Taxi drivers in Tralee have issued a warning to the public to be on the alert when hailing cabs in the early hours of the morning, following two incidents last week in which bogus taxi drivers picked up women who were hospitalised after being injured in subsequent car crashes.A man masquerading as a taxi driver picked up a 16 year-old girl in the early hours of the morning at Bridge Street in the town centre early on Thursday morning, and was driving her to an unknown location in the town when the car crashed.
The man, believed to be from eastern Europe, fled the scene. The girl was treated in hospital for her injuries.In a second incident in the early hours of last Sunday morning, two women hailed what they believed was a taxi, also in Tralee town centre, and asked to be driven to Tarbert.The driver, also believed to be eastern European, drove them through Abbeydorney and was heading towards Ballyduff when the car crashed around 6am in the Ballysheen area, approximately a mile from Ballyduff village....
Terry Boyle of Tralee Taxi Driver’s Association confirmed that there are bogus drivers posing as legitimate drivers..
