Huolala driver held over woman’s death
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.
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 the company bears responsibility for the incident and is deeply remorseful.
It said it wasn’t aware until it was reached by police on February 8 and was slow to communicate with Che’s family.
It vowed to add voice-recording functions on its app, improve safety functions and install cameras in more cars.