USC student is raped by Lyft driver who picked her up from club in West Hollywood

A University of Southern California student was allegedly raped by a Lyft driver who picked her up from a night out in West Hollywood on Wednesday.

Police are actively searching for the Lyft driver who attacked the unidentified woman in his car on the 3600 block of South Grand Avenue.

The driver is described as a thinly built man between 25 and 35 years old with a black beard and black hair.

After attending the Halloween Carnival in West Hollywood, the student hailed a black sedan through a ride-hailing service.

The female student was reportedly attacked around 3 a.m. Wednesday after she and the driver arrived at her apartment near the USC campus.

‘Our thoughts are with the victim and this has no place in society. Based on the information available at this time,” a Lyft spokesperson said in a statement to DailyMail.com.

“We found no report or ride matching the description and cannot confirm it involved the Lyft platform.

“We have contacted police and stand ready to assist with their investigation.”

USC also sent an alert to its community, describing the situation and providing suspect information.

The San Francisco-based registered more than 4,000 claims of sexual assault from 2017 to 2019, according to the first safety report from 2021.

The report came after fellow ride-sharing company Uber released similar data in a 2019 report, which revealed around 6,000 reported cases between 2017 and 2018.

In total, Lyft reported 1,096 reports of sexual assault in 2017, 1,255 in 2018 and 1,807 in 2019. There were also a total of 360 reports of rape over the three years.

“We recognize that sexual violence is chronically underreported, and it can sometimes take months or years before a survivor is willing to come forward and report what happened — if they are willing to do so at all,” the company wrote in a statement at the time . .

“Knowing this, Lyft included every incident reported in 2017, 2018 and 2019, regardless of when the incident allegedly occurred.”

Lyft allows women and non-binary riders to choose female drivers

Women+ Connect hopes to encourage women and non-binary riders to feel more confident

The platform began offering women and non-binary riders the option to choose female drivers in September.

Women+ Connect hopes to encourage women and non-binary drivers and passengers to feel more confident when using the transportation platform.

The tool would be accessible to those who select their gender as female or non-binary, or to those with a commonly recognizable female name.

While the app prioritizes matches with nearby and non-binary women, Women+ Connect is a preferred feature and not a guarantee.

The feature has only rolled out in select early access cities in the US, including Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose.

The company was previously encouraged to publish an annual driver safety report and devise processes to ensure drivers felt they could refuse unsafe rides. Bloomberg reported.

“Female drivers like the flexibility that (Lyft) provides for the revenue, but there are times, you know, late at night or Saturday night when things get a little rowdy, that they think to themselves, gee, I just don’t always have feeling comfortable,” said CEO David Risher.

Lyft faced a lawsuit in California in 2019 from 14 plaintiffs who alleged the company failed to take steps to prevent sexual assault or violence against its drivers.

One lawsuit involved 33-year-old Alison Turkos, who alleged she was kidnapped and raped by her driver and two men in 2017 while traveling from Brooklyn to a New Jersey park.

After informing Lyft of the terrifying incident, she was still charged for the ride and was “disconnected” from the driver.

She also reported the incident to the NYPD, who opened an investigation and contacted the FBI. It was said that it was being treated as a human trafficking case.