A Facebook post by USC student Sydney Nguyen alleged that a Lyft driver dumped her and her companions in the middle of the I-10 freeway more than five miles from their destination around 1 a.m on Friday.
According to her post, Nguyen and her three friends called for a Lyft ride to campus from a birthday celebration. She alleged that the driver of the car, whose first name is Ramon, told them they were too loud and "raised his voice and aggressively demanded" they quiet down. She said that although they heeded his first warning, the driver accused each of them of being drunk. Nguyen said they were sober.
He said that he would not drop them off at their destination, according to Nguyen's post.
When Nguyen and her friends said they would get out of his car at the next exit, Ramon allegedly sped up to the shoulder lane and left them on the freeway. She said that they had to walk on the freeway shoulder for about 25 minutes before an Uber driver pulled up near the Crenshaw Heights exit and gave them a lift to a nearby gas-station.
The next morning, Nguyen discovered that her Lyft account had been temporarily deactivated. A Lyft spokesperson said they reviewed the incident, interviewing both Nguyen and the driver.
"After conferring with the driver and passenger and temporarily deactivating both accounts, our Trust and Safety team has re-activated Sydney's account and elected to permanently deactivate the driver," said Lauren Alexander, a communications manager at Lyft.
Nguyen wrote on Facebook that she and her companions believe that "we are very lucky that we were not physically harmed. Yet it haunts us to think of what could have happened."
Nguyen posted an extensive explanation of the incident on Facebook and shared it to a USC meme Facebook group. When Annenberg Media reached out to her, Nguyen didn't want to comment further details in an on-the-record interview.