Lyft driver attacked, insulted by woman passenger he picked up in Newport Beach
Woman hurls insults, attacks Lyft driver
A Lyft driver was attacked by his passenger in Westminster.
WESTMINSTER, Calif. - A rideshare driver says he was harassed, insulted and kicked in the head by two women he picked up in Newport Beach, an encounter captured on his dashcam.
What we know:
The Lyft driver, identified as Tinh, said he picked up two women late on Aug. 19 after they left a sushi restaurant. He said they smelled strongly of alcohol and slurred their words, so he offered to pull over in case they became sick.
Instead, the situation escalated inside his car.
In the video, one woman can be seen putting her feet on the center console. "Can you move your feet now please?" Tinh says, stressing how dangerous the obstruction is.
The video shows the confrontation intensify with slurs, insults and profanity directed at Tinh. "What’s wrong with you? Are you retarded? Why are you from here? Who... let you in here? F--- b----," the woman says.
"I am just a normal driver, and legal driving — I am legal to live in this America," Tinh told FOX 11.
Moments later, he said, the passenger kicked him in the head while he was driving on the freeway to Garden Grove.
"I feel uncomfortable, and then she start kicking me — hitting me on here," he said, pointing to his head. "My ear really hurt, and my head really hurt, because her shoe really, really hard."
He pulled off the freeway and called police. In the video, one of the women can be heard saying, "I’m not leaving until I get money."
The woman eventually leaned in between the two front seats, spilling a coffee and throwing his belongings out of the parked car. Before leaving, she shouted, "Loser! That’s what you get, b----."
Tinh said the attack left him shaken — not just physically, but emotionally.
"They hurt my culture," he said. "Because we live this America, we have a lot of culture go together to live together, and respect together, and build this America bigger, right? So they have to respect."
He says he filed reports with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and Santa Ana Police, but no one has been arrested yet in the assault. Anyone with information on the identity of the women is urged to come forward.
Lyft responds
What they're saying:
"This incident is deeply concerning, and the behavior described has no place in the Lyft community. We are in contact with the driver to offer support and stand ready to assist law enforcement with any investigation. The rider has been permanently removed from our platform," Lyft said in a released statement.