Ride Austin driver accused of rape

AUSTIN, Texas - On June 10, a woman, who remains anonymous, ordered a car home from ride hailing app Ride Austin.

Austin police said Osmani Limonta-Diaz was her driver. According to investigators, the two arrived outside of the victim's home in Central Austin. That's when he turned around to tell the victim he was going to have sex with her.

“Before being able to go home she was subsequently sexually assaulted in the back of the car,” said Sgt. Martina St. Louis, Austin Police Department.

Court paperwork said the woman stumbled out of the car, ran to her home, where her brother dialed 9-1-1. She then had a forensic exam performed. After further investigation and lab results, police were able to arrest Limonta-Diaz on Friday.

“Even though he's fingerprinted and basically in the system, he committed this crime. How do you prevent that?” said St. Louis.

Ride Austin says Limonta-Diaz's social security and and fingerprint background checks came back clean.

“As a father of two little girls, I was absolutely appalled and no one should have to experience an incident like this,” said Andy Tryba, Ride Austin CEO.

Tryba says before the driver was even arrested and charged, they dropped him from their database.

“I also contacted the other ride share programs that we knew that person drove for to ensure they were in communication with APD and take appropriate action,” said Tryba.

The company says they will continue to take steps to prevent things like this from happening, including informing riders about their live ETA function.

“We also have a female-only mode where a female can request to be picked up by a female driver,” said Tryba.

Limonta-Diaz is charged with sexual assault and sits in jail on a $40,000 bond.