A taxi driver in the United Kingdom “humiliated and insulted” an elderly Indian origin wheelchair user when she asked the driver to assist her down the ramp at a temple in the city of Leicester.
Consequently, the driver has been suspended “indefinitely”.
The 78-year-old Saroj Seth, who had her right leg amputated three years ago, asked for help to get into the vehicle after visiting the Shree Geeta Bhavan Temple on Clarendon Park Road in the East Midlands city. But theformer magistrate said she was left “humiliated and insulted” when the driver turned down the assistance and drove off.
“There was no compassion, no kindness,” said Seth, who was awarded aMost Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for services to community cohesion in Leicester in 2011.
“He said ‘no, it is a liability to take a disabled person’ and said he was not going to touch the wheelchair. He didn’t want to come near me and stood by his car,” she told the BBC.
“That incident left me very angry that with all my hard work, people still haven’t understood (about equality), and there is no compassion whatsoever for people who are not able and are dependent on others,” she added.
A Twitter user who was a witness to the incident took to the microblogging site to complain about the driver’s behavior on Sunday. Nisha Sahdev wrote that he left the disabled lady outside a temple in the rain after refusing to wheel her down the ramp to the car.
She said: “I was shocked and sickened! He got in his car and drove off!!”
ADT Taxis, the company that Seth said she uses on a regular basis while highlighting her disabled status, admitted that the fault lay with them and said an investigation was underway after the driver’s indefinite suspension.
Our sincere apologies for this incident . We have suspended the driver. We will investigate further. We know Mrs Seth has used us many times before with no issues so we are disappointed about this issue from our side and will get to the bottom of it
— ADT Taxis (@adttaxis) June 18, 2019
“The fault lies with us somewhere and we are investigating the incident. It is an unfortunate situation and we will learn from this,” said ADT manager Nigel Ord.
