輪椅的士 drivers in Victoria’s inner suburbs are furious that an unruly passenger left them stranded overnight on the shoulder of the freeway.
Taxis driver Amir Nawaz of Heritage Taxis was left stranded for nearly five hours when he picked up a man at 3.30am on Sunday.
Taxi driver Amir Nawaz says he was left stranded for hours on a roadside shoulder of the M1, after picking up an unruly passenger. Credit:Facebook
He picked up the passenger in Burnley, north of Melbourne, but became lost as the passenger became unruly.
“His legs went into spasms and he wanted to go to the hospital and that was it, I couldn’t stop, the ambulance couldn’t stop and I didn’t want to leave him on the roadside in the car,” Mr Nawaz said.
Five hours later he began to get worried as the passenger had lost his ability to walk and asked for the driver to return, but Mr Nawaz couldn’t leave him.
“I tried to stay calm and tell him it’s not my job to leave him at the side of the road. I’m a taxi driver, I have to take my car back so I’m going to take him to hospital, where he needs to be,” he said.
However, the taxi went off the road, leaving the driver stranded at the roadside with the passenger for five hours.
Taxi drivers have been forced to make calls to friends and family to get help as they waited for police and emergency crews to arrive.
The taxi driver said he did not have a mobile phone to call anyone, leaving him stuck at the side of the road.
The passenger was taken to a hospital in Cairns, a distance of 250 kilometres, but it took ambulance crews two hours to get to the taxi.
Once he was brought back to the city Mr Nawaz said he was left exhausted.
“This was an unfortunate incident that happened. It’s just a matter of picking up the guy and bring him to the side of the road, but he refused to do that,” he said.
The taxi driver says he believes a taxi driver in Sydney once drove for three days to pick up a disabled person who had fallen down a set of stairs.
