Driver Sues Ride Hailing Company Over Passenger Attack in Glendora

Driver Sues Ride Hailing Company Over Passenger Attack in Glendora

by Contributing Editor

A Lyft driver who was stabbed by a passenger in Glendora in February is suing the company, as well as his alleged assailant.

Abdu Lkader Al Shikha’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit negligence, battery and failure to provide a safe place of employment. The complaint filed Friday against Lyft Inc. and the passenger, Ricky Andrew Alvarez, seeks unspecified damages.

A Lyft representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Alvarez allegedly stabbed Al Shkha multiple times about 1 p.m. Feb. 17, then fled to the Glendora Motel in the 300 block of West Route 66, where he and several other people in the room refused to come out until police used pepper spray to end the eight-hour standoff.

The suit states that the plaintiff was dispatched to provide a ride to Alvarez to a location in Glendora when, without warning, he became violent and repeatedly stabbed the driver in his left hand and in both of his legs.

Alvarez has a long history of criminal convictions for drugs, theft and illegal weapons charges, all of which Lyft could have known by doing a background check at “very little cost if it chose to do so,” the suit alleges.

The complaint alleges that Lyft management is well aware that many drivers for Lyft, Uber and other private transportation companies “have fallen victim to serious crimes committed by passengers in the years prior to the (Alvarez) incident.”

“Yet, Lyft continues to put profit over driver safety and refuses to conduct basic, inexpensive public record background checks on passengers to determine whether they pose a risk of harm to drivers,” the suit alleges.

Lyft advertising slogans include “We go the extra mile for safety” and “Safety is our top priority and it is our goal to make every ride safe, comfortable, and reliable …,” the suit states.

Alvarez, 23, previously pleaded not guilty to one felony count each of assault with a deadly weapon, assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon by means likely to produce great bodily injury on transportation personnel or passenger, according Ricardo Santiago, a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office.

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All credit goes to Contributing Editor
Originally published on https://mynewsla.com