Taxi driver fired over harassment charge

Shanghai Dazhong Taxi Company fired one of its drivers Wednesday on accusations that he touched a female passenger inappropriately, the company said.

Dazhong, one of the city's three largest taxi companies, announced its decision after the victim's friend wrote about the incident on her microblog Tuesday evening and the local transportation authority verified the story.

According to the friend's post, the taxi driver, who has not been identified, touched the victim's thigh several times while he drove her home from the Lantern Festival show at Yuyuan Garden Sunday night.

The victim, who was also not identified, was sitting in the taxi's front seat, according to the post.

She said the driver leaned forward to reach around the plastic partition that surrounds the driver's seat. She eventually asked the driver to stop the car and called police.

Police did not take an official report from the woman, but instead helped her negotiate a settlement with the driver, according to a press officer surnamed Shi with the Zhabei District Public Security Bureau.

"There wasn't much space inside the taxi, and the offense wasn't as serious as what was posted online," Shi told the Global Times.

The passenger agreed to settle her dispute with the driver for 500 yuan ($80) in compensation and an apology, Shi said.

The microblog post had been forwarded more than 1,800 times by the time Huang Xiaoyong, a press officer for the local transportation authority, confirmed the incident on his microblog Wednesday morning. Huang said Dazhong fired the driver, who was from Chongming Island.

The incident was the first time that a taxi driver was found behaving in such a manner, a manager at the company told the Global Times.

The driver had worked for Dazhong for five years and had no past record of harassing passengers. The manager said the company put him on a blacklist, so other taxi companies in the city won't hire him.

Police may have been too lenient with the driver, who should have been punished for violating administrative law, said Qin Jianming, a lawyer with the Shanghai Qin Jianming Law Firm.

"This case has had a negative effect on the public. People might think there isn't any serious punishment for sexually harassing women," he told the Global Times.