A North Carolina teenager was injured when she jumped from the back seat of a moving Lyft because of what she calls her driver’s “suspicious behavior” WBTV reported. 17-year-old Eziya Bowden felt uncomfortable after she got into a Lyft after driver’s comments during her ride home from work.
“‘How many boys flirted with you?’ He said that right away,” she said. “‘Oh, you just look good. I would date you if you weren’t so young.’”
After two minutes of this behavior, Bowden says the driver sprayed something she says made her dizzy and warm. The teen believes she was feeling drugged.
“When I got in his car, it did smell like cigarettes, so when he sprayed one time, it was already like, ‘Oh, it no longer smelled like that.’ But for you to keep spraying it, then roll your windows up, like, I know it’s not about me being nervous or anything,” she said.
The experience led the 17-year-old to make the decision to jump out of the moving car.
“I was very scared, but then again, I was more so like I’d rather get out of this car than fall asleep in a car with this man I don’t really know,” Bowden told the news station.
According to WBTV:
She says she blacked out after opening the car door, only remembering where she landed and how she was scared and crying. She was still a few miles away from her house.
“I just looked down at the ground, I looked behind me and I just jumped out. He didn’t stop when he noticed the door was open or he heard me crying or anything,” she said.
Bowden says the driver did eventually turn around, pretended to a bystander and called police.
After jumping out of the car the 17-year-old up went to the emergency department for her injuries.
A Lyft spokesperson says the driver’s alleged behavior is “deeply concerning,” and his access to the platform has been removed.
“I don’t think that’s stopping him from anything else. It doesn’t really bring peace to me at all. As us young girls, or even women, we have to be very aware and safe of our surroundings. Cancel your ride and wait. Wait for somebody ‘cause honestly, I would’ve waited for my friend,” Bowden said.
Lyft has since refunded Bowden for her ride, but she says she won’t be taking another Lyft or Uber ever again. Police say there are no charges being filed in the incident.
