Phuket –
A taxi driver has clarified to the police and media the situation after a video clip of him pulling a foreign tourist out from his car at a gas station went viral on Thai social media.
The Phuket Tourist Police told the Phuket Express that on Monday (December 25th) a taxi driver told them that on Sunday (December 24th), he picked up a foreign tourist from a shopping mall in Mueang Phuket. On the way to her accommodation in Bang Tao, his passenger asked him to turn off the air conditioning and lower the window instead.
He turned off the air conditioning in the back of the vehicle but the front was still turned on. His passenger asked him why it was still cool and he told her that he needed to keep the air conditioning still turned on at the front because it was hot, which frustrated the passenger. When he stopped to fill gasoline at a gas station on the Bypass Road, his passenger was disappointed and said it wasted her time for 8 minutes.
She allegedly opened and pushed the car door with her feet. The taxi driver became angry before pulling the passenger out of the car.
The Phuket City Police took the taxi driver to a condominium in Bang Tao but they did not meet the tourist. The taxi driver apologised to the tourist’s mother instead. She called her daughter and the tourist accepted the apology from the driver and did not take any legal action against him.
Police said they took the situation very seriously to avoid hurting the positive and professional image of Phuket taxi drivers, according to them.
