Rude, reckless Hong Kong taxi drivers: will they ever be brought to book?

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Mobile phones line the dash board of a taxi in Central, in 2009. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 4:54pm, 23 May 2018Updated: 12:32pm, 15 Oct 2020

Once again, a promise from the government of taking action against Hong Kong’s worst taxi drivers (“New demerit point system for Hong Kong taxi drivers being considered in crackdown on bad services”, May 17). But when is action finally going to happen?

I was recently in a taxi when the driver was on a video call, with the phone placed on his dashboard. When I asked him to turn the phone off while driving along a busy road, he told me to get out.

I reported this to the police with pictures of him looking at the video while driving but, according to the police and the law, the act doesn’t warrant prosecution.

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The Road Traffic (Traffic Control) regulations state that unless the driver is holding the phone in his hand, or between his head and shoulders, he cannot be penalised. My question is, in that case, is it safe for a driver to watch videos while on the road?

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The police explained that this is a grey area and is not under the law covering prosecution. Do we have to wait for accidents to happen before action is taken with reckless and rude Hong Kong taxi drivers?

Install cameras as soon as possible, safety is much more a priority than privacy, in my opinion.

Beth Narain, Mid-Levels