A Brooklyn woman has filed a lawsuit claiming she was abducted and raped by an Uber driver — and accuses the ride-sharing giant of having a “toxic male culture” that allows attacks on vulnerable passengers.
Amber Moye was 20 when she fell asleep in the backseat of an Uber in Brooklyn the night before New Year’s Eve 2018 — and woke up to be attacked by the driver who climbed in next to her, according to her Brooklyn Supreme Court suit.
The “disgusting and depraved” attack left her “humiliated, molested” and “robbed of her… dignity and personal safety,” the filing said.
“It really messed me up mentally more than anything else,” Moye, now 25, told The Independent in an article published Wednesday.
“And if you’re not right mentally you’re not right anywhere else,” he said.
Moye went to Brookdale Hospital Medical Center the day after the alleged assault, when she woke up with vaginal pain, and a rape kit confirmed she had been assaulted, according to her lawsuit, filed Nov. 15.
Amber Moye, 25, claims her Uber driver raped her on December 30, 2018. Getty Images
The suit states that Moye reported the attack to the NYPD’s special victims unit, although it does not say whether it was fully investigated or if the driver was ever identified.
Moye is now suing Uber and one of its subsidiaries for negligence, liability and related charges, arguing that the company’s “toxic male culture” translated into a blasé attitude toward rider safety.
Uber was aware of sexual assaults by drivers as early as 2014 — but channeled the $1 “Safe Rides Fee” program for profit, instead of implementing concrete safety measures, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit was filed in mid-November in Kings County.
“[W]e increases our margins by saying our rides are safer…[it] is obscene,” the filing quoted a former Uber employee as saying.
The suit accuses Travis Kalanick – one of the company’s founders and former CEO – of driving a culture that prioritizes growth over safety by streamlining the driver application process to a degree that endangers potential users.
Under Kalanick, Uber “abandoned” applicants’ fingerprints and did not run applicant drivers through the FBI’s database — opting instead for “quick and shallow” background checks, the lawsuit alleges.
“The actions of Uber executives and board members demonstrate Uber’s contempt for women and myopic focus on profits,” the suit states, noting that former Uber employee Sarah Fowler recounted how she also allegedly suffered sexual harassment from a purged superior. carpet by the management.
Uber has a “toxic male” culture, the lawsuit alleges. Christopher Sadowski
Uber “breached its duty of reasonable care” and “implied and express agreements arising from its contracts with its passengers” by allegedly avoiding security measures that could have prevented the attack, the lawsuit alleges.
The mental anguish Moye said he felt after the alleged attack cost him his job as an airport attendant, and he remains unemployed, according to the Independent.
“Uber’s entire business model hinges on giving people a safe ride home, but rider safety is never their concern – growth is, at the expense of their passenger safety,” Adam Slater, founding partner of Slater Slater Shulman, the law firm representing Moye, said. told The Post in a statement Thursday.
“Although the company has acknowledged this sexual assault crisis in recent years, the actual response has been slow and inadequate, with dire consequences,” he said.
Uber said it takes “any such reports very seriously.” AP
Uber is currently facing about 100 sexual assault cases brought together in California – and the company’s lawyers recently lost a bid to remove the term “sexual assault” from the name of the suit.
There were nearly 4,000 incidents of alleged sexual assault involving Uber in the US between 2019 and 2020 – down from nearly 6,000 in 2017 to 2018, according to Uber’s own US Safety Report.
“This is an attack that happened today, tomorrow, and the fact that the company hasn’t made any changes, it just means this will continue,” Moye’s lawyer, Jamie Farrell of Slater Slater Schulman, told the Independent.
The law firm has filed at least 100 sexual assault and harassment claims against Uber, the outlet said.
Asked about the lawsuit, an Uber spokesperson told The Post Thursday: “Sexual assault is a horrific crime, and has no place in our society or on the Uber platform. While we cannot comment on pending litigation, we take any reports of this nature very seriously.”
“We’re committed to keeping security at the forefront of everything we do, and we’re always working to build innovative features and policies that help make the platform safer for all,” the representative added.
Moye’s suit was filed under New York’s Adult Rescue Act, which expires on November 23.
The NYPD said it was legally prevented from confirming whether there was an investigation into Moye’s complaint, but said the department “takes sexual assault and rape cases seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so we can conduct a comprehensive investigation, and offered support and services to survivors.”
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
