San Francisco DA Announces Public Education Campaign to Improve Carpool Rider Safety



[ad_1]

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) –

If you are worried about your safety when you enter an Uber or Lyft, San Francisco wants to help you.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon announced Tuesday the campaign "Rideshare with Care", a public education program aimed at improving the safety of carpool users. The San Francisco Police Department and the Uber Carpool Company joined the announcement.

RELATED: Carpool app to SF allows you to select the driver's sex

"The security features built into the app do not work unless you're in the right car," said Uber spokesman Andrew Hasbun.

To this end, the campaign highlights three points to ensure the safety of runners:

The first is to check the license plate number, color, make and model of the car to the carpool application.

The second is to confirm the driver's name before providing your name and make sure the driver matches the photo of your carpool app.

CONDEMNED: Lyft says that the man calls SFPD's "Quick Appointment" & # 39; fraudulently represented

The third is to share your location and destination with a friend, family member or someone you trust.

"It's a very safe service, but when things go wrong, they can go very wrong," said District Attorney George Gascon.

The prosecutor said that no incident had provoked the campaign. He declined to comment Tuesday on the alleged case of violinist Rideshare.

In July, Orlando Vilchez Lazo was prosecuted for rape charges that allegedly took place over five years. Investigators say that he posed as a Lyft driver while his victims were leaving the nightclubs and bars in San Francisco.

RELATED: A woman says that she escaped from the Lyft driver who was taking her in the opposite direction

"What we saw in the Rideshare Rapist case is that the individual entered a car that was not an Uber or Lyft that he had actually ordered," said Commander Greg McEachern of San Francisco Police Department.

"I think the need for this campaign is pretty obvious, you see the articles in the news and we do the same, and it's a problem that can be avoided 100%," Hasburn said.

Uber said it may have launched an emergency button for pilots and another for pilots last week that connects them to 911 when it is activated.

Uber also claims to have launched a feature called Trusted Contacts, where you can set up certain people to automatically share your trip with them each time you make a trip.

A spokesman for Lyft was invited to the announcement, but the prosecutor said that this person could not attend. He added that Lyft had agreed to work with the DA office.

CALENDAR: Allegations of sexual misconduct in mobile transport companies

For more stories related to rideshare companies, visit this page.

(Copyright © 2017 KGO-TV All Rights Reserved.)

[ad_2]
Source link