Johor Bahru Utara police chief MS Balveer Singh said they received a report from the driver who picked up a female passenger in Taman Seroja to take her to Kip Mall, Tampoi.

“Due to road maintenance, the driver had to deviate from the original route and head towards Taman Perling to make a U-turn on Jalan Persisiran Perling,” he said in a statement today.

“When the passenger noticed the route change, she jumped out of the moving car.”

He said the driver stopped immediately to help, but bystanders had already taken the passenger to the hospital.

Both the driver and the passenger subsequently filed police reports.

Balveer said police investigations found no criminal elements in the incident and advised drivers to improve communication with passengers regarding route changes.

However, he urged passengers to stay vigilant, avoid hasty actions and communicate with their e-hailing drivers or authorities if they are worried.

If they are still concerned about their safety, then they should contact the police, he added.

The social media post earlier this week falsely claimed that the e-hailing driver had attempted to kidnap the passenger, disabled his location tracking and switched to offline mode in the app.