Blame ‘bad souvlaki’ GPA data to catch Sydney taxi drivers using laneway as a toilet

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Douglas Powell

Who says the space program hasn’t led to great inventions: Tang, Teflon, and GPS to track down taxi drivers in a public poo pandemic that’s leaving a group of business owners flushed with anger.

Shop owners on Hercules St, Ashfield in Sydney’s inner-west say discovering human feces in the laneway behind their businesses has become “a daily occurrence” along with the nauseating task of cleaning-up the offerings.

The situation has become so bad real estate agent Tim Simpson is considering relocating the business he’s run in the suburb for 40 years.

He said the final straw was catching a taxi driver “in the act” last weekend.

“I understand drivers are expected to work 24/7 but surely there’s better options than this,” he said.

“We’re the ones who are having to clean it up. It’s like living in the Third World.”

National taxi firm 13 CABS is investigating the claims by matching complaints against data from GPS devices fitted in taxis.

Head of client services Simon Purssey said he was “shocked and horrified” to hear the reports.

“I understand ‘when a man’s gotta go, a man’s gotta go’ but if you’ve eaten a bad souvlaki and all of a sudden have to pull over you don’t do it in someone’s property,” he said.

And I thought Australia had great access to public shit depositories, compared to the rest of the world.

Probe launched after second ill pensioner dies after Scots staff send her on 450 mile taxi ride home

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Douglas Powell

As Scotland grapples with 150 children sick from Norovirus at two schools, it has emerged that a second ill pensioner has died after being sent home hundreds of miles in a taxi from a Scottish hotel.

The Herald Scotland reports the Loch Achray Hotel in Callander, Stirlingshire, sent ill 79-year-old Norma Francis home on a 350-mile taxi journey to her home in Gnosall, Stafford, after showing symptoms of gastric illness.

Norma fell unconscious during the journey and later died in hospital after paramedics were unable to waken her.

Three weeks after Norma died on April 6, the hotel sent guest Carol Whymark, 70, and her husband, 73, home to Suffolk 450 miles in a taxi after it was suspected she was suffering from norovirus.

The pensioner died of a heart attack in hospital the next day.

Her daughter Sharone says the family have instructed lawyers to investigate Carol’s stay at the hotel, booked through Lochs and Glens Holidays Limited.
Sharone, 47, said: “I just think it is terrible that this could have happened once, let alone twice. It’s disgusting.

“I’ve lost my mum, my dad lost his wife and my daughter her nanny. I’m disgusted and this needs investigating.

“I’m still numb really. I still feel angry.”

Carol, who was on a coach tour of Scotland, woke up feeling unwell at the hotel on April 28.

Her daughter said staff told husband Desmond that his wife had norovirus and offered him rubber gloves to clean the room and left food and water outside.

The family claim no appropriate medical advice was given and the hotel simply offered a taxi home.

A post mortem revealed she did not have norovirus in her system and died of the heart attack.

Sharone said: “Mum said she didn’t feel 100 per cent – but there was no evidence of vomiting or loose stools. There was no medical attention at all.

“They said to my dad there was a 90 per cent chance he will catch the virus.

“Half an hour later they said she was fit to travel nine hours home. It’s so wrong.
“When they came and said they would pay for a taxi, she said, ‘Yes, let’s go home’.

“The poor lady who passed away three weeks before, she actually did have norovirus.

“But my mum didn’t have it.

“The hotel thought she had norovirus because the other lady did.

Ontario town mulls $120 fine for vomiting, other bodily fluids in taxis

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Douglas Powell

Cleaning up vomit is serious business, especially if norovirus is involved because the viral particles can aerosolize.

The City of Woodstock, Ontario, Caanda, is looking into imposing a $120 charge on anyone who vomits or leaves other bodily fluids in taxis.

Taxi companies in the southwestern Ontario city have been complaining about an increase in intoxicated passengers on Friday and Saturday nights.

A taxi industry representative recently told council that vomit and other body fluids must be dealt with as a bio hazard and the affected cab must be taken off the road until it is professionally cleaned.

That costs about $120.

The city plans to consult with its solicitor, police and bylaw enforcement officials before coming up with a report on how to deal with the issue.

Throw up, pay up, in taxis and cop cars

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Douglas Powell

Puke in a Chicago cab and you’re gonna pay.

Starting July 1, any passenger who throws up in — or even on — a taxi has to cough up an extra 50 bucks. The dough, of course, covers cleanup costs.

Hacks in the Windy City started lobbying for the fee in 2009 after complaining for years about late-night drunks who barfed with abandon. The City Council finally signed off in January.

Austin, Texas, followed suit in February, imposing a $100 fine on any fare who loses his lunch. And Savannah, Ga., home of some of the wildest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the country, let cabbies tack on $75 to $150 to the tab of any rider who turns green and spews.

“I had a lady stick her head out of the window and [she] vomited on my cab,” Chicago driver Thaddeus Budzynski told CBS. “And who had to clean it up? I did.”

The two 23-year-olds who allegedly threw up on police cars in New Jersey may want to keep the fines in mind next time. Or the jail time.

Peter Cipollini, from Morristown, and Patrick Allocco, from Jersey City, were seen around 3:40 a.m. running away from two police cars at First and Hudson Streets after leaving behind "large amounts of vomit," according to police reports.

NY cabby demands $120 after 6-year-old boy barfs in taxi

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Douglas Powell

In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, author Douglas Adams recommended a towel — always take a towel. I carry a small one in my knapsack along with a spare diaper (not for me), identification documents, an adapter cord to hook my Mac computer up to a projector, computer, and an array of cords.

None of these would help if I was about to barf in a taxi, although a bigger towel may.

The New York Post reports that a Manhattan (not in Kansas) mom became worried sick when her 6-year-old son vomited in the back seat of a taxi — and then even more upset when the crabby cabby called the cops after she refused to pay a whopping $120 cleaning surcharge.

Shamie Cuthbert, 29, said she and son Jacob hopped in the cab near Lincoln Center on Saturday night and were heading home to Washington Heights when the boy said he wasn’t feeling well and threw up.

"I leaned over into the front of the cab and said [to the driver], ‘As soon as we get home, my husband will come down with cleaning products, and I will clean everything up,’ " Cuthbert told The Post.

"I expected [the cabby] to be polite about it. Instead, he went sort of crazy and screamed, ‘This isn’t right! You need to give me $120, or I can’t use my cab! I am going to lose a lot of money today!’ " the stunned mom said.

She said cabby Nahidul Islam, 33, dialed 911 as soon as he pulled up at their building.

As they waited for the cops, Cuthbert began scrubbing the seat with the Seventh Generation cleanser, paper towels and Febreze that her husband had brought down.

"[Islam] was standing there angrily smoking a cigarette while I cleaned the cab," she said. "The mess wasn’t atrocious, and when I was done, it was much cleaner than when we got there."

Police arrived, and an officer informed the driver he could make no demand for $120.

The cabby did not receive a ticket over the incident.

Islam told The Post that Cuthbert merely pushed the mess around and that it would cost $120 to pay a crew of "Mexican cleaners" in Queens who specialize in removing vomit from taxis.

If a New York cab can have video-display advertisements in the back, maybe they can invest in some barf bags – like on airplanes.

Barfing Oktoberfest drunks face taxi cleanup fees

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Douglas Powell

If someone’s going to barf, why does it always seem to be at the beginning of a road trip?

Less than an hour into our final 13-hour leg to return to Manhattan (Kansas), Sorenne hurled up waffles and curdled milk from the Sleep Inn breakfast earlier that morning (but do like the Sleep Inn, friendly and good value) all over herself and car seat. It had been a barf-free five weeks on the road, so perhaps it was inevitable.

The Lysol spray we got at a truck stop seemed to mask the odors, but with 90 minutes remaining, it was strawberry barf.

Today was spent cleaning.

It’s probably too much to expect of an almost-2-year-old, but revelers who drunkenly vomit in taxis must cough up the cleanup costs, according to an Oktoberfest-related court decision published by a Munich district court on Monday.

The case involved a lawsuit brought by a taxi driver in the Bavarian capital following a nasty 2009 incident in his vehicle, a court statement said.

After picking up a Munich couple on their way home from the city’s annual beer festival, the driver said the man threw up in his vehicle, which cost a combined €241 for cleanup and missed work.

The taxi driver attempted to charge the passenger, but he alleged that the driver had not obliged his request to pull over, and had berated him instead.

The ruling, made on September 2, is effective immediately, meaning drunken revelers at this year’s ongoing 200th Anniversary Oktoberfest celebration should think twice before they stumble into a cab.

Parents not liable if kids vomit in cab: German court

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Douglas Powell

Two years ago, flying home from Florida, I was sitting beside the one daughter who accompanied us and, as we landed, just like daddy sometimes, she hurled.

I was a pro, collected every drop in the barf bag, disembarked the plane and deposited the stuff in the first garbage can.

A month ago, 19-month-old Sorenne barfed all over Amy as she was getting ready for bed. I went in to help and immediately began barfing myself.

Who can account for these things?

A district court in Munich, Germany, ruled yesterday that parents should not be forced to foot the bill for cleaning costs if their child suddenly throws up in a taxi.

The ruling on the case of a couple whose nine-year-old daughter was sick in the back seat of a taxi after they had asked the driver to stop as the girl was unwell.

The driver demanded 190 euros (239 dollars) for cleaning as well as 800 euros to hire a replacement cab.

The presiding judge urged the parties to settle the case amicably, according to a press statement, saying it would be "sensible" for the parents to pay for the cab to be cleaned.

However, the parents of the nine-year-old refused.

The judge ruled that there is no "absolute liability" for children.

"If a child is sick in a taxi and therefore soils it, the parents are only liable if they knew their child was nauseous and still did nothing to prevent the damage," the court ruled.

You barf, you pay; $50 vomit tax for Chicago cabs?

Posted on September 26, 2009 by Douglas Powell

Chicago cab drivers are demanding that riders who throw up in their cabs get slapped with a $50 fee.

The cabbies said Thursday they want to the city impose the penalty because of the work — and hours lost — that comes with cleaning a passenger’s vomit.

Mayor Richard Daley said his administration will listen to the drivers’ request and review their recommendations.

Barf in UK taxi … you pay

Posted on March 30, 2008 by Douglas Powell

Passengers who throw up in the back of a cab could get charged more than double – as well as face a hike in taxi fares.

The so-called soiling fee will be increased from £40 to £100 in South Ribble if the council gives the go-ahead.

Cabbies in the South Ribble Council area have asked the authority to consider putting up the fares for the first time since September 2006.

Drivers say that the rising cost of fuel and insurance premiums – as well as an increase in the number of inebriated passengers – means it is costing more to stay on the road.

Now anyone who forces a taxi off the road by soiling it through their drunkenness could be hit with the £100 charge.

Vomiting customers are currently charged £30.

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