Bay Area Woman Escapes Abduction by Lyft Driver

Oakland resident Brittney Sundquist (27 yrs) escaped what she describes as an attempted abduction by a Lyft Driver on August 23rd, 2018.  She filled a police report the next morning and posted a screenshot of the driver along with her story on a facebook post.  Britney explained that the Lyft Driver going by ‘Suo’, began to drive her several miles in the opposite direction from her home and into a dark and wooded area in the Oakland hills before she managed to escape the vehicle and flee into the woods on foot.

Brittney’s original facebook post and warning about this Lyft Driver may be found here.  You can read the full statement bellow as well.

In an interview with ABC News Brittney stated, “It became a fight or flight situation, I was no longer in control, and it was a situation that I needed to quickly escape from.”

Brittney Sundquist retold her abduction story to ABC news this week

Lyft has since released a statement after being informed of the incident by the Police, Lyft stated: “What is being described is horrific. We have reached out to the passenger to extend our full support and the driver has been permanently banned from the Lyft platform. We stand ready to assist law enforcement with their investigation.”

Brittney and her roommate Amanda Wood (who happens to be a Lyft driver herself), have created a petition asking that Ride-sharing services such as Lyft and Uber to offer passengers the option to request a female driver for enhanced personal safety.

Sign the Petition Here

Brittney’s full Facebook post text is here:

“I am making this post to inform the community, last night I was nearly abducted while taking a lyft home from a bar in Berkeley. The driver, whose photograph is attached with this post, deviated from the destination point of my home and was driving me to a desolate location in the Oakland hills. He was not allowing me to exit the car and as he continued to drive deeper into the woods I realized that I was in a very dangerous situation. At this point I was able to jump out of the car and ran into the woods where I was able to escape. I am physically unharmed, though shaken. Upon completing the police report this morning, the officer informed me that very similar situations have been reported in the Oakland area within recent months. Please be careful out there ladies. Look out for one another and be vigilant. Always let people know when you are getting into lyfts or Ubers. Lastly, there is a safety app called Noonlight where you place your finger on a button during the ride and if you release the button for a long duration, the app locates you and calls 911. Get that bad boy! Please share with the ladies in your life and straight FUUCK rapists, assaulters, and all punk ass mother fuckers of this sort. I’m feeling very fortunate to be safe and incredibly thankful that this didn’t happen to me a few weeks ago when I would have been in my leg brace/on crutches and unable to escape.
???EDIT: My best friend, Amanda Wood, and I have created a petition that calls on ride-sharing services such as Lyft and Uber, to offer female passengers, children, and LGBTQ folks the option to request a female driver for enhanced personal safety. Please check out the link and sign. With the support of one another we can create more awareness around this issue and, hopefully, incite some positive change.https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/lyft-offer-female-driver.fb49?source=c.fb&r_by=20626996.”

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If you have experienced something like this by a Lyft, Uber, or Taxi driver, please do the right thing and file a police report.  By reporting such drivers to authorities you may be able to save other from becoming victims.  This is not at all the first time a rideshare driver has been accused of abduction or sexual assault in the Bay Area.  Just weeks ago in July, the ‘Rideshare Rapist’ case where a former Lyft driver is accused of serially raping his passengers went to court in San Francisco, a case that emphasized the flaws in Lyft background checks for their drivers.