Chinese ride-hailing service Dida Chuxing — not to be confused with Didi Chuxing — has banned a driver from its platform after he molested a female passenger, the company said Sunday in a statement to Sixth Tone’s sister publication, The Paper.

After arriving at the pick-up location in Meizhou, a city in the southern Guangdong province, the driver, surnamed Cai, proposed a mutually agreeable fare of 200 yuan ($28) to take the passenger to Guangzhou, the provincial capital, The Paper reported, citing local authorities. The driver later received a request to pick up two more passengers and take them to Shenzhen, a major city between Meizhou and Guangzhou. After dropping the two passengers off, the driver told the first passenger, surnamed Luo, that he did not want to take her to Guangzhou and touched her inappropriately.

Cai was detained for five days at a local police station for molesting Luo and fined 30,000 yuan for “illegal operations,” as the authorities also found that he did not have a permit required to provide ride-hailing services.

Passenger safety became a top priority for China’s ride-hailing industry after two women in Henan and Zhejiang provinces were killed by their Didi drivers last year. Didi — by far the most widely used ride-hailing service in China — introduced a raft of safety measures afterward, and the country’s transport ministry mandated in May of last year that ride-hailing drivers would be subject to a national review system that would hold them to the same standards as taxi drivers. (Image: IC)