Han Ximin

    ximhan@126.com

    TWO designated drivers from Didi Chuxing, the largest app-based vehicle service operator in the world, saved a woman and helped police catch a suspected rapist on their way home recently.

    The drivers, Fang Bin and Yang Xiaoyun, were each awarded 5,000 yuan (US$725) by the company’s Samaritan Public Welfare Program yesterday.

    On the early morning of Dec. 3, Fang met Yang on Nanhuan Boulevard in Guangming New Area after arriving at the destination. They didn’t know each other, but as they both were wearing Didi Driver uniforms they chatted and cycled home together. When they arrived near Gongming Traffic Police Unit, they heard a woman’s cry for help from behind a roadside bush. As they approached, they found a nearly naked man attempting to rape a woman. The man fled when he saw the two drivers.

    They chased him for about 800 meters and separated to intercept the suspect after they saw him climb up a pipe into a bathing club on the third floor of a building. On the way, Fang called police before going back to help the woman.

    Police officers and the Didi service driver caught the man two hours after the incident.

    Separately, two Didi drivers were rewarded 200,000 yuan for helping police bust a drug ring and seize 125 kilograms of a chemical used to make drugs. Three suspects, including a Hong Kong woman, have been arrested.

    The two drivers reported to Longgang police Nov. 11 that they suspected five cartons they had carried for their customers contained drugs. The materials were found to be ephedrine hydrochloride, which can be used to make 25 kilograms of drugs.