Disabled Coast 9-year-old Samuel Amiet ditched repeatedly as taxpayer-funded transport scheme fails to pick him up

A severely disabled Gold Coast child has repeatedly been left by the roadside because a taxpayer-paid transport company won’t pick him up.

A SEVERELY disabled Gold Coast child is repeatedly being left roadside because a taxpayer-paid taxi company won’t pick him up.

Young Samuel Amiet has been left stranded waiting for a cab dozens of times in the past year.

The nine-year-old suffers from cerebral palsy, CRMCC syndrome, epilepsy, ASD, Perthes’ disease and gastrostomy. He is in a wheelchair, cannot talk and is fed through a tube.

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Simone Amiet is angry with Gold Coast Cabs for their attitude to disabled fares. They keep leaving her son Samuel Amiet at school.

His family was last year granted the State Government’s School Disability Transport Scheme, which allows disabled students such as Samuel to be transferred to and from school as part of a taxpayer-paid contract with Gold Coast Cabs.

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The scheme was considered a god send for Samuel’s mother, Simone, who damaged her back after constantly lifting her son and his chair in and out of the family car.

“He is like a nine-year-old newborn,” Mrs Amiet said. “Because our car isn’t converted I have to lift him in and out of the car and then his 20kg wheelchair. I had no other option but to use this service.”

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Gold Coast nine-year-old Samuel Amiet pictured by his mother Simone after he was left waiting for a taxi to pick him up from school.

However, in the 18 months the family has been on the scheme, she said Gold Coast Cabs had repeatedly failed to arrive on time for school or failed to pick up her son, leaving the Upper Coomera State College student stranded.

Gold Coast Cabs disputes the claims and says at no time has a driver failed to show.

When a driver was late the company said it made every effort to contact Sam’s parents.

The response angered Mrs Amiet: “I can count on one hand the number of times they have actually shown up on time. It is either ridiculously early when no one would be at school to meet him or they would show up well after the first bell.

“My child is non-verbal and has seizures and they are contracted to provide this service.

“It is gobsmacking. He is not a parcel, he is a child.”

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Simone Amiet is angry with Gold Coast Cabs for their attitude to disabled fares. They keep leaving her son Samuel Amiet at school.

Mrs Amiet said Samuel, in Year 5, was regularly left waiting outside school with a teacher’s aid for over half an hour.

“It got to a point where I was ringing and ringing and got no reply, so I had to go down and grab him.

“There was one hot afternoon that by the time I got there he was in a pre-seizure state.

“I have been given guarantees again and again, but each time I have been let down.”

Gold Coast Cabs told the Bulletin it had since offered a permanent driver to further assist with ensuring the best possible service for Sam.

“Gold Coast Cabs has structured processes and enforceable requirements in place to ensure that every driver delivers the highest quality service we pride ourselves on. We constantly seek ways to improve our service and deliver the best possible experience for all of our customers particularly those with accessibility needs.”

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Simone Amiet with Samuel at home.

However, Mrs Amiet said she was told by a customer relations manager yesterday that the company could only guarantee Samuel would only be picked up “50 per cent” of the time in the afternoons because it could not force drivers to accept jobs as part of their contract.

Mrs Amiet became so frustrated by Gold Coast Cabs’ attitude last month she posted her frustrations on her Instagram account.

Replying to the post at the time, Gold Coast Cabs said it was “embarrassed” and that “the behaviour by the driver and operator’s staff is not acceptable and this had been escalated to senior management for investigation”.

Despite the promises Mrs Amiet said the problem continued.

“You get an ‘oh sorry, we forgot’ or ‘no driver accepted the job’, like that is an excuse to leave a disabled child alone,” she said.

“The thing is Samuel isn’t the only one in his taxi. Often there is another little boy left standing there waiting, and we are certainly not the only ones on the Gold Coast.

“I wanted to speak out because for many families this is our only option.”

The Department of Transport and Main Roads said it had contacted Mrs Amiet to obtain further details and had asked her to lodge a formal complaint so the department can further investigate.