Deputies: Two women escape man they mistook for Uber Driver in Hilton Head

SOUTH CAROLINA — Two women in South Carolina said they were lucky to get away from the man they thought was their Uber driver.

They said they were waiting outside a Hilton Head restaurant Friday morning when a man showed up in an SUV.

The women said there was an Uber sticker in his windshield so they got inside, but eventually, they did not recognize anything around them.

Deputies said one of the women tried to call 911, but the driver grabbed her phone.

Officials said the women then jumped out of the car and started to call 911 again and the driver drove off.

Last week, Uber said a driver who took two Charlotte women on an unscheduled detour no longer works for them.

Sara Alfageeh told us the ride should have been fifteen minutes, but the driver took a different route and marked the trip complete when they were still driving, meaning the women had no access to his information.

Officials said the driver eventually dropped the women off at a street corner in uptown. Uber said it is investigating the case.

Lawmakers in both Carolinas are pushing to make ridesharing safer. A bill in North Carolina would require ride-sharing cars to have front license plates and light-up signs.

It would also make it a crime to impersonate a driver. South Carolina already passed a similar law this year.

The changes came after the murder of a University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson. She got into a car she thought was her Uber, but police said the man inside kidnapped then killed her.

Cox Media Group