Alison Turkos has filed a lawsuit against Lyft, claiming she was kidnapped at gunpoint and raped by her Lyft driver two years ago in New York City.
According to the lawsuit, Turkos first felt something was wrong when her driver started going in the wrong direction. She thought he might have been trying to scam her out of $20 or $30.
However, Turkos realized she might be in serious danger when her driver started acting more aggressively. When the car stopped at a light, she tried to open the door to get out, but the child lock was on. She attempted to open the door on the other side of the car, but the driver pulled a gun out on her.
“That was when I realized that this was not just someone trying to scam $20 or $30 out of me, Turkos said. “It was going to be the worst night of my life.”
Turkos said the driver brought her from New York to New Jersey, where he held her at gunpoint and raped her with two other men.
“They’re laughing, high-fiving each other, cheering each other on,” Turkos said.
Turkos alleges in her lawsuit that a rape kit was performed on her a couple of days after the incident and confirmed that she was indeed raped by at least two men.
The suit claims that Lyft was negligent in its hiring, supervision and retention practices.
“Lyft made a conscious decision not to implement procedures that would effectively screen its drivers and monitor its divers in order to identify and terminate drivers who were sexual predators,” the lawsuit said.
Rachel Abrams, Turkos’ lawyer, has insisted for Lyft to “make the changes necessary to end this epidemic and keep its passengers safe.”
“Our hope and our client’s hope is that, in holding Lyft accountable, other women will not suffer the same fate as Alison and countless others,” Abrams said. “We commend Alison for her courage in coming forward and making her fight for justice public.”
A lyft spokesperson made the following statement, “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.”
For information about personal injury claims, visit Cohen & Cohen, P.C.
