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Nearly 6,000 US sexual assaults reported to Uber in 2017 and 2018
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 6, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Nearly 6,000 instances of sexual
assault, including more than 450 cases of rape, were reported to Uber in the
United States in 2017 and 2018, the ride-sharing company said in a report on
safety released Thursday.
It is the first time that Uber has released the figures — which also
revealed 19 fatal assaults related to the company over the two-year period —
as it and rival Lyft face increasing pressure to cope with the growing number
of complaints of abuse.
The company received 464 reports of non-consensual sexual penetration and
587 of attempted non-consensual sexual penetration in 2017 and 2018.
The other assaults fell into categories such as non-consensual kissing or
touching.
While the number of reports went up from 2017 to 2018 in three of the five
categories, including non-consensual sexual penetration and non-consensual
touching of a sexual body part, the ride-sharing service hailed across-the-
board declines in the “incident rate” based on a larger number of overall
trips occurring in the latter year.
“From 2017 to 2018, Uber saw approximately a 16 percent decrease in the
average incident rate across the five most serious sexual assault categories
reported. Additionally, there were rate decreases across each of the five
individual categories,” the report said.
Uber also reported 10 “fatal physical assaults” related to its service in
2017 and nine in 2018.
“During 2017 and 2018, there were 19 fatal physical assaults occurring in a
total of 18 incidents in relation to Uber,” the company said.
Of the dead, eight were riders, seven were drivers and four were third
parties including bystanders, Uber said.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0905 hrs