Sunday, February 3, 2013

A ROAD HAZARD you have to beware.


I'm thankful that I'm still alive to share this traumatizing experience with you:

I was on my way from Tampines to Great World City for work this morning.
I managed to flagged down a Comfort Blue Cab in the carpark below my flat.

That Comfort Cab began to accelerate and knocked into 1 of the motorcycle parked at the motorcycle lots, making it fall into the rest of parked motorcycles. Rushing for work at the point of time, I didn't think much about the incident except to board the available cab.

Still within the carpark in less than a minute after I board the cab,  he mounted TWO different kerbs at TWO different junctions.

The episode didn't end here yet.

I told the cab driver that I was going to Great World City.

He recommended to go by PIE & exit by Stevens Road. Being unfamiliar with the roads to my destination, I agreed. But right after he said that, he took the ECP instead. I was texting on the phone and didn't notice where he was travelling until he told me that he could've taken a wrong turn and that we were travelling towards Changi Airport instead. He then suggested we take a u-turn at Changi Airport.

In actual fact he was on the right track towards city. I realised this when I saw East Coast Park on my left. I immediately told him that he was actually going towards the city & my iphone map says we can exit by Keppel Road. But he still insisted that we were travelling towards Changi Airport and will take the next exit, which by that time was the Bedok exit.



I repeated 3 times that he should go straight. He finally acknowledged me by nodding his head but still exited at the Bedok exit. As the cab was turning left from the Bedok exit onto Marine Parade road, he almost ran over a cyclist who had the right of way crossing the pedestrian crossing. Luckily the cyclist was alert enough to swerve onto the curb in time.

I screamed at the uncle telling him that he almost knocked someone over, but to my horror, he turned around and 'HUH?' at me instead. Of course I said never mind because he was looking at me and not looking at the road.

At this time, it's likely that the driver realised that he took the wrong exit, and suggested to take PIE-exit-by-Stevens-Road route once again. BUT he saw the ECP signage and turned into ECP!!!

I didn't dare to talk to him by now because I didn't want him to turn around and not focus on the road when he is already so dangerous.

The situation worsened when we were on the ECP. 

He was driving in between 2 lanes, almost knocking into other cars. All the other cars had to give way to him to avoid an accident. Throughout the entire trip, he was drifting from 1 lane to another at every bend. And worse still, when he was on the last lane, he was cruising ON the road shoulder markings, which made the entire taxi tremble.



































He finally exited Keppel Road, but had to swerve over the chevrons markings, almost missing the exit. When it started raining, he began horning at every single car when he was actually the one at fault. And he still had the cheek to tell me that it was the other drivers' fault.

To my relief, we finally reached Great World City, but he stopped his vehicle in the middle of the drop-off point lane, blocking the rest of the vehicles in the next lane. I demanded for a receipt and was ready to lodge a complaint, but it seems he was driving the taxi for the first time as he didn't even know where to press to print the receipt. It was a touch screen monitor and the Print button was very prominent, but he constantly press on the area BESIDE the button instead and wondering why the receipt never came out. The cars behind were beginning to horn at us.

By then I was already extremely late for work and my phone was being flooded by phonecalls & texts from my colleagues asking where am I.

In a rush, I personally pressed the 'print' button for him & he praised that I was clever to help him. But I will never forget the next sentence he said in mandarin, "my eyesight is not so good." The receipt paper got stuck and he forcefully pulled out the receipt, tearing it in half. We tried to print the receipt a 2nd time. I pressed the 'print' button again for him and while waiting for the receipt, I turned around and saw at least 5 cars behind us by now. Everyone was horning at us.

Unfortunately, the 2nd receipt paper was ALSO STUCK.
Again, the driver forced out the paper & tore it once more.

I gave up, grabbed the receipt and rushed to my work.Only after my event did I realise that the receipt was so badly torn that half of his license plate number was not shown on the receipt.























We have to find this driver and get him off the road before he killed somebody.

A complaint has already been made to Comfort but I'm still not at ease as he might only be issued a warning letter and still be allowed on the roads.

I'm sharing this story in hopes that relevant authorities can see how serious a road hazard he is and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, get this driver off the roads.

I'm so traumatized and most of all, got scolded at work for nothing.
Still paid the FULL transport amount of $20.80 when it's a fact he took me round & round.

PS: He did not display his taxi driver license anywhere on the cab hence I didn't get his license or name.


4 comments:

  1. if you're referring to his license plate number, it is inside the cab as shown by your last blogpost picture. maybe you can try enlarging your picture to try read it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sharlyn, I was referring to his taxi license. Tried enlarging it but can't see. However Comfort already managed to track the driver down. They called today.

      Delete
  2. Comfort issued a S$10 taxi voucher and a serious warning to the taxi driver. zzz...

    ReplyDelete