A woman from Adelaide, Australia, was terrified after she discovered her Uber driver masturbating while driving her home during rush hour traffic. Tayla Pimlott, aged 26, recounter her harrowing experience and said she was "holding back tears" and feared that she would be raped on what was supposed to be a "quick and quiet" journey, as per a report in News.com.au.
Ms Pimlott was on a 20-minute journey from her home to Campbelltown in October 2023 when something grabbed her eye in the front seat, prompting her to look up from her phone, only to discover the driver was masturbating behind the wheel. "Usually, when someone takes their pants down, they ruffle down a bit or something. I saw none of that, I just saw this subtle hand gesture. I could see clearly that he (the Uber driver) had his penis out, and he was masturbating," she told Yahoo News.
The 26-year-old considered several options including calling the police, screaming at the driver and trying to jump out of the moving vehicle. Ms Pimlott immediately contacted her mother and boyfriend to update her about the incident. She also captured video of the man to use as police evidence. "There was a part of me that thought, 'Oh God, I could die, I could be raped, this man could touch me. My brain was frozen and my heart was pounding ... I was petrified," she told the outlet.
She messaged her mother when she was around 10 minutes away from home. "I'm about 10 minutes away from home. I need you to (wait) outside for me. I'm in an Uber and this man has his penis out," she wrote.
Ms Pimlott stated that she believed the best choice was to pretend she had not observed, fearing that if she challenged the driver, he might lash out. When she returned home, her mother was waiting outside, and she had to ask him to open the doors. "He fully turned around and looked at me and in the most creepiest voice I've ever heard he goes, 'Thank you so much,'" she said.
She was worried about her safety and said, "I felt if I made a huge fuss about this I think that would put me in more danger ... I had to be polite ... I felt ashamed."
After calling Uber to report the incident and ask that they remove him from the platform, she was informed that "we are unable to provide you details of the outcome as we have a strict Privacy Notice which prevents us from sharing account holder information without permission". She also reported the incident to the police.
According to a statement from Uber, the individual has been terminated forever. "What's been reported has no place in the Uber community or anywhere else. As soon as we were notified of this report, we removed the driver partner's access to the app immediately and permanently. We continue to work to build cutting-edge technology and features to help improve safety for riders and driver-partners on the app, such as the Safety Toolkit, the emergency assistance button and the Share my Trip feature. Trips on the Uber platform are not anonymous and all trips are GPS tracked in real time," a spokesperson said.
She also reported the incident to the police and they arrested 29-year-old Rahman Fazeli. He was sentenced to four weeks of jail, as per News.com.au
