COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA/WCBD) – A candlelight vigil will be held Tuesday night for 21-year-old Samantha Josephson. She’s the University of South Carolina student who authorities say was kidnapped and killed.
Investigators believe Josephson got inside a car she thought belonged to her uber driver.
Lawmakers now plan to introduce a bill on Tuesday that would make it easier for people to identify their Uber or Lyft drivers. This new bill would make drivers who work for ride-sharing companies put more visible signs in their windows. Those signs need to be readable as far as 50-feet away during the daytime and illuminated at night.
Right now, South Carolina law only requires ride-share drivers to use reflective stickers in their windows.
Lyft gives their drivers illuminated signs, but that’s only after a certain number of rides.
Representative Seth Rose said he looked at what laws govern our ride-sharing apps here in South Carolina, and they do not compare to those of bigger cities.
“I was further surprised to find, that in other places, in larger cities, these companies are actually paying for the illuminated signs for their drivers,” Rose said. “But not in smaller markets, like South Carolina.”
Rose said he knew changes had to be made when he heard about what happened to Josephson.
“This isn’t going to prevent tragedies or someone crazy doing crazy things, but it might lessen the likelihood that we have something like this, and if it saves just one person, it’ll be worth it,” said Rose.
Rose plans to call this new bill the “Samantha L. Josephson Ridesharing Safety Act.” He said he was inspired by Josephson’s parents who asked for people to remember her name.
Tuesday night’s vigil will be held in Josephson’s home town of Robbinsville, New Jersey.
