The family of a 61-year-old Uber driver who was suddenly attacked by a passenger during a ride has called for the company to do more to protect drivers.
“Please share this,” Nelson Carinao’s son wrote on his social media page following the attack. “I don’t wish this upon any parent. It is sickening that this kind of behavior was inflicted on my own father.”
The incident happened on Friday, Jan. 2 when Carinao picked up 19-year-old Isaiah Norton for a drive meant to go through Interstate 95 from Broward to Miami-Dade County, according to reporting from WSVN. After several minutes in the car, dashcam footage shows Norton repeatedly punching Carinao as he drove.
In the struggle, Norton can allegedly be seen laughing as he continues the attack and told his driver that “no one is going to help,” WSVN reported. Carinao got free and the attack continued briefly outside of the car before Norton allegedly took off running.
Norton was charged with battery and resisting an officer without violence, according to reporting from NBC 6 South Florida.
Since the incident, the family said that Carinao has been left with “emotional scars” as well as physical wounds.
“This is a wake up call to Uber and Lyft to take better accountability for their drivers that work tirelessly to make ends meet,” his son said in the post. “Please share to bring more awareness.”
Uber told reporters in a statement that they are “deeply disturbed by this senseless attack” and have since removed Norton’s access to the ride-sharing platform. The company went on to tell WSVN that they are “dedicated to their driver’s safety and have several safeguards in place.”
Safety Features
This is not the first time a shocking incident of this nature has occurred with ride-sharing platforms. In fact, spurred by a desire to increase safety, Uber previously announced that it was preparing to launch a feature that would allow women who drive with the company to select women passengers and vice-versa.
“At Uber, we believe that when we make our platform better for women, we make it better for everyone,” officials with the ride-sharing platform said in a statement. “Across the US, women riders and drivers have told us they want the option to be matched with other women on trips. We’ve heard them — and now we’re introducing new ways to give them even more control over how they ride and drive.”
Their “Women Preferences” feature has been similarly implemented by other companies like Lyft, which has operated with their version since at least 2023. In its 2024 Community Safety Report, which was published on July 11, 2024, Lyft officials said there were 23 fatal physical assaults and 2,651 “instances of the five most serious categories of sexual assault.” Lyft separated sexual assault in 21 categories with the help of RALIANCE, a national sexual violence prevention organization.
The “five most serious categories” as mentioned in the report included: Non-Consensual Sexual Penetration; Attempted Non-Consensual Sexual Penetration; Non-Consensual Kissing of a Sexual Body Part; Non-Consensual Touching of a Sexual Body Part; and Non-Consensual Kissing of a Non-Sexual Body Part. The sexual assault data released in 2024 shows a 21% decrease in incident frequency rate from the company’s previous report.
In August, Uber released a statement claiming that reports of “serious sexual assault” have dropped by 44%.
The company began publishing their U.S. Safety Report online in 2017 but has not published a full safety report since 2022. In 2022, Uber reported at least 20 fatalities from physical assaults. Uber’s 2022 data showed there were 212 reports of non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part, 182 reports of attempted non-consensual sexual penetration, 845 reports of non-consensual touching of a sexual body part, 191 reports of non-consensual kissing of a sexual body part, and 207 reports of non-consensual sexual penetration.
Leesfield & Partners
As a personal injury law firm that has represented countless victims of assaults, car crashes, and corporate negligence over nearly five decades, Leesfield & Partners applauds the intent behind Uber’s new “Women Preferences” feature. Giving women greater control over who they ride with, or who enters their car, is a long-overdue response to well-documented safety concerns. It also offers survivors of sexual abuse and violence, particularly those coping with PTSD, a new possibility: to use the app in a way they may never have previously felt safe doing.
Our skilled trial attorneys have witnessed countless instances where the very systems and authorities entrusted with protecting our clients’ safety and well-being have failed them. In 49 years of personal injury practice, our attorneys have routinely represented victims and survivors of sexual assault with the compassion and knowledge of the law necessary to secure the best possible outcome in every case.
Our firm has achieved numerous record and landmark settlements and verdicts across the state, while actively supporting women’s and children’s initiatives that deliver vital services to victims and survivors of sexual violence.
In an ongoing case being handled by Partner Justin B. Shapiro and Evan Robinson, a Trial Attorney at the firm, a young girl has been left with psychological and emotional scars after she was sexually assaulted at a South Florida gym.
The man who assaulted her was a member at the facility with a known history of violent and erratic behavior. Still, the gym did nothing to limit the man’s access to the property, leaving our client and other members vulnerable to harm.
In another ongoing case led by Bernardo Pimentel II, a Leesfield & Partners Trial Attorney, a woman’s life has been upturned after learning that she and various other cruise passengers were filmed in their private cabin bathrooms by a crew member who planted hidden cameras.
That crewmember was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for creating child sex abuse material as many of the passengers who were filmed were children.
In a separate case being handled by Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Pimentel, a woman was held at gunpoint in her luxury apartment complex by a man who entered the building, unencumbered by security. The man had committed at least one other crime in the building that day before encountering our client who he forced back into her apartment where he terrorized our female client, her fiancé and a friend of the couple who was at the apartment that day. The three were held at gunpoint and forced to wire money to the gunman who pistol-whipped one of the men before taking our three clients downstairs where they were able to attract enough attention to scare off the gunman.
That case is ongoing.