Ride-hailing services provider Huolala has come under fire in the wake of the death of a 23-year-old woman in Changsha, Hunan Province, who hired a moving van and driver from the platform and jumped out of the vehicle while it was traveling.
The young woman, surnamed Che, was hit by passing traffic at around 9:30 p.m. on February 6 when she exited the van through the window of its front passenger seat. She was later pronounced dead in a hospital on February 10 after suffering serious head injuries.
According to Che’s older brother, the driver picked up the victim on the night of the incident from her old apartment. After loading the vehicle with boxes of household goods, she took a ride with the driver to her new place of residence. During the ride, which was supposed to take around 20 minutes, Che messaged her colleagues on WeChat about work-related issues. It was her last communication with anyone prior to her sudden jump.
The brother said that while checking Huolala's app on Che’s phone, he discovered that the driver had veered off the app’s recommended route three times. While Che didn’t warn anyone that her safety was in jeopardy while en route, her family suspected that the driver’s “unusual behavior” was related to Che’s “extreme action,” according to Che’s uncle.
In a statement released on February 21, Huolala confirmed Che’s death but offered no explanation as to why she jumped from the moving van or why the driver deviated from the route suggested by the app. “We feel deep sorrow and regret about the unfortunate event,” the company said, adding that while its initial conversation with Che’s family, which took place right after her death, was not very fruitful, it would continue holding closed-door meetings with them and cooperating with an ongoing investigation carried out by the police.
However, on Weibo, a person who claimed to be Che’s younger brother painted a different picture of Huolala's handling of the situation. In a lengthy, emotion-packed post, the person, writing on behalf of Che’s family, accused the company of ignoring their needs and feelings when Che was hospitalized.
He also raised questions about driver-screening process and its app’s lack of a feature that allowed passengers to record audio or video of their rides. “Why did the driver choose what seemed like a longer route that didn’t have surveillance cameras? Was there a premeditated attack? Did Huolala do enough to vet its drivers?” he wrote. “As a provider of car-hailing services, why didn’t Huolala have any measures in place to ensure customer safety?”
Although there has been no definite word on what caused Che to take the fatal leap, her death has cast doubt on how safe it is for women in China to use ride-hailing services.
