Everyone can learn something from this.
You would think that getting a taxi home is much, much safer than trying to walk in the dead of night. However, this person’s story of her drive home on Saturday night will make you think twice before you get into the seat of a taxi by yourself.
Emma Shiels took to Facebook to share her experience of the horrific car journey where a man, who had posed as a taxi driver, began to take her down a dead-end road despite Shiels telling him that it was the wrong way.
Shiels’ Facebook post read:
“In the early hours of last night I got into a taxi from Finglas to Clonee. I explained at the start it would probably be quicker to go down the motorway but he went the back roads through Damastown Industrial Estate.
“That was fine until he got to the only exit that says Clonee on the left, the other two exits were just down dead end roads that lead to massive warehouses.
“I told him he was going the wrong way and he acted stupid and said ‘no it’s this one’ as he went around the roundabout I said ‘where are you going?’ Clonee is that way, he hesitated for a minute and reversed slowly back a bit looked at the massive sign that says Clonee then again said ‘No it’s this way towards IBM ‘ (IBM was nowhere near where we were).
“Instantly I had a gut feeling a horrible one to get out of the car then and there while he was slowly driving.”
“I screamed at him ‘Leave me here I’m getting out and I threw money at him and ran, it was only when I ran out of the car I noticed he had no I.D or pictures or license number on his dash.
“He didn’t react whatsoever to me jumping out of the car only to slowly start driving up beside me saying ‘come on back in’ so calmly his behaviour was so strange.
“I tried to flag down strangers and when he noticed people driving by he got nervous and start driving off the other way staring at me out the window.
“This man was Irish and well over 50, I had some information on him and reported it. I have never ever been so scared and still am, to think I was still out on a main road and he didn’t get to drive down to the isolated ones pretending like he didn’t know where he was going.”
Speaking to 98FM, Shiels said that she had recorded the driver’s name and vehicle number and that Gardaí were made known about the situation and it was currently under investigation.
She urged listeners to use the Driver Check app which gives you information about the driver you are getting home by typing in their vehicle licence number.
Shiels said she wasn’t drunk and was fully aware of what was going on and that being from around the area meant that she knew he was going the wrong way and bringing her down roads that led to dead ends.
She also repeated to the radio station that the driver followed her, kept telling her to “come on and just get back in” and drove slowly beside her but eventually left her alone when a few cars started passing.
Gardaí state that “not only do illegal taxis or hackneys affect the livelihood of legitimate SPSV members, but they could potentially pose a threat to any passengers that are carried. These drivers are un-vetted and do not have the required insurance to carry passengers for reward.
“An Garda Síochána welcomes the recently introduced Taxi Regulation Act 2013, which creates a number of licensing offences plus other SPSV related offences.
“These new regulations will make the industry safer not only for drivers but also for members of the public, so we ask that every member of the public ensures that they only use a legitimate taxi or hackney every time.”
Transport for Ireland also has a website page devoted to checking whether a driver, vehicle, dispatch operator is fully licensed, while it also has more details on the Driver Check app.
A National Transport Authority spokesperson told JOE that: “Last year the NTA took 21 prosecutions against drivers without a valid driver licence while a further 16 related to drivers without a valid vehicle licence. Six prosecutions were taken against drivers who had neither licence.”
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