A young woman's death after jumping off a moving van has sparked public fury and deep concerns over van-hailing and courier services.

23-year-old Che Shasha died due to "severe brain injury, traumatic intracranial hematoma and skull base fracture," after she leapt out of the window of the van, according to the driver, the only eye-witness in the incident. The driver said she leapt out after he veered off the route recommended by the online platform Huolala, also known as Lalamove in other Asian markets.

The driver, a 38-year-old male, has been detained by police over suspicion of negligent homicide on February 23, 13 days after the woman was declared dead by the hospital and an investigation is underway.

According to Che Xiqiang, Che's brother, his sister called the van on February 6 from Huolala platform to move to her new place of residence.

"At 9:14 p.m., she called the family, saying she had packed up and then she took a ride with the driver to her new place. At 9:24, she messaged her colleagues on WeChat about work-related issues. But at 9:30, the driver called 120 and 110, claiming that Shasha jumped out of the van window because he veered off," Che's brother told reporters.

In another interview with Beijing News, he said that after his sister's death, he found in her phone that the driver had veered off the app's recommended route three times. Though Che did not text any of her family members about imminent danger while en route, her family suspects the driver's "unusual behavior" led to Che's "extreme action."

On February 21, Huolala released a statement saying "we feel deep sorrow and regret about the unfortunate event," adding its initial conversation with Che's family "was not very fruitful" and will continue to negotiate and cooperate with police in the ongoing investigation.

However, on the same day, Che's brother wrote an emotional letter on Twitter-like platform Weibo, accusing the company of mishandling the situation and ignoring their needs and feelings when Che was hospitalized.

He also questioned Huolala's driver-vetting process and its app's lack of features that can guarantee passenger's safety.

"Why did the driver choose what seemed like a longer route that didn't have surveillance cameras? Was there a premeditated attack? Did Huolala do enough to vet its drivers?" he wrote. "As a provider of car-hailing services, why didn't the platform have any measures in place to ensure customer safety?"

Unlike ride-hailing platforms that are specialized for passengers, Huolala is known as a moving company. When transporting personal stuff and furniture, some customers will take on the same ride with their belongings, while some do not.

The death of Che reignited people's concern over women's ride-hailing. In 2018, Didi Chuxing, one of China's top ride-sharing apps, suspended its inter-city carpooling service after two women were raped and killed by their drivers. Since then, the company has installed many safety features on its app, including one-click police calling and in-trip audio recording.

Experts say when people take a vehicle that is enclosed, they put their life at the hands of the driver. In this regard, Huolala is just like Didi chuxing, both of which bear responsibility to guarantee the safety of passengers.

On Wednesday, Huolala released a statement again, apologizing to the family and the public. It pledged that it would introduce better safety functions for passengers – such as emergency calls, in-vehicle recording, alerts for drivers and allowing users to share their trips with their close contacts. It also promised it would enhance background checks for drivers and built a mechanism to work with police over the safety of passengers.

The family members of the driver on the same day for the first time responded to the incident to the public, saying the driver did have a dispute with the girl en route when he veered off the recommended route, but when he tried to explain to the young woman, "his tone is not so good, which might have caused the woman's fear, so she leapt from the window to escape."

In China, negligent homicide, the crime of causing death by negligence, carries a sentence of between three and seven years in prison. If, after the investigation, there is evidence to prove the driver did act improperly, which caused the woman to jump out of the car, he may face three to seven years of prison sentence.

But according to Zhu Jing, deputy director of Shanghai Shivili Law Firm, it's really hard to prove the man's behavior constitutes negligent homicide. And only if the driver "is unqualified or insufficiently qualified," will Huolala bear the civil supplementary liability for compensation.