Honoring Sami By Improving Rideshare Safety

In 2019, Samantha “Sami” Josephson made the innocent mistake of getting in the car of a predator pretending to be her Uber driver. What happened next was unimagineable: She was kidnapped and brutally murdered. 

Sami should be with us today. She should be alongside her loving parents Seymour and Marci, and she should have graduated from the University of South Carolina and gone on to attend law school like she had planned. But her life was cut devastatingly short.

If this could happen to Sami, it could happen to anyone. While we cannot bring her back, the House took action this week to not only memorialize her life, but to also implement changes needed to keep innocent people safe when they use ride share apps in the future. As a mom who cannot fathom the grief her parents must feel, I was proud to help pass Sami’s Law to crackdown on rideshare impersonation and keep passengers safe. It does this by requiring ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft to deploy a verifiable electronic access system to match drivers with passengers before the ride begins to enhance safety for riders. 

Sami’s Law is a fitting tribute to her memory and an important first step in helping prevent another horrible tragedy like this in the future. I hope the Senate will take action on this bill quickly so we can send it to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

CLICK HERE to read the bill.