Taxi Driver Online

Sheffield minicab firm in apology to passengers


A MINICAB firm has apologised to two passengers who were injured when their driver crashed – then made to pay the full fare home.

Friends and neighbours Kate Halliwell and Jane Parr had been on a badminton club night out when they ordered a minicab from Mercury "taxis".

The driver picked them up from Psalter Lane to take them to Meersbrook just after 11pm, but crashed into a roundabout in Nether Edge only minutes in.

The women were both wearing seatbelts - but the force of the impact still propelled them into the seats in front. Jane, 44, suffered a nosebleed and both women were cut and bruised.

While Jane phoned the police herself, another car from a rival minicab firm pulled up whose driver said he would take them home. Minutes later he changed his mind, and said a third car would have to be sent for them. And when the replacement Mercury minicab finally arrived, its driver took the women home to Meersbrook Park Road - then charged them in full for the entire journey.

Kate, aged 38, wrote a letter of complaint to the company - but, six weeks later, has received no response.

She said: “The whole thing just added insult to injury - literally. I expected the taxi firm to get in touch to at least make sure we were okay, but there was nothing.”

Mercury told The Star it had checked the first driver’s data to ensure he was driving responsibly, but had no record of a complaint.

It has now apologised, and refunded the women the cost of the fare.

Dermot Griffiths, general manager of Mercury, said: “In retrospect the night manager at the time should have sent an instruction for the driver to take the ladies home and not to charge them.

“That did not happen and we failed on that part.”

source: http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/shef ... -1-5402367

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

And the six weeks after choose to ignore the letters.

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IDFIMH

Probably realised that he would have been reported for picking up a fare without a booking.

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Grandad,

I do not know this particular case but,I do know that there is alot of bad driving out there and a lot of cutting corners both literally on the road and standards wise.
There are so many cabs and ph out there(local and not so local) that the LA only control on paper,on the ground it's messy!.Although it could be me getting old!.

Why did the driver let the passengers leave the scene of an accident without getting them checked out

What grounds would he have for detaining them? The company would have the name and address of the person booking the cab.

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Grandad,

Because the driver has a duty of car,or should have

If the passengers says that they are ok then he can't force tham to stay at the scene.

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Grandad,

So in your books as long as they can walk you would let them go
I take it you have not done a council training course

Stop being a prat Skippy. You can do as many training courses as you like but you can't detain people against their wishes. The drive may well have offered to get them medical attention and they may well have declined. They certainly didn't seem to have complained about lack of care.

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Grandad,

Grandad i'm not being a prat, the punters say they are OK at the time, but could have whiplash injuries, that could manifest much later on, about 25 years ago a camicazi granny in a metro gt ran into me, I felt OK at the time, 3 months later the whiplash took effect, I lost most of the use of my left arm, due to trapped nerves in my neck and it took over 2 years to get the operation

Because he didn't want a kidnapping conviction.

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IDFIMH

exactly.

people have rights....including the right to be stupid.

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

Skippy you would have done your "Duty of care", by virtue of the fact that you asked/enquired as to their wellbeing. The only time I ever get ar$ey with someone who wants to get out - is when they do not want to pay...............and apparently it is wrong to detain them for that as well - on that one I do make an exception!! as I am detaining someone committing fraud - which as far as I know............is a crime.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.