Taxi driver suspended for gesturehttps://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/h ... sture.html
Image: Henley StandardA HENLEY taxi driver was suspended after making an offensive hand gesture during an altercation with a driver on Remenham Hill.The male victim, who didn’t wish to be named, claimed he was also spat at by the driver who was working for Chiltern Cars but the company has denied this.
He said he was pulling on to Remenham Hill on Monday morning last week when the silver Mercedes sped up behind him.
He said: “If there’s something coming you have to go for it. I’ve pulled out and to me there’s nothing coming. This guy has come round the bend at such a speed and up to the rear of my car, literally a foot away, beeping his horn constantly.
“I just stopped my car, got out and said, ‘what are you doing? You’re clearly going too fast’.”
The man claimed the taxi driver, who had a child in his front passenger seat, was then rude to him and then drove round him.
The taxi continued down the hill where the victim approached the rear of the vehicle as they waited in traffic and began filming it. He recalled: “I start filming and his finger comes out the window.”
He then called Chiltern Cars who said they would speak to the driver.
He then went to the company’s office in Greys Road but was told there was nothing that could be done as the drivers were self-employed.
The man said: “I said, ‘you have got a duty of care because they are carrying your sign around’. They weren’t interested at all.
“I don’t want to see taxis with children in being driven like that.”
Nasar Ahmed, managing director of Chiltern Cars, later contacted him to apologise.
Mr Ahmed told the Henley Standard he’d spoken to the driver who had denied behaving in an aggressive manner.
“He said, ‘he came out in front of me’,” said Mr Ahmed. “He said the gentleman was being rude to him.
“He said, ‘I did do a hand gesture because he kept horning behind me’.
“He said he couldn’t have been speeding because there were cars in front of him because it was busy at that time of the morning and he wouldn’t be doing that anyway.”
Mr Ahmed said he suspended his driver after seeing a picture of him making the hand gesture, adding: “I said, ‘if it happens again, you’ll be expelled from the company’.”
A spokeswoman for South Oxfordshire District Council, the taxi licensing authority, said: “I can confirm we received a complaint on May 21 and we are currently investigating.”