A 17-year-old is home and safe after a terrifying ordeal she experienced while riding in a Lyft vehicle.
Eziya Bowden was heading home after a long day at work when she said disturbing comments and actions made her feel the need to hop out of the moving vehicle, sending her to the emergency room.
The North Carolina teenager said as soon as she entered the vehicle, the Lyft driver made comments that made her uncomfortable, including making remarks about her appearance and how he would have liked to date her if she weren’t so young.
“‘How many boys flirted with you?’ He said that right away,” Bowden told ABC11. “If I’m riding with a stranger, I’m always nervous, but I knew, this was different. I knew that I wasn’t going crazy or anything, I knew that my body has never felt like that before. I’ve seen a lot of this so I knew I was feeling drugged.”
She further went on to explain that his car reeked of cigarettes. He proceeded to spray an unknown substance, which she said made her begin to feel “warm and disoriented.”
“For you to keep spraying it, then roll your windows up, like, I know how it’s not about me being nervous or anything,” said Bowden. “I’m just like, I know how it made me feel.”
She quickly knew at that point she needed to react. She feared she may have fallen asleep had she chosen to stay in the vehicle so she jumped out.
“It happened so quickly that she blacked out after opening the door, only recalling landing and how terrified she was,” ABC11 reported. “According to her, the driver never stopped during that time. She claimed he contacted the police for her while pretending to be an onlooker.”
She wound up in the emergency room and sustained minor injuries.
A Lyft spokeswoman told ABC11 that the company has blocked the driver from accessing its online platform and will work with authorities should they have any inquiries.
“I don’t think that’s stopping him from anything else,” Bowden said. “It doesn’t really bring peace to me at all.”
No charges have been filed related to the incident and Lyft has refunded her for the trip.
