Florida woman sues Lyft, alleging rideshare driver sexually assaulted her

And Lyft, a San Francisco-based rideshare company, is facing a new lawsuit after a Florida woman says she was sexually assaulted multiple times by one of their drivers. Jose Martinez has the details. Security is always in Aura's mind every time she uses a rideshare app. I have a backup plan with my friends, so what I do is I share my ride with one of my friends so they will know where the ride is going. And that actually gave me a lot of peace of mind. She's been living in San Francisco for more than 10 years and rides Uber and Lyft at least twice a week to avoid taking BART or MUNI late at night. But lately, she says... You always have that fear that something's gonna happen to you, and especially at night when you go out. Especially after a Florida woman filed a major lawsuit against San Francisco-based rideshare company Lyft, citing that she was violently and repeatedly raped by her Lyft driver, which resulted in the birth of a child. And took a ride thinking I was safe, period. And how these rides go, you see their light on, and they say your name, and you get in that car, and you're gonna be okay. And I trusted that. Tabatha Means says it all happened in April 2019 when the driver started touching her inappropriately. After rejecting his advances, she got out of the car. She says the driver followed her into her home and raped her. I'm very upset with myself for not opening my mouth sooner, not doing everything in my power to get proper treatment for the driver for what should have happened. And that's exactly why Aura says these companies should toughen their security product. They do need to run the background check. That's really important. And also, it wouldn't hurt anyone to have like a safety plan or something inside of the car, not only because something can happen with the driver, just because if there is any accident or someone needs help. It's a service that Lyft already provides, supported by ADT. According to the company, if a rider or driver ever feels uncomfortable or unsafe, they can immediately connect with an ADT security professional silently or by voice. But in Tabatha's case, she says the company never helped. Lyft wasn't there. They weren't there like they were supposed to be. All of those fail safes that Rachel mentioned were not there. They were not in place. But while this lawsuit is ongoing, Aura says she has to keep using these services. To have a little bit of comfort when I go out. But of course, always keeping her own safety measures in place. Well, Lyft gave us a statement about the lawsuit saying the woman had privately arranged a ride with the alleged suspect and that nothing happened while either of them were using their service. Now going on to highlight the various safety measures in place in the platform designed to protect riders and drivers.