- Lyft says it banned a passenger seen in a video attacking an Uber driver.
- The woman was seen coughing on and yelling at the driver and ripping a mask off the driver's face.
- The incident started after the driver asked the three passengers to wear masks.
Lyft too has banned a passenger seen a video attacking 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 their 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 earlier in the confrontation.
The Instagram account @keepinupwforeign has posted multiple videos of Khadka telling the women to leave the car and the women refusing to do so.
In one video, in which 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 says he's going home. One of the women tells him to stay and wait or 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, with one of the women heard saying, "You are not letting us out in the middle of the freeway," KPIX 5 reported.
Insider sent several private message requests to the account for comment but did not hear back.
The 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," the police said in a tweet.
Khadka, who is South Asian, told the 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," he said, adding: "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 added that the woman pepper-sprayed him "like a roach."
The ABC7 reporter Dion Lim reported that Uber initially gave Khadka $20 to repair damage from the incident.
Screenshots shared with Lim from an exchange between Khadka and Uber show the company initially offered him $20 to clean his car and remove an apparent pepper-spray stain before offering $40 and ultimately giving him $120.
An early Uber investor, Cyan Banister, has started a GoFundMe campaign for Khadka, saying 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 representative told Insider.
The person added that the company had been in contact with Khadka and "stand ready to assist in any police investigation."
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