A taxi driver faces up to seven years in jail after he refused to stop for a traffic violation, dragged a parking attendant for 30 meters on his hood, and broke a toll gate in Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport as he attempted to get away.
The incident, captured on multiple CCTV cameras and witnessed by dozens of bystanders, began when the driver, who was employed by leading Russian online taxi service Yandex Taxi, drove onto a pedestrian zone in the airport pickup area. He was then approached by a parking attendant.
“According to the attendant, the driver seemed to be in an impaired state, and refused to answer any queries,” said Sergey Podolskiy, press officer for Vnukovo Airport. “A second attendant who tried to help his colleague said that he noticed a strong smell of alcohol emanating from the car.”
The driver then accelerated, knocking the attendant onto the bonnet of his Skoda, and then zigzagged as he attempted to throw the man off, even as he desperately clung on, as seen on videos posted online.
Having succeeded in his task the taxi driver appeared to slow down in front of a toll barrier, but after a momentary hesitation, the car revved up, took the bar clean off, and escaped from the scene.
The taxi driver was identified and arrested within hours. The suspect has been charged with hooliganism and could face a heavy fine and up to seven years in jail.
Yandex Taxi, which agreed a $3.7 billion merger of its business with Uber’s Russian subsidiary in July, has had a poor week of publicity, after a photo went viral on social media of what appeared to be one of its drivers seemingly shooting up heroin in the backseat of his cab in a Moscow courtyard. Yandex says that it has blocked the driver from its system, and is conducting an internal investigation.