Taxi company never told of injury to scooter-driving passenger

One of the River City taxi van Hoists in operation.

River City Cabs says it has no record of a client being injured trying to get into one of its taxis.

Durie Hill resident Shirley Smith said she fell and pulled a groin muscle last week when getting off her mobility scooter and climbing into a River City van.

That was after River City Cabs cracked down on some of its drivers who were allowing people on mobility scooters to stay on the vehicle as it was hoisted into the van.

The scooters could still be transported but not with the person in them, according to the company.

New Zealand Transport Agency policy stated people can still be hoisted into the vans with their mobility device as long as they are restrained correctly.

The crackdown by River City has rankled with a number of people in the mobility scooter community, including the president of Pedestrians on Wheels, Noeline Lane.

Lane said Shirley Smith was injured because she had to climb into the van and it could yet happen to others.

But neither River City nor Horizons Regional Council have a record of the event and subsequent injury, which Smith said happened last week.

The owner of River City Cabs, Rhondda Anderson, said when she heard of the injury she immediately asked the driver in question if anything had happened.

"Not one of our drivers knows a thing about it. When anything goes untoward in one of our vehicles they have to fill in an incident report immediately."

Anderson said allowing people to stay on their scooter as it was hoisted into the van was dangerous.

"We base this business on rules and regulations. It's not based on personal wants and demands. Otherwise we would not be in business.

"We're bound by health and safety and we would be out of business if we didn't adhere."

The New Zealand Transport Agency's Total Mobility scheme paid a flat rate of $10 to transport operators like River City Cabs for each trip where a hoist was used.

Next Wednesday Horizons Regional Council's transport planner Desley Monks will meet with the Pedestrians on Wheels group to address some of the group's concerns.

Rhondda Anderson from River City Cabs said she would also attend the meeting.