Taxi Driver Online

Taxi drivers suspended for refusing to pick up mum and disabled daughter outside the Hippodrome

The mother of a disabled girl who was turned away by three Bristol taxi drivers has said she hopes taxi drivers will learn lessons after three were suspended. Karen Tilley and her daughter Josselin were left stranded after they came out of the Hippodrome after seeing a show last November.

Mother and daughter, who are from Wiltshire, went to the nearest taxi rank to catch a Bristol Blue Hackney Carriage back to Temple Meads station, but several drivers there refused to take them, because 11-year-old Josselin is in a wheelchair. She later posted on Facebook together with photographs of the taxis that turned her away, in a post which went viral around the city.

Bristol City Council investigated after the matter was reported to them, and now they have been suspended for various periods of time. A meeting of the council’s public safety and protection committee this week was held behind closed doors, decided the level of punishment to be handed to the taxi drivers, but ruled that they could not be named.

Two of the drivers had their licence suspended for four months, while the other received a six month suspension.

“I am pleased that the committee chose to apply some punishment to these drivers,” said Karen. “Not because I wanted to see them off the roads, but because I would like this to be a lesson to other taxi drivers that they need to make sure they aren’t putting disabled people in the position that my daughter and I were put in.

“Making sure you have made the right adjustments for people with wheelchairs really is a small obstacle compared to those that disabled people have to face on a daily basis. “I hope this helps to raise awareness amongst taxi drivers about the need to be accessible to people with a disability,” she added. The council said all three drivers will be required to undertake further training on disability assistance prior to getting their licence back.

This will be at a cost to themselves through the council’s Gold Standard taxi driver training programme, which all Bristol taxi drivers are required to complete.

The chair of the committee is Cllr Fi Hance. She said: “It is absolutely unacceptable that anyone should be turned away by a taxi service because they use a wheelchair, or indeed have any other disability. “We require all our Hackney Carriage taxi drivers to use wheelchair accessible vehicles and it is their responsibility to know how to use their equipment properly when it comes to assisting a disabled person, so there is no excuse for turning someone away.

“In Bristol we pride ourselves on being an inclusive and accessible city that is an exciting and vibrant place to live and visit as a tourist destination for everyone. “The majority of our taxi drivers provide an excellent service to the city, but on occasions like this where passengers are subjected to discrimination we will investigate and take action where necessary,” she added.

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IDFIMH

I'm not sure those suspensions are proportionate to the offence.

Yes I get the 'they should do the work' rules, but stopping someone working for 6 months is too much.

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IDFIMH

Sends a clear message, personally I would ban them for ever,enough said

Me too

I think you can get a message across with bankrupting people.

Six months is not proportionate in my view.

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IDFIMH

Wonder why suspensions were not the same length of time for the same breach of rules?

I suspect the individual concerned may have had previous black marks against him.

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IDFIMH

Excuse me........You have to say white marks...

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

I think it should be negative marks.

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Grandad,

In this instance black is the appropriate colour for instance if someone received the black spot it was an ink mark. Ink was always black in days of yore and black is usually the specified colour when you fill your license forms out is it not ! so why not a black mark as it is written in ink

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

There is always one. satire'.

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

It seems strange that three drivers refused to take them ?

probably one of those massively heavy 6 wheel jobbies which beach themselves at the top of the ramps and take half an hour of pushing and shoving to get in and out at each end.

The problem is that there is no specification as to what is reasonable and what is not it is assumed that wheelchair access is ANY wheelchair no matter how big and awkward and quite frankly whilst manual non electric chairs are pretty straightforward many wheelchair users have these massively built "go anywhere" electric chairs that quite frankly are too big for most WAVS

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Quite agree, just revoke their licence altogether

My thoughts exactly. As you say, Some of the bigger and longer wheelchairs become "grounded " while being wheeled into the cab. You only have to look at the plastic surround on the ramp casing on the E7's to see the result. I always isolate the power on an electric wheelchair and if I then can't move it safely it doesn't travel with me!
I suffered a shoulder injury a couple of years ago and was receiving physio for it. The physiotherapist told me not to lift or push anything heavy whilst I was receiving treatment (approx 6 weeks ) I telephoned the council to inform them and they said they couldn't give me an exemption even if I sent them a letter signed by my physiotherapist. They said I would have to try and load the wheelchair before I refused it! As soon as I mentioned the fact that if my shoulder gave way I could drop the wheelchair possibly causing injury to the customer they changed their tune completely and said they'd give me a 6 week exemption. They didn't give a toss about me injuring myself!