Man beats up female cabbie over seat belt

A female taxi operator from St Thomas was left shaken and bruised last Thursday after a male passenger allegedly assaulted her when she insisted he wear his seat belt.

The 62-year-old cabbie told THE WEEKEND STAR that on her way to Morant Bay, she picked up the passenger in the Pondside area of Yallahs. The man sat in the front seat of the car and the driver requested that the man put on his seat belt for his safety and for her to be in compliance with the Road Traffic Act. However, the passenger took offence to the request.

"Him seh him not going to put it on and I disrespecting him, and he begin to tell me that he works for the CIA. So after he said that, I said 'How is the CIA going to help us when yuh not putting on the seat belt?'" she related.

A driver who fails to cause a passenger to wear his seat belt faces a fine of $2,000 and two demerit points from his driver's licence. Persons who accumulate 10 of more demerit points within a year will have their driver's licences suspended.

Ann*, mindful of the implications of her passenger not wearing a seat belt, said she brought her vehicle to a stop and asked the passenger to comply with her request. While waiting, a truck driver noticed that something was amiss and asked if she was okay. She then explained what happened and he spoke with the passenger. Following the truck driver's intervention the passenger agreed to wear the seat belt. However, after she drove off, he allegedly began raining blows on her.

"Him start to put on some lick pan mi, as if I'm a little child and he's scolding me. Slap and tump! Suh mi seh 'No man, this man nuh real.' And them him start pull off mi hand off of the steering. And mi seh 'God, a cah manage this, I have to do sumpn. Help mi God!,'" she exclaimed.

"When him hold on pan mi hand, this time is like him gwan turn the steering over to the seaside, and I use mi elbow and jam him and him ease off and mi nuh know, but God help mi fi stop di car and mi stop the car right in the middle of the road," she added.

She then called out to a man on the roadside for help.

"Mi bawl out 'Help! Murda!' And the man run come to me and seh 'Mommy, what is yuh problem?'" she said, adding that the man then went to the passenger and told him to get out of her car; he complied.

Bruised and with tears streaming down her face, she drove to the police station to make a report. Still traumatised, she is now fearful of picking up other male passengers.

"Now when I see them, if I don't feel like picking them up. I just drive! I will stop at their foot and when I look up in their face, I keep moving. I'm very fraid fi tek them up now," she said, adding that this was not her first conflict with a passenger who refused to wear a seat belt.

"A always the male them behave that way, and if I seh 'Sir, can you please put on your seatbelt?', they say 'Mi nah put on none, enuh!' And them start to tell mi how much string mek me up and all these things, suh mi keep quiet," she said. She said that it is unfair for taxi operators to be ticketed when passengers refuse to wear seatbelts.

"We nuh have crocodile skin, enuh, we are human beings. We might have the mind of a crocodile, but it nuh right fi nobody treat wi like this," she said.

* Name changed to protect identity.