Abuse racial, says driving instructor

‘You are doing it for only one reason, because I am black’

A DRIVING instructor says he was racially abused, sworn at and had his accent mocked on the job, leaving him severely distressed.

Muthu Gunasekaran said he and instructors from several driving schools brought students to a quiet street in New Town to teach parallel reverse parking.

“There are a hundred people teaching on the same road, nothing has happened to them,” he said.

“It is happening only to the black coloured man who is teaching here.”

Mr Gunasekaran said his first unpleasant encounter with a resident happened a month ago. He said the man abused him for parking outside his home.

When Mr Gunasekaran explained he was allowed to teach in the street, he said the resident threatened to complain to the government.

On Wednesday, Mr Gunasekaran said he was teaching a young female driver to reverse park outside the man’s house when a car suddenly appeared behind them.

“We moved backwards and just lightly touched the other car,” he said.

Mr Gunasekaran said before he even got out of his vehicle, he realised the driver of the second car was the angry resident and was already filming him.

“His son was sitting in the house, he comes down with the camera, and they start threatening me saying I needed to pay money for hitting their car,” he said.

The young female driver, who is also Indian, said the resident was rude and hurled abuse at Mr Gunasekaran.

“He and his son were enjoying what happened, they were clapping and shouting, pointing and laughing at us,” she said.

Mr Gunasekaran said the resident yelled “you bastard” before mocking his accent.

“I told them ‘you are doing it for only one reason, because I am black’,” he said.

Mr Gunasekaran said he felt sad, stressed and reluctant to visit the street again.

Tasmania Police said officers attended a minor crash at 12.50pm on Wednesday but no formal complaint of racism was made.

“A learner driver under instruction crashed into a parked vehicle while performing a parallel park over a private driveway,” police said.