Bengaluru: Cab driver refuses to end phone call while driving, harasses woman

Bengaluru: Cab rides continue to be a nightmare for women passengers in Silicon City with cab drivers continuing to behave rudely with them and threatening them with dire consequences if they report such incidents to their aggregators.

In one such incident, a cab passenger, Vanitha Bhoopal, took to Facebook to narrate the ordeal she faced after taking an Uber cab on Tuesday morning.

Ms Bhoopal, who was travelling with her aged mother, landed at the Kempegowda International Airport from Hyderabad on Tuesday morning and hailed an Uber cab to reach Indiranagar.

“We got a driver Rajesh Puttaswami driving Maruti Suzuki swift Dzire bearing the registration number KA05AH1184. The driver was hooked to his cellphone talking to his friend while driving with one hand. After watching this for 10 minutes, I told him to stop, but he arrogantly told me he won't as it's a personal call and continued driving,” Ms Bhoopal wrote in her Facebook post.

Later, Ms. Bhoopal said, Rajesh used Bluetooth headset and continued talking over phone. “His driving was so jerky that I ended up getting a stiff back but for that he replied it's the bad roads and traffic so he can't help it and started doing it more.”

She said the real twist came when she asked him to take a particular known route but he demanded Rs 100 extra. “When I got upset and indicated I'll report him, he became aggressive and threatened to drop us off in the middle of nowhere and asked us to get another taxi. This made me lose my cool and I dared him to do that and asked him to stop at a traffic police station. Then he simmered down and dropped us off."

Ms Bhoopal said that cab drivers behave rudely as companies do not take customer complaints seriously and accept only the driver’s side of the story.

Many other people who read her post felt the need for proper customer support and emergency helplines to ensure passengers feel safe while travelling.