Taxi Driver Online

Taxi driver fined for discrimination

A TAXI driver who would not take a disabled woman in his cab has been fined. Mushtaq Khan ignored Anisa Ibrahim when she tried to get a taxi home from the town centre, a court heard.

Bolton Magistrates Court heard how on December 3 last year, Miss Ibrahim, who has cerebral palsy and uses an electric wheelchair, left work at Bolton Town Hall and went to the taxi rank at Victoria Square North, to get a taxi home.

The first two taxis in the queue told her to try the one behind. When she reached the third, Mr Khan’s taxi, he ignored her, magistrates were told. The incident was witnessed by Iain Ratcliffe, youth offenders team manager at Bolton Council, who reported it to the authority’s licensing unit.

Julie Wightman, defending, said Mr Khan had not realised Miss Ibrahim, from Daubhill, was trying to attract his attention.

But chairman of the bench Dr Jeremy Foster said: “Mr Khan can hardly have failed to notice Miss Ibrahim’s attempts to get a taxi. He must have seen her approaching his own taxi. As third in line he must have been aware of what was happening, therefore we can’t accept his denials.”

Magistrates fined Khan, of Bradford Road, Great Lever, £200 and ordered him pay £400 in costs and the £15 victim surcharge. Khan was found to be acting contrary to Section 53 of the Town Police Causes Act 1847.

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IDFIMH

Perhaps 1 and 2 were saloons?

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Life? Don't talk to me about life!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjm2eslm6hI

But surely then she would have gone straight to three, and not been passed back by one and two.

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IDFIMH

Assuming this rank is very near the town hall you would have thought the drivers would be mindful of this as councillors and council workers are the most likely customers to complain to the licensing officer

Yeah but you know what punters are like Some of ours would walk past a WAV on the front of the rank thinking they were dearer

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Life? Don't talk to me about life!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjm2eslm6hI

Maybe mr Mushtaq Khan had a disability of his own....Blindness!!!!

I agree, more info needed.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Possibly the first two could not accomodate her in safety, due to the electric wheelchair and or the design of their vehicles.
Just as possible the first two were as guilty as the third, but nobody took their details. They may have picked up and left before the council "witness" arrived.
Without more info we are just guessing.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

I suppose the first two could have been TX's, whilst the third was a fully accessible E7. What do you think Skippy?

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Former taxi driver

Question is, was the wheelchair able to drive up the ramp on its own, without the driver bearing the weight?

If not, then no go.

Would the wheelchair have been able to turn around to be rear facing in the confined space?

If not, then no go.

However, doesn't it seem clear that these cabbies were simply passing the buck, no one wanting to help this lady?

Their refusal doesn't seem to be based on the requirements of the legislation, just laziness. And that is not acceptable.

BTW Shouldn't such wheelchair users be encouraged to use the services of a taxi company who would be able to provide a proper vehicle to them, rather than taking pot luck in the street?

In Edinburgh we have a taxi card scheme for physically challenged passengers, which requires them to call for a cab. Street cars aren't allowed to serve these passengers because of the need of card security and checks.

Perhaps the watchword is that if you are going to refuse a wheelchair job then you should know where you stand in law. For example, Health and Safety rules permit the driver to make an assessment of the risk to him/her. You would hardly expect a 10 stone female driver to heft a prop forward type up a ramp into a taxi, would you. Rules state that anyone over 6 stones can be considered a safety risk to drivers.

Ouch

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin