Editor’s Note: The following article contains descriptions of physical injury and sexual assault that some readers may find difficult.
In early 2023, rideshare driver Mahamadou Kabba turned on his apps and waited for a ride in south Seattle. Instead, he was caught in the crossfire of two others and shot.
His wife, Khadija Mohamed, was out of the country when she received the call. She traveled for 24 hours to get back, and when she got to his side in the hospital, he was already unresponsive.
“When I came, I found him and couldn't talk with him, he was badly [injured in the] ICU. I stayed with him for four days and then I lost him,” Mohamed said.
A few months later, in April, a woman referred to in court documents as Jane Doe ordered an Uber ride in Seattle to take her home while she was intoxicated.
But the driver instead took her to his home. She fell asleep at the driver’s house, and awoke to find him sexually assaulting her. She told him to stop “which he eventually did after repeatedly asking her to ‘just say yes,’” according to court documents.
When she tried to call another car to take her home, he pressured her to let him take her home instead. She got into his car and saw he was carrying a belt with him. As he was driving her home, he “kept reiterating words to the effect that he was ‘a good person,’” the documents say.
Concerns about safety in ridesharing have been around for as long as the companies have existed. But nearly two decades after Uber was founded, riders and drivers alike say more needs to be done.
Cascade PBS compiled nearly 250 Washington case records, including at least two dozen active lawsuits throughout the state, where Uber is a party. We found several lawsuits against Uber for safety concerns ranging from negligent driving to sexual assault. You can explore those cases here:
Several King County riders sued Uber for sexual assault
Jane Doe’s lawsuit is one of several filed in King County alleging sexual assault from an Uber driver.
In another case, a woman referred to in court documents as C.P. ordered an Uber ride home from a bar in north Seattle. The documents say she was noticeably intoxicated. When they arrived at her home at the end of her ride, she realized she couldn’t find her keys and her phone was dead. That’s when the driver took her to his home instead. She later awoke to find herself naked in his bed with him touching her. Two years later, he was found guilty of Assault with Sexual Motivation.
C.P. brought a lawsuit against Uber over the incident, which alleges Uber had received multiple complaints about the driver previously.
In two other King County lawsuits, riders alleged the drivers assaulted them in the car.
Uber responded to questions regarding rider safety with an emailed statement, saying that 99.9% of rides do not have a safety incident reported.
“Safety is fundamental to the Uber experience, and we are deeply committed to helping protect both riders and drivers,” a spokesperson wrote. “Over the years, we’ve continued to invest in technology, policies, and support designed to help make every trip safer—from GPS tracking and emergency assistance to rider verification, audio recording, and tools that give riders and drivers greater visibility and control throughout their journey.”
They said their work in these areas is never finished and pointed to a feature called Ride Check, introduced in 2018, which is intended to ensure riders and drivers are safe in the event of an unexpected stop or long detour.
They also mentioned features for riders such as a setting to choose a trusted contact to share their trip with, an ability to record the audio of rides, a PIN verification process riders can opt into and the option for women to choose only women drivers. However, the last feature sparked a lawsuit in California alleging the practice discriminates based on sex.
Many of the features Uber listed are automatic and based in the app, including Ride Check. The feature was well established when the incident in Jane Doe’s lawsuit happened in 2023, five years after the safety feature was introduced.
Drivers face danger, occasional violence on the road
Safety concerns in rideshares aren’t limited to riders. Drivers also face risks and get hurt on the job.
Mohamed Omar had been driving for Uber for 6 years before a hit and run at the airport took him off the road earlier this year. He was unloading his passenger’s luggage, as he always does, when another vehicle hit him and ran over his ankle.
“I turned around behind the car to open the trunk. Someone is coming behind me, and he hit my left shoulder and my back. And by the tire, the back tire, he'd go up to my left ankle,” Omar said. “I didn't feel my shoulders or my back at this time, only the ankle injury. I fall down on the trunk and the guy gets out from my car very fast. ‘Mohammad, what's going on? What's happened?’ I tell him this guy hit me, and he try to yell to the guy to stop, but I think the guy doesn't see me or whatever. Maybe he’s also a driver.”
Nearly seven months later, he’s still recovering. He’s not alone. Another driver, Abeje Demeke, was injured two years ago and still hasn’t been able to return to work.
Demeke had just picked up his passenger and when another driver thought they collided. He said the two cars never touched, but the other driver physically assaulted Demeke regardless.
“I [was] trying just to show him. He was in my back and he punched me, here in my chest. After that, I fell on the ground like this. On the asphalt and the ground. I yelled, shouting and finally just that lady inside, she called police,” Demeke said.
Mahamadou Kabba, Khadija Mohamed’s husband, was one of numerous drivers in the Seattle area who were killed in a few years’ span, including Cherno “Che” Ceesay, a 28-year-old stabbed to death by his riders in 2020. His family filed a lawsuit against Uber for wrongful death, and a federal court ultimately decided in the family’s favor in 2024 and said Uber had a “duty of care” for its drivers.
In 2021, Uber rolled out a rider verification feature which cross-checks rider identities and places a badge on the rider’s account for drivers to see. The company said it conducted an audit of rider names in 2022 and froze accounts they deemed fake and noted drivers can flag any fake or inappropriate names they see. Drivers also have the option to choose someone to follow their routes, similar to the trusted contacts feature for riders.
Washington top in nation for some protections
Experts from the Drivers Union of Washington said the state is among the best in protections and benefits for drivers, largely because of a law passed in 2023.
For riders, it required companies to enforce zero tolerance for drug or alcohol use by drivers, prohibited discrimination against a rider on the basis of specific protected classes, required vehicles to be no more than 15 years old and banned charging additional fees to a rider because of a disability.
The law established a series of rights for drivers, including setting minimum pay rates per mile, per minute and per trip. That means drivers are compensated for both the time and distance they go. It also mandated that all of a driver’s tips go to them and established that drivers had a right to paid sick time and protection from retaliation.
The law also included workers’ compensation benefits coverage for rideshare drivers. Washington and New York are the only states that provide coverage.
For Omar, the coverage was essential.
“It’s good for Washington state,” he said. “It’s helped a lot. It’s still not enough, but I’m okay because I’ve got my rent and bills [covered].”
For Khadija Mohamed, getting access to those benefits after her husband died was a fight. She discovered that she didn’t qualify for survivor death benefits from workers’ compensation – despite Kabba being killed on the job – because he wasn’t actively on a ride when he died.
She and the Drivers Union advocated to expand the benefits for family members, which led to a law expanding those benefits passing in 2024.
While experts applaud the benefits available, the law doesn’t cover how to handle safety concerns while on a ride, other than driver background checks. So far, safety has largely been handled by the company with little interference from the state. That leaves it up to riders and drivers to file an insurance claim or take it up in court after an incident.
Both drivers and experts from the Drivers Union say training is needed for new drivers.
“The current, safety measurements that, there, you know, could be improved because a lot of the time, what we have right now is not really proactive, you know, measurements to prevent, you know, safety incidents happening before it happens,” said Mohamud Adan a policy analyst for the Drivers Union.
Omar agreed that training would help drivers be safer on the road and would help them know the law and their rights better. He also pointed to dashboard cameras as another option to improve safety, both as a deterrent and to use for evidence if an incident happens.
Families continue to wait
For many of those impacted, they continue to wait. Jane Doe’s lawsuit continues, as she awaits a hearing set for next May.
Demeke is healing, but the progress is slow and intermittent. He says he feels like a burden to his daughter, whom he lives with and who takes care of him as they determine if the damage is permanent.
And Omar waits to find the person who hit him. The police investigation is ongoing, but Omar says all he wants is to talk to him driver-to-driver.
“I need this guy,” he said. “Trust me, I need this guy because I need to tell [him], be patient for the people.”
