Spare a thought for Chinese cab driver Xiao Cheng because it looks like he had quite a bad day – or night. His problems started, as they are given to do, with booze. Cheng wasn’t drinking but his passenger had been. Anyway, Cheng’s passenger explained where he wanted to go – the only problem was that the route involved descending a steep set of stairs (without a rail and with a river on the other side) – tough for an intoxicated passenger to do on foot but next to impossible for a car.
Halfway down the stairs the cab got stuck, which apparently angered the passenger:
Even then he accused me of not taking him to his destination, and demanded compensation. I had to give him all my money then he ran off and left me there.
Townspeople tried to help but their makeshift rescue attempt proved to dangerous. In the end the car was carried to safety by a large crane.
Given the title you could be forgiven for thinking that I am unsympathetic towards poor old Cheng. After all, it was not his idea to drive down the steps – it was the threat of violence that made him do it. Obviously the guy in his cab was a pretty tough customer and gave him reason to be scared – he risked a beating or worse for not doing what the guy wanted. But weighing up the options it is pretty obvious that the deal for Cheng was bad either way. Descending the steps he stood a very serious risk of crashing over the edge and drowning. What else could he have done?
Presumably the passenger was worried about the fare that he would have to pay if the driver took the long way down – so why not get creative? Turn off the meter and say I know another way… and then drive him to a police station. From what I have heard Chinese police aren’t shy with their batons so it would have been a big win for Cheng and he wouldn’t have had to drive down those stairs and the violent thug in his car would have gotten some rough justice.
So in the end, while I do feel sorry for poor Cheng, I definitely think that he could have handled himself better. [Orange via Weird Asia News]
