A Lyft driver forced a passenger out of her car on the side of a Nashville highway after attempting to throw his phone out of the vehicle. The bizarre encounter was recorded by the passenger and posted to TikTok. Strangely enough, the ride started off normally, though the passenger noted that he’d noticed his driver was a bit odd when she pulled up with a stick of incense burning in the car.
A Simple Trip Home Turns Into A Nightmare
Aaron Swetland was just trying to make his way home from Nashville International Airport, but he quickly realized that the ride home would turn into an ordeal of its own. Swetland ordered a Lyft and was soon picked up by a woman who has not been identified. The first thing he noticed was the fact that she was burning incense, but he dismissed it.
As the two traveled down the highway, Swetland’s ears began bothering him due to the open windows in the backseat. “So I attempt to raise the window on the door and she has it locked out,” Swetland recalled. As a former ride-share driver himself, he couldn’t help but find it weird. “First tip that something is kind of whack for me was like ‘wait, you’ve taken control away from me to be able to do that?’ That seemed kind of odd.”
He asked the driver to roll the window up. She refused, saying that it was Lyft COVID-19 protocol to keep the windows open. Lyft’s website does recommend keeping windows open “when possible.” Swetland changed tactics and asked the driver to reduce her speed to lessen the pressure on his ears. This request was denied as well. The situation began to escalate, which is when Swetland pulled out his phone and began recording the interaction.
The driver’s voice is raised as the video picks up. She appears to take a swipe at Swetland’s phone as she pulls the car off the highway. Swetland interpreted the move as an attempt to take his phone and throw it from the open window. Obviously, this didn’t help to lessen the tensions between the two one bit. “When she tried to grab for my phone and throw it out of the vehicle that was a scary moment because I’m like – had she succeeded, I lost my only way to communicate,” he explained.
The Video Is Unbelievable, Watch Below
After the driver pulled over on the side of the highway, she went to the trunk and removed Swetland’s luggage. This caused another surge of anxiety for the erstwhile passenger. “When she yanked my bag out of the vehicle and then returned to the trunk I had a brief moment of ‘well does she have a weapon?’” he said. Luckily, the confrontation didn’t go that far, though Swetland was left on the side of the highway by the driver, who the video shows wasn’t wearing shoes.
Read Lyft’s Statement About The Incident
Lyft released a statement in response to the incident. “Safety is fundamental to Lyft, and the incident shown in the video is concerning,” the ride-share company said. “We have reached out to the rider to offer our support and have suspended the driver’s account pending a complete investigation.” Hopefully, the driver learns how to deescalate situations like this before she’s allowed to drive for the company again.