Adelaide taxi strike leaves wheelchair bound Nigel Gammon without transport for vital surgery
An 81-year-old wheelchair-bound pensioner faces missing critical surgery after taxi drivers launched a strike that has left vulnerable passengers stranded.
A wheelchair-bound pensioner says he has been “hung out to dry” after an Access Taxis strike has left him stranded with no way to attend a medical facility for critical surgery.
Nigel Gammon’s long-awaited vascular procedure is booked for Monday.
The 81-year-old says it’s an operation to clear a blocked coronary artery that has caused his right leg to balloon to nearly three times its normal size.
The swelling is severe, the pain keeps him awake, and he fears any delay could leave him suffering for weeks.
But late on Friday, the one transport service he regularly relies on, Access Taxis suddenly pulled the rug out from under him.
He received a text message saying: “ACCESS TAXI CUSTOMER NOTICE: A driver strike is planned for Monday, December 1. No bookings are currently being accepted for that day.”
It meant the strike would fall on the morning he needs to travel from his Westbourne Park nursing home to his vascular surgeon in Black Forest.
All weekend, callers to the service were also met with the same automated warning: “Due to industrial action by taxi drivers please be advised that no bookings will be available for Monday, December 1.”
The strike comes just weeks after earlier industrial action on November 12 that left vulnerable passengers stranded, including one woman told how she had to cancel her husband’s appointment because she couldn’t book an Access cab.
While some operators say accessible buses and trains are alternatives, Mr Gammon says they are not suitable for people like him.
“I’m a paraplegic. I’ve been in a wheelchair for eight years now after I broke my back in a car crash.
“I have very limited mobility and Access taxis are the only suitable option for me. I can’t take a bus and I can’t afford to pay hundreds for an ambulance to take me.”
“Even when I called them (at Access taxis) and explained my situation they said there was nothing they could do. Can’t help reschedule or anything. It’s absolutely deplorable.”
Access Taxi operator and advocate Hugo Siu said the Access Fleet Advisory Association has called a 24-hour stop-work action after what he described as an unsatisfactory meeting with Transport Minister Emily Bourke.
It is the third driver strike this year, following walk-offs in November and during the world wheelchair rugby championships in May.
“We are calling for a solid $10m per year, funding that is already being collected through the existing $2 transport levy,” Mr Siu said.
“We urge the state government to increase the lifting fee to $35 for all access trips, including hospital jobs, so more drivers are willing to serve the most vulnerable members of our community.
“If the government cannot commit to these reforms, then it should immediately buy back all access cab plates and licences at a fair value,” he said, blaming unregulated NDIS providers for disrupting the industry.
But the government rejected the group’s claims, with Ms Bourke condemning the strike.
“It is unconscionable that these drivers and operators are choosing to strike and in doing so, are choosing to leave people like Mr Gammon without transportation,” Ms Bourke said.
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Originally published as Adelaide taxi strike leaves wheelchair bound Nigel Gammon without transport for vital surgery
