upload an ID or driver’s license from any state or a passport from any country for verification.
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§ This feature is something drivers have told us they would like to see implemented.
· Rider Names: In 2022, we conducted a large audit of rider account names and froze accounts with names that are clearly fake. These accounts remain blocked until riders update or validate their account names with support agents. Drivers can flag any fake or inappropriate names they encounter. For more information, click here [uber.com].
· Driver Safety Awareness Center: A new in-app feature houses all of the safety tips that we developed in partnership with law enforcement.
· We have a team of former law enforcement professionals (including former FBI, Secret Service, Dept of Defense, etc.) around the globe who are on call to work with police 24-7 to respond to urgent needs and assist both proactively and reactively with investigations.
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. Here is a video [youtube.com] about our Law Enforcement Outreach team.
· Uber’s Incident Response Team is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to respond to incidents globally.
· In any emergency, we advise drivers to call 911.
