Lyft has banned a passenger seen in a video assaulting an Uber driver.
The woman is seen coughing at, verbally attacking, and ripping the mask off the driver’s face.
The incident started after the driver asked the three passengers to wear masks.
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Lyft will also ban a passenger seen a video assaulting a San Francisco Uber driver after being told to wear a mask, the company said in a tweet.
Subhakar Khadka captured footage of three women yelling profanities at him after he canceled the ride because they weren’t wearing masks.
One woman coughed on him, ripped off his mask, and grabbed his phone.
A woman who was seen in the video also uploaded footage of what happened before what’s seen in the video released by Khadka.
The Instagram account @keepinupwforeign has posted multiple videos of the incident that Khadka telling them to leave the car and the women’s refusal to do so.
In one video, where the car appears to be at a gas station, the women say they won’t get out until another Uber comes to get them. The driver then tells them to get out of the car and that he’s going home. One of the women can be heard telling him to stay and wait or that they’ll be going home with him, before adding “you don’t want me to know where you live.”
In another video, the driver says if they won’t get out, his next stop will be the middle of a freeway.
A now-deleted video showed the car seemingly parked on the side of a freeway and one of the women could be heard saying: “You are not letting us out in the middle of the freeway,” KPIX 5 reported.
Insider sent several private message requests for comment to the account.
San Francisco police said they were investigating the incident. “The suspects exited the car and the third passenger reached into an open window and sprayed what is believed to be pepper spray into the vehicle and towards the driver. The suspects fled the scene,” police said in a tweet.
Khadka, who is South Asian, told KPIX 5 reporter Betty Yu that he believed the attack was racially motivated.
“If I was another complexion, I would have not gotten that treatment from them … The moment I opened my mouth to speak, they realized I’m not among one of them, so it’s easy for them to intimidate me,” he said.
He added that the woman pepper-sprayed him “like a roach.”
ABC7 reporter Dion Lim reported that Uber initially gave Khadka $20 to repair damage from the incident.
Screengrabs from an exchange between Khadka and Uber show the company initially offered him $20 to clean his car and remove the pepper spray stain, before offering $40 and ultimately giving him $120.
An early Uber investor, Cyan Banister, has started a GoFundMe campaign for Khadka because she was “appalled by the fact that Uber hasn’t done the right thing.”
“The behavior seen in the video is appalling. The rider no longer has access to Uber,” an Uber spokesperson told Insider.
The spokesperson added that the company has been in contact with Khadka and “stand ready to assist in any police investigation.”
Have a news tip? Contact this reporter at salarshani@insider.com
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