Huolala driver detained after fatal jumping incident
A driver resting in a Huolala van in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.
A driver for Huolala, a vehicle-hailing service provider, was detained by police after a woman jumped out of his van and later died from serious injuries, police said yesterday.
The 38-year-old man surnamed Zhou claimed the victim, 23-year-old Che Shasha, jumped out of the moving van on her own accord on February 6 when she rented the van for house moving in Changsha, Hunan Province, thepaper.cn reported.
The incident has grabbed national attention and rekindled concerns over the safety of car-hailing services, as Che’s family claimed the driver deviated from the navigation route three times.
Zhou called police to report the incident at 9:30pm, The Paper reported.
Che was sent to Hunan Aerospace Hospital for severe head injuries. She remained unconscious and died on February 10, the report said.
A photo of Che Shasha provided by her family
According to Che’s WeChat records, she sent a message and an emoji in a chat group with her colleagues — appearing perfectly normal — just six minutes before jumping, according to the report.
Che was said to be angry with the driver over his deviation from the navigation route and jumped out of the car, according to Che Xiqiang, her uncle, citing an unidentified police officer investigating the case, thepaper.cn said.
Huolala conceded it hadn't installed surveillance cameras in the vehicle.
Huolala said in a statement issued today that the company bears responsibility for the incident and is deeply remorseful.
The company wasn’t aware of the incident until it was reached by police on February 8 and was slow to communicate with Che’s family.
They vowed to add voice-recording functions on Huolala's app, improve existing safety functions and install surveillance cameras in more cars.
The victim's family has reached an agreement with Huolala, but declined to disclose the exact amount of compensation, thepaper.cn reported today, citing a family member.
Huolala is an on-demand logistics and delivery firm founded in Hong Kong in 2013. It provides van-hailing and courier services. As of September 2020, Huolala has business in 352 Chinese mainland cities with monthly active users of 7.2 million and 480,000 drivers, according the company’s website.
