WINNIPEG — A wheelchair-bound woman wants answers after she was left on the curb by a cab driver early Monday morning.
“If I sat out there for an hour in that weather,” said Donna Sherban, “I don’t think I would have made it.”
The 68-year-old got in a cab after she was released from Health Sciences Centre. The driver left her in her wheelchair on the curb outside her home. The snowbank was so high, she couldn’t manoeuvre over it.
“I started panicking,” said Sherban. “I looked at the curb and says, ‘I’m not going to get over that what am I going to do.’ ”
Sherban hailed the cab driver in a panic and he returned. She then got safely to her home, but the same can’t be said for others recently.
Late last month, two Winnipeg men died after they were dropped off in front of their homes following hospital visits.
One of them, 78-year-old David Silver, was found dead on his porch.
Both men had been released from the emergency room at Grace Hospital, both had been sent home in cabs, and both incidents happened within 48 hours.
The incidents are so alarming, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority is looking at its policies. The provincial government is also stepping up the pressure.
“We are going to expect … and it will be mandatory that the taxi cab driver ensure the person make it to the front door safely,” Health Minister Erin Selby said on Friday. “It’s common sense.”
But one Winnipeg cab company said it’s unfair to give more responsibility to drivers unless they are compensated.
“Not every cab driver has that instinct in him to help, especially when it doesn’t have any money involved,” said Jay Osiname of United Taxi Plus.
Spring Taxi — the company that drove Sherban — said it was wrong for the cab driver to have taken off.
“Common courtesy states you see them in the door, especially with the snow conditions,” said Ken Wiebe, manager at Spring Taxi.
Wiebe said he will speak to the drivers at Spring Taxi.
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