SHANGHAI, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- A Shanghai family has requested compensation of more than 8 million yuan (1.23 million U.S. dollars) from bike-sharing company ofo and a bus operator after a boy was killed in a road accident while riding a shared bike.
A district court in Shanghai heard the case on Friday.
The 11-year-old boy unlocked an ofo bike and rode with his friends on a March afternoon. He hit a bus head-on, was crushed underneath the wheels and died from his injuries.
Police investigations said the boy should bear the major responsibility for the accident.
However, the family has blamed the bike-sharing company for allowing minors to unlock and use their bikes, creating a major safety loophole.
The family asked the court to demand ofo recall all bikes that are not equipped with smart locks and pay 7.62 million yuan in compensation.
The family also requested another 1 million yuan from the bus rental company.
Ofo defended itself in court, saying the negligence of the boy's guardians was to blame.
The court has not yet announced its decision on the case.
Ofo is a leader in China's bike sharing business boom, fueled by the innovation of dock-less bikes. Ofo's original bikes could be unlocked using a four-digit code, which stayed the same. The incident prompted the company to speed up the shift to using smart locks, which change the codes after each use.
The company said that it operates around 8 million shared bikes and has offered users more than 3 billion rides in more than 170 cities since it started out as a university startup in 2014.
Criticism of the explosive growth of shared bikes has grown, as they have caused accidents, created chaos by haphazard parking and encroached on limited public space.
