The family of an 11-year-old boy in Shanghai who got run over and killed by a bus after stealing an Ofo bike is suing the bike-sharing giant.

They are asking for 7.6 million yuan (~S$1.6 million) in compensation from Ofo -- down from 8.78 million yuan (~S$1.8 million) last year.

The family had also wanted to sue the company that owned the bus as well as the bus driver, but had since withdrawn their claim.

According to Shine, the family had received 550,000 yuan (~S$114,800) from the bus company's insurance last month.

Boy was too young to legally ride Ofo bike

In China, children must be at least 12 years old to ride bicycles on public roads.

This means that the boy, surnamed Gao, was too young to legally ride an Ofo bike.

But even if he could not register an account, he still found a way to get his hands on the bike.

Together with three of his friends who did the same, he stole one of the bikes by cracking open the bike locks.

However, he later collided with a bus and died in the hospital afterwards.

The accident happened on March 26 last year.

Family blamed Ofo for letting their bikes be stolen

Although the boy was the one who stole the bike in the first place, the family blamed Ofo for his death, claiming that the company had not done enough to prevent its bikes from being stolen.

The boy and his friends had all managed to use the bikes after somehow cracking open the locks.

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Boy bears primary responsibility

Traffic police eventually concluded that the boy was primarily responsible as he was not legally allowed to ride on public roads.

He was also riding the wrong way.

However, the bus driver took some of the blame too as he was deemed to have failed to take adequate caution when making a turn.

Top image via Toutiao

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