In my god what the hell are people doing news, another Uber driver has been accused of rape and kidnapping, and was apparently not suspended until at least 40 days after the alleged incident occurred – a disturbing wrinkle in an already disturbing story.
According to Philadelphia, a woman filed a report with Philadelphia police on February 6th, the same day she says she was raped and kidnapped for over two hours. According to the report, an Uber driver pinned her arms, ripped off her pants, and raped her. He then proceeded to drive her around for two hours before letting her out of the car.
This is bad enough, but to make things worse the driver was not suspended until just recently.
From Philadelphia:
The Philadelphia Police Department confirms that the investigation is still open, and that the case is being handled by the Special Victims Unit. Although the incident was reported to police more than 40 days ago, an Uber spokesperson tells us the company was unaware of the rape claim until we told them about it today. Neither Lieutenant Anthony McFadden nor Captain John Darby from Special Victims Unit was available for comment.
So according to Uber, it had no idea about this alleged incident until Philadelphia began asking questions. That means the driver could have been giving Uber rides for the past month and a half.
There are a few possibilities here, all of which are deeply troubling. It could be that Uber isn’t being forthcoming on the actual timeline of events, and the company willingly let an accused rapist continue to drive. This seems very unlikely. Uber has had its fair share of problems with passenger safety, but have always been quick to remove any drivers suspected of wrongdoing.
Or it could be the Philadelphia police department never bothered to inform Uber of the incident.
Which leads us to the question – what the hell are people doing, my god.
Uber has provided the following statement:
“Our thoughts and prayers are with our rider. Upon learning of the incident, we immediately reached out to the Philadelphia Police Department to assist in their investigation and support their efforts in any way we can. As the investigation continues, the driver’s access to the Uber platform has been suspended.”
I’ve reached out to the Philadelphia Police Department and will update this article accordingly.
Image via Jason Newport, Flickr Creative Commons