Wadala accident puts menace of share taxi drivers in focus

Mumbai: The Saturday night’s gruesome road accident in which a mother of four was run over by a speeding share taxi in Wadala has put the problems posed by these cabbies in focus

Mumbai: The Saturday night’s gruesome road accident in which a mother of four was run over by a speeding share taxi in Wadala has put the problems posed by these cabbies in focus.

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Pilots. This is what regular taxi drivers call these share taxi operators. There are around 150 such share taxi stands in the city and according to the unions, around 22% of them are unauthorised but continue to operate.

However, union leaders said the issue is their driving skills and how they maneuver their vehicles on their routes. “They swerve and change lanes, honk constantly, at times, even carry more passengers than allowed and drive dangerously. That’s why we refer to them as pilots. Neither our unions nor RTOs are doing anything about this menace,” said a taxi driver, who plies regular taxi in Wadala, Antop Hill and Dadar areas.

On Saturday night, a 34-year-old mother of four lost her life after being run over by a speeding taxi in Wadala. Her three daughters and one son were with her at the time of the accident. This incident occurred on the road leading from the Antop Hill Warehousing Complex to the Dosti Acres society in Wadala.

Locals claimed that the area, where this accident occurred, is known for rash driving even though there are shanties in the vicinity. In the starting stretch, from Wadala station via the high rises of housing societies, there is vehicular traffic and the road is narrow. As it widens, the vehicles tend to speed. This is where the share taxis too step on the accelerator and try to overtake other vehicles.

“We agree that share taxi drivers and the way they operate is an issue. In this case (Wadala accident) too, what we understand is that the driver was allegedly over speeding but then that is a part of the investigation. At least 20-22% of the total 150-odd share taxi stands are unauthorised to operate. We have raised this issue with the authorities,” explained A L Quadros, senior taxi union and trade union leader.

The unions claimed that some routes are allegedly unauthorised and that they have also come across complaints of over speeding and other violations of the rules are those connecting offices, railway stations and tourist attractions. These include routes on Churchgate-Gateway, from Mahalaxmi station, Prabhadevi-Worli, Byculla-Nagpada, Wadala-Antop Hill etc.

Out of the total 20,000-odd taxis, around 4,500 or so ply on share routes across Mumbai. Majority of these are of Maruti Eeco model where the seating capacity is six passengers plus driver. Here too, the drivers carry more passengers as they place a stool next to the door of the vehicle.

The unions agreed that these unauthorised share taxi drivers even overcharge at times wherein the fares aren’t as prescribed by the RTO and Transport Department authorities. when Hindustan Times reached out to the transport commissioner Vivek Bhimanwar, he said that he was busy in a meeting. He didn’t respond to a text message.

Meanwhile, describing the Wadala incident, the police statement reads that the taxi, which allegedly operated on the share route, was at a high speed, swerved to avoid a motorbike in its path and hit the woman, who was thrown on to its windshield. The vehicle allegedly did not slow down, and it came to a stop after crashing into a parked private car.