Car-hailing firm may be liable in killing

DIDI CHUXING, a car-hailing service company headquartered in Beijing, has suspended its car-hailing operations for a week to conduct thorough rectification after a 21-year-old flight stewardess, was allegedly murdered by the driver of a car she ordered in Zhengzhou, Henan province, last week. Beijing News comments:

According to reports quoting his neighbors, the driver of the vehicle hailed by the woman was driving a car registered under his father's name on the Didi Chuxing platform that night, breaching the company' rules. The company said the father had passed the verification process and criminal background checks required by the company.

Yet despite having a facial recognition system for its drivers, the company had no idea who was driving the car until the police found it and made inquiries, and even though the victim complained of the driver's verbal sexual harassment to the customer service department of the company before her death, the company failed to contact the driver, and did nothing to address the woman's concerns.

The police found that the suspect was not qualified to drive a hail car, but he had in fact earned his living in the business for more than two months. Something the company was unaware of.

Also female passengers have frequently complained about the obscene remarks of male car-hailing drivers. So the company must know about the problem. Yet, it has done nothing about it.

The company needs to stem the loopholes in its mode of operations to prevent any such tragedies happening again.

But although the driver drowned himself in a river after the case－his body was found in the river on Sunday－that still should not put an end to the case. The woman's family or the public security organs have every reason to sue the company and the culprit's family for civil compensation, if the court confirms the driver was the killer.