RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — A Raleigh teenager had a terrifying experience recently on a Lyft ride home from work.
The 17-year-old ended up in the emergency department after jumping from a moving car in the 7300 block of Fox Road, a few miles from her house.
It happened so fast for Eziya Bowden, who said she blacked out after she opened the car door, only remembering where she landed and how she was scared and crying.
Fortunately for Bowden, she is safely back at home with injuries from the fall but no broken bones.
Eziya Bowden had to be hospitalized for her injuries after jumping from the car but is safely back home now.
Courtesy of Bowden family
Her suspicion first grew after she got in the Lyft and the driver made comments that made her uncomfortable, such as how she looks good and that he’d date her if she wasn’t so young.
“How many boys flirted with you? He said that right away, Bowden recalled. “If I’m riding with a stranger, I’m always nervous, but I knew, this it was different,” Bowden said. I knew that I wasn’t going crazy or anything, I knew that my body has never felt like that before. I’ve seen a lot of this so I knew I was feeling drugged.”
‘I was very scared’
She then described how she felt after the driver sprayed something — dizzy and warm.
“When I got in his car, it did smell like cigarettes, so when he sprayed one time, it was already like, oh it no longer smells like that,” Bowden said. “But for you to keep spraying it, then roll your windows up, like I know how it’s not about me being nervous or anything. I’m just like, I know how it made me feel.
“I was very scared, but then again I was more so like I’d rather get out this car than fall asleep in a car with this man I don’t really know,” Bowden said.
Bowden eventually jumped from the car. She said the driver didn’t stop the whole time.
She said he turned around after she fell and was crying. He pretended to be a bystander and called the police for her, she said.
A Lyft spokesperson told ABC11 that the company is aware of the driver’s behavior which they said is “deeply concerning.”
The spokesperson said they removed the driver’s access to the Lyft platform and stand ready to assist law enforcement with any investigation.
“I don’t think that’s stopping him from anything else,” Bowden said. “It doesn’t really bring peace to me at all.”
Bowden said she got a refund from Lyft but doesn’t see herself taking a Lyft or an Uber ever again.
Raleigh police said there are no charges being filed in the incident.
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