Taxi Dragged Passengers By Moving Off With Door Open; ComfortDelGro Now Investigating

ComfortDelGro Taxi Incident Sparks Outrage: Investigation Underway After Door Mishap

You know the fear you had as a kid about being in a moving car with the door wide open?

Maybe that fear was not as irrational as you had once thought. 

On 17 December, a video involving a ComfortDelGro taxi was uploaded by the Facebook page of road safety group SG Road Vigilante (SGRV), igniting discussions and criticism on social media. ComfortDelGro has announced an investigation following the incident.

The video in question depicted what looked to be a family of four exiting the taxi at the 313@Somerset drop-off point. SGRV identified the vehicle as a blue Hyundai i40 ComfortDelGro taxi.

Two women had already left the vehicle, with one of them collecting her belongings from the taxi’s boot.

At the same time, a man emerged from the passenger seat and stood by the open back door.

Abruptly, the taxi began driving off with the back door still open, prompting the man to quickly reach in to pull a little girl out of the vehicle. The force of the action caused the man and child to tumble onto the ground. 

Subsequently, both women rush to assist the man and the crying girl.

The family eventually recovered from the shocking situation and vacated the premises, with the taxi driving away shortly after. 

The accompanying caption of the video reads, “Taxi driver did not even attempt to alight and apologize/check on them.”

Driver Faces Backlash from Netizens

Within a day of its upload, the video garnered over 125,000 views and more than 500 comments. It also prompted heated debates among netizens.

While some commenters opined that the family took too long to leave, others argued that the driver should have checked before moving off, emphasizing the need for responsibility.

Others also cite similar instances of taxi drivers moving off without checking whether the doors were properly closed.

Most commenters berate the driver for not alighting to check on the family upon realizing what he had done.

A commenter wrote that if the taxi driver had at least rushed over to see what had happened, people would be more forgiving about it. Instead, the driver had seemingly “sat comfortably like nothing happened, with zero remorse”.

In addition, some users believed that the safer option for the passengers was to verbally alert the driver to stop the car.

In response to The Straits Times‘ queries, ComfortDelGro confirmed the ongoing investigation.

They stated that they had reached out to the passengers to offer their assistance, and issued a reminder to all of their cabbies to always be aware of their surroundings before moving off.