MOBILITY MATTERS
PARTIALLY BLIND LINCOLN MAN ‘ABANDONED’ OUTSIDE CLOSED PUB BY TAXI AFTER CARD WAS DECLINED
A man from Lin- coln has told of his fear after he was left by a taxi driver at a closed pub in the pouring rain when his bank card was declined. According to Lin- colnshirelive, Ben Cheney, who only has three per cent vision across both eyes, headed to his regular pub in Bag- gholme Road in December.
A member of the bar staff arranged for a taxi home with Direct Cars, booked to arrive at 12.45am to take him home.
But another cus- tomer took the ride and the 22-year- old ended up taking that per- son’s taxi, which arrived 15 minutes later. Direct Cars discov- ered Ben was in the taxi and when his name was run through the firm’s
system, he ap- peared on a “white list”. Bosses say he was on this list for fail- ing to pay taxi fares in the past – something Ben denies.
Because of that the driver pulled over just after set- ting off and told Ben he needed to pay up front. Ben’s card was given two chances, but was declined and so the driver was instructed to head back to the pub and drop him back where he had been collected. Ben says he ex- plained his situ- ation regarding his disability and his fears, but says he was still ‘aban- doned’ anyway. He told Lin- colnshireLive: “I was isolated. There was no one around to help. I was scared.
“I don’t have a smart phone. I don’t have another way of contacting someone apart from text or phone. “I don’t have all my contacts - only 20 to 25. That signifi- cantly reduces the amount of people who you can get to help.”
Ben, who uses a cane to get around, took shelter from the rain just out- side the pub, which had now closed with all the staff going home, and tried to contact a friend to sort out a route home.
A friend managed to arrange a taxi, but Ben was told it would be another hour before it ar- rived so he decided to head home alone. Luckily, he bump- ed into three women en route, who lived nearby, and the trio walked
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He said: “It res- tored my faith in humanity. There were three of them and that made me feel safer.” However, he is not happy with Direct Cars and says he will only use them now as a “last resort”.
A friend of Ben also contacted Lin- colnshireLive
to
say his friend esti- mates that he was outside in the dark and the rain for
almost two hours before he got home. Direct Cars says that because of Ben’s alleged histo- ry of not paying fares it had no option but to leave him as there is no guarantee that tak- ing someone to a cash machine means they will get paid.
A spokesperson for the firm told Lin- colnshireLive : “All of our drivers are self-employed so if
the customer does- n’t pay, they don’t get paid. “When our driver did attempt to get payment from him twice, the payment was declined.” Mmmm… What
a
callous treatment of a disabled per- son, bad payment record or not… is this substantiated, as he denies it? Would the compa- ny be held res- ponsible if some- thing had happen- ed to Ben? – Ed.
REFUSING DISABLED HIGHLAND PASSENGERS MAY BE CRIMINAL OFFENCE
Highland council- lors have moved a step closer to mak- ing it a criminal offence for taxi drivers to refuse a fare from someone in a wheelchair. Highland Council’s licensing commit- tee supported the idea of creating a list of all wheel- chair accessible vehicles. The move would affect all vehicles licensed as either taxis or private hire cars across the region. Should any driver with a WAV on the list subse- quently refuse a fare from a dis- abled person, they could be charged with a criminal offence.
Councillor Andrew Jarvie
The plan will now go out to public consultation. The chairman of the licensing com- mittee, Councillor Andrew Jarvie, who is himself a wheelchair user, strongly wel- comed the move as a step in the right direction.
He said: “This is an excellent first step towards making life a little easier for disabled people in Highland. “This list, if adopt- ed, would make it easier to find firms with WAVs and allow swift action against any dis- crimination.”
FEBRUARY 2020
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