Woman tossed out of taxi after driver refuses to give ride

Police are looking for a taxi driver who refused to give a ride to a female passenger and tossed her out of the car in Wan Chai in the early hours of Saturday.

The passenger, a 33-year-old woman of South Asian descent, hailed the cab in Wan Chai at around 5 a.m. on Saturday.

When she told the driver she wanted to go to Happy Valley, the driver refused and demanded that she get off.

The woman, who is a senior consultant at an international headhunting firm, refused to alight and tried to call the police.

The driver grabbed her smartphone, threw it out of the car and opened the back door next to the passenger.

He then drove off for about 30 meters and made a sudden right turn with the left door still open.

The woman was thrown out of the car as a result.

Fortunately, she did not hit any hard object on the road and was not seriously injured.

The driver sped off.

The entire incident was caught on the dashboard camera of another taxi, whose driver immediately got down his car to assist the woman.

The woman was lucky there were no other vehicles driving along the road at the time, and she only suffered minor cuts on her face and limbs.

According to the driver who helped the woman, the driver fled after he apparently realized the gravity of what he had done.

Barrister Albert Luk Wai-hung said the taxi driver could face at least four charges, including offences against a person, which could land him in jail for up to two years, Ming Pao Daily reported.

Leaving the scene after being involved in a traffic accident is also a criminal offense and throwing out the passenger's phone could be treated as robbery or theft, Luk added.

The Hong Kong Taxi Council released a statement denouncing the driver in question, saying they would assist the police in identifying and arresting him.

Police are now looking for the driver based on video footage from the other taxi.

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EL/AC/CG