Lowcountry woman shares her story as Uber report reveals thousands of sexual assaults

by Anne Emerson

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — A new safety report from Uber reveals that the company received nearly 6,000 reports of sexual assaults in the past two years.

ABC News 4 spoke exclusively to one local woman who recalled her close call with an Uber driver.

At the time of the incident, she was a college student without a car. She always relied on Ubers to get to work.

“I got in the Uber and the guy and I were talking. I remember him asking me, ‘Are you a spur of the moment kind of girl?’ At first, I didn’t think anything of it other than, I don’t know how to interpret that.”

She said, that’s when he said to her, ‘I was just thinking we’d go back to your place, hit it quick and then I leave,’” said the woman. She said her entire body froze.

Terrified, she stated that she managed to escape, running away from her home so he wouldn’t know how to find her again.

After a week of silence, she confided in another Uber driver. It was that driver who helped her report the incident to Uber.

She said the company assured her he would be fired, but, two years later, her guard stays up.

“Every day, I hope he’s fired, but I also hope he is not trying to find me. It’s still in the back of my mind,” she said.

She wouldn’t know, because Uber has not followed up with her to let her know when he was terminated. The memory keeps this young woman reserved and careful every time she steps into the Uber.

Uber has rolled out several safety features recently. In addition to continuous background screenings of drivers, Uber also has a 911 emergency button in its app and encourages riders to report any safety issues.

The company said that its important to note, drivers report assaults at roughly the same rate as riders across the most serious categories of sexual assault.