Teen sisters commended for bravery during rideshare scare
Teens accuse the HopSkipDrive driver of touching himself while taking the girls to school.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Two sisters helped police arrest a man accused of exposing himself to the teenagers during a rideshare trip.
The teens were using the school transportation service HopSkipDrive when their driver allegedly started touching himself on the ride to school. The suspect, 51-year-old Anthony Etuk, had been on Nashville’s ‘Most Wanted’ list since the alleged incident in April.
The sisters showed detectives cellphone video of the incident and photos of Etuk and his license plate, Metro Nashville Police said.
“Kudos [to them] it’s really hard to think and be level-headed in the moment. It’s very easy to be scared. To get all the right information so that they could find the person and stop it from happening to other girls like us, that’s amazing,” Alex, a young woman visiting Nashville, said.
“It’s really impressive,” Victoria said about the two teenagers. “I think in the moment you kind of get scared and not want to do anything, or just be like whatever forget about it, so to be able to actually think calmly and do that, it’s really impressive.”
HopSkipDrive told WSMV4 that Etuk was immediately removed from their platform. The school transportation service uses a 15-point certification process for its drivers, which includes a criminal record check and a fingerprint-based background check. You can read more about their certification process here.
HopSkipDrive released the following statement in regard to the incident:
“Safety is everything to HopSkipDrive and the driver’s alleged behavior described in this report is abhorrent and completely unacceptable. Immediately upon learning of this report last month, we removed this driver’s access to our platform as we investigated and have been in touch with our clients at Metro Nashville Public Schools to support them and extend our support to the riders. We’ve also reached out to law enforcement to assist with their investigation in any way possible. Since day one, HopSkipDrive has invested in tools and products to put safety at the core of everything we do. This includes a 15-point certification for drivers, live ride telematics, a dedicated Safe Ride Support team, and publishing our safety data annually to lead the industry with transparency. This work is never done and we’re committed to continually raising the bar for the industry.”
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