DiDi suspends Melbourne driver for kidnapping attempt

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The driver has been temporarily suspended pending an investigation.

A Melbourne woman alleged she was almost kidnapped by her driver DiDi on Saturday night, prompting the whole city to be vigilant when using ridesharing services.

In a series of Instagram stories shared to her @puddingjulie account over the weekend, the woman explained how she traveled from Brunswick to Richmond to meet friends for dinner. For those unfamiliar with Melbourne, it is about a 15 to 20 minute ride with traffic.

However, she alleges that the driver took her on a freeway towards Balwyn North – the total wrong steering – after making a series of wrong turns.

“We’re taking a road through Fitzroy, and he takes a few wrong turns and he’s like, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what happened, I made a few mistakes today. “, and I” I like, ‘it’s going, it’s happening,’ “she detailed on her Instagram story.

“And then we ended up on the freeway and half an hour had passed and we were still in Fitzroy.”

According to her allegation, the driver offered to cancel the trip and drive her for free the rest of the way. This would of course remove the ability for DiDi to track the rest of the trip, which is never a good idea for the safety of everyone involved.

“I look at his phone and his maps keep telling him to get off the freeway and he’s also in the rightmost lane and he stayed in the rightmost lane the entire time,” a- she continued.

“I feel like there was no intention of her going out one day.”

Image: @puddingjulie

Eventually the woman decided to call her sister after not knowing how to handle the situation.

“I’m like ‘I don’t know what the fuck is going on,'” she said.

“I’m starting to panic because everything I tell him, he can’t give me a clear answer as to where we’re going… He realizes [I’m on the phone with her] and try to calm me down.

At this point, she claims that the driver tried to defuse the situation, allegedly offering to contact her friends to check on her character.

“‘Oh, sister, sister, it’s okay, don’t worry, I’ll get you where you need to go,” “the driver said, as she recalled.

“I finally got to the other side, got out and he was trying to get me back into the car. It was so weird, he was like, ‘here’s my phone, talk to my friends, they’ll tell you you can come with me.’ “

Fortunately, the woman was finally able to exit the vehicle on the side of the freeway, where her sister picked her up and immediately went to the police to report the situation.

“It was just terrifying, why the hell are we on the freeway, what am I doing. I feel like if I hadn’t said anything he would have kept driving. He just drove. took advantage of the fact that I didn’t know Melbourne very well and didn’t say anything when it didn’t take all those random turns, ”she claimed in her Instagram Stories.

DiDi has finally confirmed that the driver in question has been temporarily suspended from the platform pending an investigation.

“DiDi is aware of an incident that occurred on the platform in Melbourne overnight,” DiDi said in a statement provided to Pedestrian.

“The passenger contacted the travel hotline twice regarding the matter.

“In the event of an incident involving driver safety, as a precautionary measure, we immediately suspend the driver’s access to the app and conduct an investigation, while assisting law enforcement if necessary.

“For this particular incident, DiDi has temporarily suspended the driver’s account and is conducting a full investigation, which may result in the driver’s temporary or permanent suspension from the DiDi platform, while we will also cooperate with law enforcement in his investigations. “

Victoria Police have yet to comment on the situation.

Junkee has reached out to DiDi for further comment.

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