Didi suspends 'hitch' service after driver allegedly kills passenger

Didi Chuxing, China's largest ride-hailing operator, said on Friday that it will suspend its "hitch" service nationwide for a week to review procedures and recheck drivers, after the death of an air hostess in Henan province caused huge public concern about the safety of such a service.

"Hitch" is one of 13 services that Didi offers in China designed for commuter cost-sharing. It allows registered car owners to accept rides along preset routes.

According to police in Henan province and a statement on Thursday night from Didi, the 21-year-old Lucky Air hostess surnamed Li arranged a ride on the night of May 5 via Didi's app as she left the airport area in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to go to the train station. Liu Zhenhua, who has been identified as the suspect, picked her up, police said.

Police also said surveillance video showed Liu, 27, abandoning the car and jumping into a river after allegedly killing the woman.

On Friday night, a member of a Zhengzhou-based rescue and recovery team told China Daily that the team was searching the river at the spot where the suspect jumped in.

The driver account that Liu was using belonged to his father, who had passed the full verification process, criminal background screening and facial recognition before taking the first order, Didi said in a statement released on Friday afternoon.

"The suspect used his parent's account to take orders, which was in violation of our services rules," it said.

Didi also conceded that its night safety mechanism was defective, so the face recognition mechanism was not triggered before the driver took the order at night.

Before the case, Didi had received one complaint of verbal sexual harassment against the driver, but customer service failed to reach the driver after trying to call him five times, so no action was taken, the company said.

As police were trying to track down and arrest the suspect, Didi offered a reward of up to 1 million yuan ($158,000) for information regarding his whereabouts.

On Friday morning, the Ministry of Transport released a statement on its WeChat account that said ride-sharing network operators should ensure passengers' safety and put the interests of people first.

The incident was not the first time that Didi has gotten public attention for a driver crime. A female teacher in Shenzhen was robbed and killed in 2016 and another female passenger was raped in Wuhan the same year.

Although the company said it would improve background reviews of drivers, the killing has raised public concerns over security flaws of ride-hailing service operators.

Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center at China University of Political Science and Law, said such operators should be obligated to verify information regarding drivers and passengers alike.

"If the verification result is wrong, operators should take responsibility," he said.