Editor's note: This story contains details of sexual assault and might be difficult for some readers.
Updated 6:16 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2024.
Democratic State Rep. Jenny Willford of Northglenn is suing the ride share company Lyft in an effort to improve passenger safety after she said she was raped by a Lyft driver last year.
Willford told the details of her story for the first time publicly during a press conference announcing the suit in the Capitol’s west foyer on Tuesday. She wants to force the company to enact new security measures to guard against counterfeit drivers in particular.
She said she ordered a Lyft to get back home to Northglenn after meeting up with some friends last February, and was attacked in front of her house.
“I don't know how to put into words how excruciating it was to be so close to home, so close to my husband and our two kids, and so close to safety while being assaulted in view of my house,” she said.
She said something was off from the start of the ride when her driver started asking personal questions, like if she was married.
“Then it quickly escalated to inappropriate comments about what he wanted to do to me and how he felt that my husband wouldn't mind if we had sex. He clearly had a plan for how he wanted his night to turn out.”
Willford said she was concerned during the ride, texting her husband and a neighbor about it, and even took off her high heels so she would be prepared to run out of the car when the driver dropped her off. But when she tried to get out of the car, the driver blocked her exit and forced her back inside.
She said she eventually pushed him away and escaped, running into her neighbor’s backyard to hide.
The attack has fundamentally changed her life, Willford said. “The PTSD has been crippling, robbing me of time with friends and family, impacting how I do my job as a state legislator and changing the person I see when I look in the mirror.”
Willford reported the assault to the Northglenn police department, and to Lyft. She said the company promised to never match her with the driver again and returned her money, but she didn’t get confirmation on whether the profile had been deactivated or whether he has been able to drive for any other ride sharing app.
She’s since learned that the person who picked her up was not the authorized driver listed on the app, but was using that person’s account. The man who owned the Lyft account is also named in her lawsuit.
Willford’s attorney, former Democratic Senate President Morgan Carroll, said the company has failed to address a systemic problem of imposter and fake drivers’ accounts. She described a practice known as “account renting,” when one person goes through a background check to create a legitimate account that is then used by a different driver.
“It is usually exactly because a person cannot pass the background check that they're using these imposter or rented accounts in order to pick people up for money,” said Carroll.
In a statement to CPR News, a spokesperson from Lyft said “Safety is fundamental."
"The behavior described in this incident has no place in our society. We take reports of sexual assault very seriously, and when incidents such as these are reported to us, our trained team takes immediate action to investigate and works with local law enforcement so that appropriate actions can be taken," the statement said. "In addition, our Terms of Service strictly prohibit the impersonation of another person or entity, and such behavior can and does lead to a permanent ban from the platform.”
The suit also accuses Lyft of not doing enough to spot and disqualify drivers who create entirely fake accounts.
“These fraudsters used a variety of schemes around Social Security Numbers and Lyft failed to notice that some drivers were even signing up using stolen Social Security Numbers of people less than ten years old,” states the suit.
The suit alleges that Lyft has known of well over 6,000 incidents of sex assault on their passengers and failed to take reasonable steps to improve safety.
Carroll points out that other companies use safety measures like periodic background checks and video self-identification, requiring drivers to stand in front of a camera and prove their identity while on duty.
During the legislative session Willford also plans to run a bill aimed at improving safety for ride share passengers.
Lyft has faced a slew of lawsuits in recent years alleging that it failed to adequately address passenger safety concerns, including sexual assaults.
In the nearly year since her attack, Willford’s case has been in limbo, in part because the state has not yet processed the DNA evidence she submitted from her clothing. Public safety officials recently revealed that the state has a year and a half backlog to process rape kits and other DNA, delaying the finalization of criminal investigations and potential criminal charges. Willford called the situation egregious and unacceptable. The driver in her case has not been arrested.
“A year of walking through a never ending nightmare, a year of waiting for answers, a year of wondering if the driver will ever be held accountable, or if I'll run into him in the grocery store, a year of being haunted by his eyes in the rear view mirror and a year of not being able to move on with my life with no end in sight,” she said.
Lawmakers and the Department of Public Safety are trying to address the Colorado Bureau of Investigation backlog of rape kit tests.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a statement from Lyft.
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
