‘I felt so vulnerable’: California woman left stranded by Lyft driver on rural road

By Andres Valle

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    ELVERTA, California (KCRA) — A 60-year-old Roseville woman says she was kicked out of her Lyft ride because the driver did not have enough charge in his electric vehicle.

It happened early Friday morning as Catherine Smith was trying to get home from Sacramento International Airport.

Smith said the driver made her leave the car near Base Line Road and Palladay Road in Placer County.

“He kept pointing at his screen saying, ‘I need to charge. I need to charge.’ That’s all he said over and over and over again,” said Smith.

The one-lane road was extremely dark when KCRA went to take video of it Wednesday night. It’s in a rural part of the county with no street lights in sight.

“He pulls over, gets out of the car, opens the trunk, takes all my luggage out. I get out of the car, he gets in the car, turns around, takes off and looks at me and says, ‘You can call another Lyft,'” said Smith.

Smith began panicking as she was just left stranded on the side of a dark road.

According to her Lyft ride history, she was picked up from Sacramento International Airport around 1 a.m. Friday.

Halfway through the drive — Smith said they had to take a detour because of construction.

“He kept saying, ‘I need a charge. I need a charge.’ And my brain just kept saying, ‘He needs to recalibrate because we took the little detour so that he gets paid, right,'” said Smith.

Smith said the driver never explicitly told her that he meant he needed to charge his car to complete the drive. So, she was confused by his lack of communication every time he spoke to her.

“He never said ‘No, ma’am. The car needs to be charged’ at all,” said Smith.

According to the ride history, the driver left Smith on the side of Base Line Road at 1:40 a.m.

“I was in the dark left there. I started crying because I didn’t have any of my weapons from being on the plane and I felt so vulnerable,” said Smith.

After Smith realized she was stranded she immediately reached out to Lyft. Lyft then alerted authorities and a Placer County Sheriff’s deputy arrived within minutes. The deputy stayed with Smith until another Lyft driver arrived.

Lyft’s safety department sent Smith a message regarding the incident.

“As a result of this report, we are reviewing this driver’s account to determine whether they should continue on the Lyft platform,” the message read.

Smith was also refunded the cost of her ride and was told she would not be paired with that driver ever again.

“I hope to get him off the road because he has no business driving. He couldn’t communicate clearly. He should have said, ma’am, I need to charge my car, which is unacceptable anyway, for a 20-minute drive,” said Smith.

KCRA reached out to Lyft to confirm if the driver is still contracted by them. We have not heard back.

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