The taxi driver
September 29, 2008
Slightly less than a year ago, I was walking with Steve to the classroom in Namba for our kung fu class. This was when I was still the only student. We were crossing the street and I kept my eye on the taxi driver who was turning. The taxi driver also kept his eyes on us and slowly crept forward, hoping to get past the pedestrians as quickly as possible. Because he kept his eyes on his, he turned his head to keep watching us. His head turned left, he released the brake and the taxi started moving forward. Unfortunately a woman had not finished crossing and was hit by the taxi driver.
He had completely taken his eyes off the road and drove forward, hitting the woman.
The woman was not terribly hurt as the car was moving slowly. Still, this basically summarizes my opinion of Japanese taxi drivers. They all seem to be a hair away from an accident and badly injuring other drivers or pedestrians. They often drive excessively fast and cut corners (literally and figuratively) whenever possible. I’ve seen so many red lights being run by taxis and narrow misses.
A few weeks ago, I was at home reading something on the internet or playing a game or something when I heard a loud bang from outside. I got up, looked out the window and saw a taxi driver pulled over with its blinkers on, a crowd of pedestrians gathering near the street, a kid’s bicycle on the road, and finally, a kid, being carried from the road to the sidewalk. The taxi driver had hit the kid on the bike.
The kind people on the street got the kid to sit down and just consoled him and waited for the ambulance. The kid was not terribly hurt as far as I could tell from the 11th floor because he was conscious and not crying.
The ass of a taxi driver spent the whole time on the phone and checking things in his taxi. He did not even approach the kid, to check if he was ok, to say sorry, to do anything a human being with compassion might do when he or she accidentally hits another person with a car. I present the ass:
The ambulance came very quickly and put a neck brace on the kid and hauled him off in a stretcher. As he was facing upwards I could see his face and he did seem fine. I’m sure he probably got kicked out of the hospital the next day and made to do his homework.
The police came rather late and questionned the pedestrians and finally the taxi driver. They checked the taxi and the bicycle and from the way they put the bicycle against the taxi to confirm stratches, it seemed like he hit the bicycle head on, on the right headlight.
Since the driver sits on the right side of the car, the kid was basically right in front of the driver when he was hit. This leads me to believe that this taxi driver did not have his eyes on the road as well, otherwise he may have seen the kid on a bike and avoided him. I can even believe that the kid probably came racing across the street when he wasn’t supposed to but as a driver, the taxi driver should’ve been prepared for things like this and stopped in time.
I sincerely hope for better driving habits in this country from all people before more stupid kids are needlessly hurt.
September 30th, 2008 at 16:40
Did the kid have a highlighted entry in his mobile..??
September 30th, 2008 at 16:46
You cheeky bastard.
October 3rd, 2008 at 14:26
Bwahahaha at Thomas!
Taxi drivers are usually doing too many things at once to even notice what’s going on in traffic. A recent trip to Seattle convinced me that taxi drivers don’t even have to know their city anymore in order to work. They just rely blindly on their GPS systems. We actually had to tell our taxi driver which turns to take using our own GPS system because the taxi driver couldn’t figure out how to spell “Denny’s” in his GPS device. He took us to a diner called “Dick’s”.
October 4th, 2008 at 10:35
Why would he know a restaurant called Dick’s, and why would you guys willingly go to a Denny’s?