Last weekend's May Day holiday was capped off on a sad note in Shenzhen after a woman was robbed and murdered by an app-based taxi driver Monday evening.
The woman, surnamed Zhong, was going from Hi-Tech Park in Nanshan to a school where she worked as a teacher in Shajing, Bao’an District. In her attempt to reach the school, the woman used popular taxi service application Didi Chuxing to hail a cab.
Before getting into the car, she took a picture of the license plate and sent it to her family as a matter of precaution. However, when her husband attempted to call her at 10.15pm, her phone was unresponsive. Zhong’s husband then called the police, according to a report by Shenzhen Daily.
Using the photo Zhong sent to her family, officers from Gaoxin police station were able to locate the car in Bao’an District. Zhong’s body was also found, according to an official statement by the Nanshan District Police, published via their microblog.
The 24-year-old driver, surnamed Pan, was detained by police in a rental apartment on May 3. He reportedly admitted to having taken Zhong to a remote area, robbing and killing her, according to South China Morning Post.
A preliminary investigation uncovered that Pan used his ID, license and license plate to register on Didi’s carpool service and was approved by the company. However, on the day of the murder he used a duplicate license plate registered in Zhuhai.
The incident has spurred concern over car-hailing services, which have become very popular with Shenzhen residents.
Didi Chuxing is the largest taxi-hailing service in China and the company has responded with a statement that it won’t shirk responsibility over the tragic incident.
“We will bear the responsibility we should bear and handle the aftermath with sincerity to help the family through this difficult period,” Didi has stated.
The Shenzhen Transport Commission and police had required taxi-hailing services, including Didi Chuxing, to tighten background checks on their drivers earlier this year. The requirement followed an investigation that revealed 1,425 of Shenzhen’s taxi app drivers had a history of drug use, 1,661 had criminal records and there was one instance of a mental illness that led to a traffic accident.
Didi later said that after receiving the list from Shenzhen police, the app expelled all drivers with a history of drugs, crime and mental illness. The exact number of expelled divers was not disclosed.
[Image via arstechnica]
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