Bangkok taxi drivers lend a beating hand
It’s not just Phuketians who experience woes at the hands of the Thai taxi and tuk tuk ‘industry’; a Thai man was mauled by three taxi drivers at Bangkok’s Makkasan Airport Link station for taking photos of a driver who refused to take him to his destination.
Coconuts Bangkok
Monday 11 June 2012, 05:40PM
A Thai man was severely beaten up by taxi drivers at Bangkok’s Makkasan Airport Link station when he took photos of a driver who refused to take him to his destination, according to a post on web forum Pantip.com and TV reports.
The man arrived at Makkasan Station and tried to hop in one of the seven taxis waiting out on the street – when the taxi refused to take him he snapped two photos from his mobile phone.
The driver then attacked him with the help of two fellow cabbies. The victim fought back, but his shoulder was dislocated from the beating.
A motorcycle patrol officer stopped and broke up the fight even though it was not in his jurisdiction. Police from Din Daeng station later came and filed a report for assault with the main taxi driver, but no charges were brought against the other two drivers who assisted in the beating.
Channel 5′s Hard Core News (embedded below) and the TV program Rong Pak Ra Wang Pai later interviewed the victim.
The Transport Ministry said that it was working to combat “taxi mafia” in the area, in response to the incident and other complaints, according to Matichon. An official from the ministry said that they had blacklisted seven taxis from the area and had also assigned three police stations to cooperate to combat taxi mafia in the area, as there had been reports of drivers abusing security guards before. He said that he had actually ordered the station to manage the taxis better before, but that they did not follow the order well.
Read the original story on Coconuts Bangkok here.
