Comfort Taxi driver ignore passenger after accident

[Ahdi]

My aunt took a comfort taxi and taxi involve in an accident this morning at around 945am along AYE.

 

It was a chain collision involving 4 cars, taxi being the 2nd car in front. Taxi banged into car in front, and subsequent 2 car bang taxi from behind, causing her to suffer 3 major impact. Taxi front n rear was badly smashed, you could imagine hwow big the impact was.

 

Taxi driver alighted the taxi to speak to other drivers involving in the accident, without checking the well-being of the passenger. my aunty called my my uncle @ 950am, telling him that she was in a taxi involving an accident, and that she was feeling v unwell. She has no energy to alight the taxi, taxi driver did not wind down window for ventilation. The only thing the taxi driver was interested is to exchange particulars. Shouldn;t the cabbie job is to make sure the passenger is okay? Or anyone on the road should make sure there is no injury involved?

 

My uncle then arrived at 1017hrs and he confronted the taxi driver if he had called for an ambulance. Taxi driver was reluctant to call first as he has not settled the argument with other drivers. Only after my uncle arrive, that the taxi driver then called for an ambulance to send my aunty to the hospital. For the whole of 30mins, my aunt was left in the taxi with no ventilation, no one attending to after the accident. When the cabble is only interested in his own car, not the passenger. How irresponsible.

 

My cousin has called over to comfort to lodge a complain and they only send a basket of fruits, worrth less than $10 to the hospital.

[Hamburger]

nvr mind e taxi lao, if ur auntie can call her hubby, cant she call 911 on her own.

[RadX]

  On 10/22/2009 at 2:06 PM, Hamburger said:

nvr mind e taxi lao, if ur auntie can call her hubby, cant she call 911 on her own.

 

 

er...911, usa...995..

 

yeah, she could have called police and ambulance immed

[Fcw75]

simi 911? Here singapore leh.

[Ahdi]

i'm nt too sure why she did not call for ambulance, but tt she was too shock and she doesn;t speak english, thus she duno how to call for tt, thus called my uncle for help.

 

Main issue is not who called for ambulance or wad. Main issue here is the cabbie ignores the well-being of the passenger. All he does is to argue with other drivers involved.

[Hamburger]

  On 10/22/2009 at 2:08 PM, Fcw75 said:

simi 911? Here singapore leh.

my bad, too many hollywood movies

[Atonchia]

Guess you may not have been involved in accident before.

Perhaps the driver was still in the state of shock and that's why the mind is very focus on solving issues required by law on the accident and forgotten about the passenger.

BTW, did she wear seat belt?

[Ahdi]

yes, she did put on her seat belt and her neck was quite bad abrasion on her neck. she suffered quite bad chest pain oso.

 

I got an update of the situation from my uncle.

My aunty actually signalled to the driver that she was feeling unwell and the taxi driver chose to ignore her. She then tried to use her own handphone to call for help from my relatives. Like you say, she might be in a state of shock oso thus did not thought of calling for ambulance, but only thought of getting somone to help her.

[Hamburger]

indeed, it was insensitive n selfish of taxi lao... , noe only his own well being . Hope ur aunt don suffer from whiplash n do get well soon.

 

 

[Ahdi]

imagine they only called for ambulance 30mins after the accident. It could be a matter of life and death.

[Seaweed]

since she was injured...claim untill comfort become uncomfortable lor...what to do now ??? complaint the driver also no used...the most he lost his job...comfort goes on...

[Atonchia]

  On 10/22/2009 at 2:19 PM, Ahdi said:

yes, she did put on her seat belt and her neck was quite bad abrasion on her neck. she suffered quite bad chest pain oso.

 

I got an update of the situation from my uncle.

My aunty actually signalled to the driver that she was feeling unwell and the taxi driver chose to ignore her. She then tried to use her own handphone to call for help from my relatives. Like you say, she might be in a state of shock oso thus did not thought of calling for ambulance, but only thought of getting somone to help her.

 

 

True, don't think anyone would call for ambulance for oneself when in a state of shock. The immediate thing to do is to contact the closest person.

[A_korusawa]

YO!

 

LISTEN VERY CAREFULLY NOW!

 

to your uncle or auntie if she is still in hospital. lodge a police report within the hospital.

police will arrive to interview your auntie in the hospital.

tell them the whole truth!!!

make sure its segregated into 2 parts:

the accident and how it happened - honestly, this has little impact to your auntie...

the treatment your auntie received during & after the accident - this is MAJOR...... put it down in words of sympathy & pain

 

continue her medical follow-ups!

pay up 1st, dun EVER let any NTUC staff to come & settle them!!!

you will get it back MORE......

 

obtain the police report and medical report - then you have 2 choices:

- either speak with NTUC Confort to settle out-of-court

- else announce that you wanna post an article in the press at your own cost & followed by lawyers' settlement

 

YOU WILL THANK ME FOR THIS VERY VALUABLE ADVICE!!!

Edited October 23, 2009 by A_korusawa

[WTF]

Don't think have to lodge police report. If it's due to accident esp sent in by an ambulance, the police will come to interview.

 

My Mum got in an accident in June and was sent to NUH by a passenger car. The police just appeared at my Mum's ward to interview her even though no report was lodged on our part.

 

Hope that nothing serious happened to your aunt.

[Watwheels]

Once any patient is sent to the A&E a police officer stationed at the hospital will follow up with what went on. From there the statement from the patient or relative will be recorded. SOP.

[MrFlax]

i think should give the taxi driver a break, he could have done better, but he wasnt that wrong

 

firstly if the auntie is in shock, the taxi driver should also be shaken/shocked himself too, probably not as much as the auntie but too would be shaken and it isnt like as if he was enjoying himself

 

secondly, the taxi uncle himself wasnt injured, and maybe all the people in other cars are not injured, so he probably assume his passenger also ok, which isnt too unreasonable, perhaps a little irresponsible, but i wouldnt say it is outrageously wrong of the driver. he did see her signalling to him and probably saw her talking on phone, so normal people who assume they are ok. actually wind down windows not too difficult what, why must driver do it for u, not like your aunty is unconscious.

 

thridly the car is his livelihood. not his mode of transport. his daily income depends on it. his takings for that day is affected already, he probably can get a temporary stand in cab while his is being repaired, but it is a major episode in his job/career that he is daily with, so in fact i expect him to be quite badly worried about his livelihood at the moment and just assumed that everyone was ok. his priority at that time was to cover his backside and ensure he discuss his grounds and negotiate with other drivers first as it would mean a lot to him, i could understand that.

 

in fact he probably saw her making phone calls which meant she is still quite ok, and did not attend to her as it wasnt his priority to him at that time

 

he could have done better yes, and it is possible that ur aunty had a neck injury or what and it was crucial to get ambulance fast, but i think we should be more forgiving and understand his circumstances for a moment

[Help1]

can't TS's auntie wind down the window or open the door for ventilation? Unless she is stunned by the accident, dunno what to do except the ability to call her husband which hmm.......

 

taxi companies should launch some form of programmes to educate cabbies to attend to passengers first in case of emergency. but given the fact, the priority for cabbies are to get enough fares to pay off daily rental and diesel, left over are his earnings.

 

since the accident is over, i am sure all parties involved will start to claim here n there, loss of income, suffer from stress, lose sleep, depression, bipolar disorder, back and neck injury etc etc...time to get some compensation liao....time for insurance cos to raise premium liao...

[1fast1]

When I've been in an accident (minor rear-ending by a careless driver), the first thing I did was check my family was OK.

 

There is very little excuse for this cabbie - he should've been "experienced" in this sort of thing given the amount of time he's driven. He wasn't in so much shock that he couldn't jump out of the car and start arguing with the other parties. The passenger even claims she attracted his attention, but was ignored.

 

The cabbie was understandably concerned about his ricebowl - loss of earnings, etc., but the fact remains that the health and safety of others comes first. If it didn't, then we'd have a justification for hit-and-run when there are no witnesses.

 

Anyway, what's there to "argue"? Accident happened - need to let insurance sort it out, right? In any case, the cabbie should've ascertained whether anyone was injured - I don't think cars are supposed to be moved if there were injuries to any of the parties.