Taxi anger as boy stranded for three hours
A BOY with a severe disability was left waiting for hours for a lift home when taxi drivers failed to provide him with a lift.
Samuel Amiet, 11, who has cerebral palsy, CRMCC syndrome, epilepsy, ASD, Perthes’ disease and gastrostomy, was left stranded after an afternoon out with a carer at Coomera Westfield.
They had hoped to go home – just a few kilometres down the road – at 1.50pm, well before school pickup, but as time dragged on his long wait for a lift then clashed with demand for cabs to collect children heading home from school.
“By 3pm they told me it was because it was school rush hour, which wouldn’t have been a problem if they arrived when they were first called,” said his mother, Simone Amiet.
For wheelchair-bound
Samuel, limited.
The first call to local company 13CABS, which took over Gold Coast Cabs, was made at 1.50pm but two hours later he and his carer were still waiting.
Both the carer and Samuel’s mother reported they were told by the company operators that the drivers did not accept the job even though they were nearby.
“When I rang to complain later about why my child was left sitting for hours on the side of the road, I was told again the drivers are contractors and they cannot make them take a job,’’ Mrs Amiet said.
“It leaves room for so much discrimination. The company has a monopoly of the market here.
“Are those with disabilities just meant to stay at home for fear they will be left stranded?”
The company boasts more than 100 wheelchair accessible vehicles on its website.
Last year the industry was gifted $21 million by the State Government to help ensure fleets were wheelchair accessible.
Drivers are also paid a $20 lifting fee when they lift passengers who qualify for the taxi subsidy scheme (TSS) into a wheelchair accessible vehicle.
The TSS was estimated to have cost taxpayers $12.8 million last year.
Samuel did not have a TSS card and so a driver was not eligible for the additional $20. Mrs Aimet is concerned this might have been a factor in the decision-making of drivers.
“It is hard to take that my child’s safety and independence are reliant on a $20 payment,” she said.
“Drivers should not just be encouraged to accept wheelchair accessible jobs, it should be a requirement as part of their job. A customer should not be judged on their physical abilities.”
The incident came a year travel options are after the family quit regularly using taxis altogether, when Samuel had been left stranded at school.
“I thought surely we can use them this once, it wouldn’t be so bad,” Mrs Amiet said.
“He was so upset by the end of it. They were told to go back and forth around the centre to wait for the taxis.”
Because of the delays Mrs Amiet, who was elsewhere in the city with Samuel’s brother, trekked back to pick up Samuel and the carer.
“You wonder what happens to the people who don’t have anyone there to fight for them. This isn’t something that only happens to him, it happens to everyone who needs access,” she said.
A spokesman for the company said an investigation was under way to learn why no driver accepted the job.
The spokesman said the company would contact Mrs Amiet to apologise.
“Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it harder to staff all the WAT vehicles on the Gold Coast. Some drivers were initially electing to stay home to protect themselves and their families. We are pleased to note that with the easing of restrictions and increased confidence across the community we have seen drivers returning,” the spokesman said.
The company had training in place for drivers of wheelchair accessible vehicles who “have a responsibility to treat disability work as a priority”.
“Any driver found not doing this would be reprimanded by 13CABS and reminded of their responsibilities. If a driver was found to be behaving like this on a consistent basis without good reason, they would be asked to leave the network,” the spokesman said.
State Transport Department regulators said they were investigating.