Taxi driver arrested for abandoning elderly foreign tourist on Bangkok highway

[frimu]

Airport taxis are <deleted> arrogant!! especially when your trip from the airport is just 12kms or less,,, they drive like hell and they just throw luggages out of the taxi when you reach your stop!! and 2000 baht for a penalty and 1 month in prison,,, that scumbag will be back at the airport in a month!!

Can we keep the proportions please!

From about 20 rides with taxis from Suvarnabhumi in the last four years I had one really bad experience. The rest of the drivers is nice, helpful and turns on the meter without even asking.

[skildpadden]

In his defence, Mr Witoon said that he told the other taxi driver to drive Mr Reyes to a local police station so they could provide assistance and not just leave the man on the roadside.

But why didn't you drive him to the police station yourself - or you just couldn't be bothered with that?

I guess now he won't get a "friendly taxi" sticker for his car?

[Norvid 1950]

How about to suspend the taxi licence for a year and spread the verdict news.

[crabis]

most likely the taxi driver …. wanted 1000 bath flat rate for driving in a 350 bath taxi meter trip

and the guy refused …. and got dump on side of the road….

give the taxi a month in bangkok hilton …. set an example of him ...

i have tried being dump in the middle of No-where by motorbike taxi … we had a agree of one price … and when we got to a remote place

he stopped …. and the price got 5 times as high ….

and it just annoyed me to pay extra … so he left me there …

[Rimmer]

Some troll posts and replies have been removed

[minikev]

The driver should have a clear idea of where he is taking his passenger before setting off. I'm sure they have assistance at the airport. So why set off in the first place it must have been obvious that there would be a communication breakdown.

He could also have just taken the old man back to the airport or to any other place that could assist IE police station etc.

The punishment isn't enough for putting the old mans life at stake. Even if the taxi driver was having a bad day he should know how to treat a visitor a lot better than this if he is to be in the hospitality business.

[wvavin]

Make all Taxi drivers to sit for a basic English language test before issuing licenses to them.

[gandalf12]

I read all these incidents people have with the taxi's from the airport and to be honest I have never had a bad one. It may help that i can speak Thai and converse with the driver but I cant say I have had a bad experience

Exactly Gandalf, any Filipino should arrive in Thailand speaking fluent Thai otherwise he may well be dumped on the highway. Something to do with Thai hospitality I am told. Speak the local language or get out of my car.

In China Beijing the government there made a huge effort to get the taxis into English before the Beijing Olympics because English is the language of the Olympics. No such effort will be made in Thailand in the foreseeable future.

Obviously you also like the Thai's have limited understanding of the English language as you missed the point completely. My point was, and I will try to make it as clear as possible for a non-English speaker, is that the Thai had no idea because of his lack of understanding of English. At the airport it should be a requirement to have an understanding of English.

Is that a bit easier for you to understand?

[DM07]

I don't get it!

Even with this <deleted>, we have some thai (er-than-thai) blaming the victim!

Amazing!

[Jimbo2014]

Disguising - threatening the lives of elderly people and he scrapes by with a 2000 baht fine. He should have his taxi license (if such even exists here) revoked for life and do some hard time.

[lockman]

2 things I see here, 1 is the taxi air at swampy, as far as I know requires the driver take the passenger in queue. What does a taxi driver do when the passenger cannot communicate. I agree the driver was completely wrong to just dump out, he should have taken to police or face a 5k fine. One possible solution is the airport queue line provide the driver with a written destination on each queue ticket.

[lockman]

2 things I see here, 1 is the taxi air at swampy, as far as I know requires the driver take the passenger in queue. What does a taxi driver do when the passenger cannot communicate. I agree the driver was completely wrong to just dump out, he should have taken to police or face a 5k fine. One possible solution is the airport queue line provide the driver with a written destination on each queue ticket.

[arrowsdawdle]

"In his defence, Mr Witoon said that he told the other taxi driver to drive Mr Reyes to a local police station so they could provide assistance and not just leave the man on the roadside."

That's his defence?

He told a driver who hadn't picked him up from the airport to take the elderly man to the police?

Stupid as well as callous then, if he thinks that makes sense.

Such an explanation is given credence because failure to do so could be construed as causing the driver to lose face. Facts are irrelevant.

[spidermike007]

This taxi driver should have his license taken away, and never be allowed to drive a taxi again. He could open up sidewalk stand, selling fried chicken and sticky rice, which seems more in line with his intellectual acumen.

[DaveinAsia]

There goes the rating of BKK taxi drivers. I recall an argument a few BKK taxi lovers had a few months ago about how wonderful taxi drivers here were. According to some guys BKK taxi drivers are the best in the world. I argued that most of them are paddy field laborers from Buriram who don't even know how to spell customer service, let alone help you unpack your shopping from the boot. This is a first timer though. ....I kicked them out on the highway because I didn't understand them

[Xonax]

2 months ago, my Thai-wife and I with our suitcases was abandoned in a strange neighbourhood by a taxi-driver, who did not want to follow my wife´s directions, in order to get to the destination in on the other side of BKK.

[MyFriend You]

He pbly picked a loose taxi and not have used the Kiosk and got a ticket, they always write down the destination on the ticket, I'm looking at mine now and it says "Soi 4 Sukumvit" winder where that is???

[paddyjoe41]

I think mr prbkk nailed it on the head,also the fact that as mentioned before Filipinos can speak english,if he was in doubt why did he not clarify it at the airport,no doubt in my mind,especially him asking another taxi driver to do HIS JOB,my opinion people like this should definately not have a drivers licence,never mind a taxi drivers licence,BUT THE QUESTION IS HAS HE A LICENCE???

[ozyjon]

It happened to me in Bang Na, just told to get out on the

highway because the jerk was driving too fast so missed

the turn off and couldn't read a map in Thai then even

after getting directions from the Hotel still couldn't find

the place, i walked to the hotel, took 10 minutes but hot.

[riverhigh]

No one noticed in the photo that they gave the taxi driver a microphone? No doubt the police wanted the taxi driver to provide the audience with the correct version of what really happened. You know the Thai version .. wink, wink, nudge, nudge. No finger pointing here at our courteous and hard working Thai Taxi driver. It was all misunderstanding caused by the tourist's lack of understanding of Thai culture and language.

[dageurreotype]

Filipinos speak English, Spanish and Tagalog, So I find it hard to believe that the old man had an issue with communication, I think it was just another typical Thai taxi driver who can only speak an embarrassing version of Thailish.

All Filipinos who travel abroad will be fluent in English.

I suspect this problem has been caused by Thailand's refusal to accept that English is the World's de facto common language. Something to do with being the only country never colonised apparently. Actually in this case the Filipino gentleman got off lightly, he could have been charged with lese majeste due to faulty translation into Thai.

Agree Filipinos speak English, just thought Four Aces post funny, as I'm on Phuket and there are many from France (especially), Germany and the Scandie countries (mostly elderly same this guy) who can't speak English but seem to be able to muddle along, usually with the aid of a map of some kind so am assuming this eighty year old guy was a tad befuddled and didn't have one or even a card pointing to where he wanted to go. Hence frustrated taxi driver jettisoning him. But good on the other drivers for coming to his aid

[Mark T]

In his defence, Mr Witoon said that he told the other taxi driver to drive Mr Reyes to a local police station so they could provide assistance and not just leave the man on the roadside.

Begs the question, why he would not do it in the first place?

B*stard!

[SunsetT]

Unbelievable in Thailand, a Taxi driver is finally punished!

Yup and it took 7 ! policemen to make a picture of it.....

...Must be 7 or its bad Feng Shui!

[KamalaRider]

I read all these incidents people have with the taxi's from the airport and to be honest I have never had a bad one. It may help that i can speak Thai and converse with the driver but I cant say I have had a bad experience

Exactly Gandalf, any Filipino should arrive in Thailand speaking fluent Thai otherwise he may well be dumped on the highway. Something to do with Thai hospitality I am told. Speak the local language or get out of my car.

In China Beijing the government there made a huge effort to get the taxis into English before the Beijing Olympics because English is the language of the Olympics. No such effort will be made in Thailand in the foreseeable future.

Obviously you also like the Thai's have limited understanding of the English language as you missed the point completely. My point was, and I will try to make it as clear as possible for a non-English speaker, is that the Thai had no idea because of his lack of understanding of English. At the airport it should be a requirement to have an understanding of English.

Is that a bit easier for you to understand?

I think you are missing the point gandalf12, in your previous post, you didn't even mentioned it would be a requirement to for taxi drivers to have an understanding of English language, that came later as to save face.

[KamalaRider]

Filipinos speak English, Spanish and Tagalog, So I find it hard to believe that the old man had an issue with communication, I think it was just another typical Thai taxi driver who can only speak an embarrassing version of Thailish.

All Filipinos who travel abroad will be fluent in English.

I suspect this problem has been caused by Thailand's refusal to accept that English is the World's de facto common language. Something to do with being the only country never colonised apparently. Actually in this case the Filipino gentleman got off lightly, he could have been charged with lese majeste due to faulty translation into Thai.

Agree Filipinos speak English, just thought Four Aces post funny, as I'm on Phuket and there are many from France (especially), Germany and the Scandie countries (mostly elderly same this guy) who can't speak English but seem to be able to muddle along, usually with the aid of a map of some kind so am assuming this eighty year old guy was a tad befuddled and didn't have one or even a card pointing to where he wanted to go. Hence frustrated taxi driver jettisoning him. But good on the other drivers for coming to his aid

In the Scandie countries, 99.9% or more have a basic understanding of the English language, agree with France, Germany (much better nowadays), Italy, Greece and as you said, they can still muddle along and make an effort to understand.

My 75 year old mum who comes from the northern part of Sweden don't speak either good nor understand all but she still sit and have long conversations with my Thai wife in Swenglish.

Edited February 25, 2016 by KamalaRider

[lostinisaan]

I read all these incidents people have with the taxi's from the airport and to be honest I have never had a bad one. It may help that i can speak Thai and converse with the driver but I cant say I have had a bad experience

Exactly Gandalf, any Filipino should arrive in Thailand speaking fluent Thai otherwise he may well be dumped on the highway. Something to do with Thai hospitality I am told. Speak the local language or get out of my car.

In China Beijing the government there made a huge effort to get the taxis into English before the Beijing Olympics because English is the language of the Olympics. No such effort will be made in Thailand in the foreseeable future.

Please read the news. The next Olympic games will be held in ...aehh aehh ahmm Sisaket/Isaan.

.

Edited February 25, 2016 by lostinisaan

[SunsetT]

When you take a taxi from Suvanna....Swampy (and DM), they ask your destination at the desk and write it on a slip and give it to the taxi driver. OK I know that many taxi drivers are illiterate so cannot read it, but the desk clerk should tell the driver the destination and, if illiterate, the driver could and should ensure he has the destination confirmed verbally by the desk clerk before leaving. Bad communication all round.

[glenmohr]

I read all these incidents people have with the taxi's from the airport and to be honest I have never had a bad one. It may help that i can speak Thai and converse with the driver but I cant say I have had a bad experience

Exactly Gandalf, any Filipino should arrive in Thailand speaking fluent Thai otherwise he may well be dumped on the highway. Something to do with Thai hospitality I am told. Speak the local language or get out of my car.

In China Beijing the government there made a huge effort to get the taxis into English before the Beijing Olympics because English is the language of the Olympics. No such effort will be made in Thailand in the foreseeable future.

Quote "English is the language of the Olympics".

Actually French and English are the official languages of the Olympics.........

Absolutely Sanuk and correct. English and French are the official languages of the Olympics but at the Beijing Olympics the common language that was used in restaurants bars taxis and so on was English. I was there as an English trainer. That was the language the Chinese chose for the occasion. French is a wonderful language but almost all the visitors from France on that occasion were speaking English and were almost offended when I greeted them in French. You will find if you travel widely that with the exception of Thailand, English is the de facto common language between people of different races. I am a native of New Zealand where Maori language is an official language, few speak it because there is a difference between " official " and what folk actually speak. I imagine the same goes for lots of countries such as Canada and French. I have met a huge number of Canadians who speak English as opposed to French. But the 80 year old Filipino was really unlucky and could not be expected to know that the language spoken by Thai taxi drivers at the International Airport are versions of Thai and Lao ( also known here as Thai Isaan).

[abitmiffed]

Wait a minute, at the airport don't you normally state your destination before you drive off????. So at the airport he understood but on the road he couldn't? ??

I think he was too lazy to drive the distance and wanted to get a better fare back at the airport.

Lucky the tourist wasn't bludgeoned to death to cover up his laziness.

[chilli42]

Why not take his Licence away as well?