Lyft report: Sexual assaults rose sharply in recent years

Lyft received an increasing number of reports of sexual assault in recent years, including more than 1,800 in 2019, according to a safety report from the ride-hailing company.

More than half of the assaults in 2019 were “non-consensual touching of a sexual body part” and another 156 involved non-consensual sexual penetration, according to the report.

The report also listed 10 fatal assaults from 2017 through 2019, including four in 2019.

The number of sexual-assault reports rose from 1,096 in 2017 to 1,255 in 2018 and 1,807 in 2019.

Lyft Inc. said that from 2017 to 2019, more than 99% of rides occurred without any reported safety-related incident.

A Lyft official said in a blog post dated Thursday that the rate of sexual assaults as a percentage of rides decreased by 19% over the three-year period covered in the report.

“While safety incidents on our platform are incredibly rare, we realize that even one is too many,” Jennifer Brandenburger, the company’s head of policy development and research, said in the blog.

The San Francisco-based company says it screens all drivers with initial and annual background checks and monitors criminal and driving records.