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More Taxi Drivers Assaulted Than Ever in Hungary

• 8 Mar 2023 7:24 AM
• Hungary Around the Clock

The number of assaults on Főtaxi drivers rose conspicuously at the start of the year, and more passengers are leaving without paying their fare at the end of the trip, the company announced.

In January of last year only one taxi driver was assaulted, while six such attacks oc-curred in the first month of 2023, Főtaxi said.

Some of the assaults were attempts at robbery, others were attacks by other drivers, but the most frequent cause was that pas-sengers did not want to pay their fare, and attacked the drivers, in some cases with knives.

Contrary to public belief, the number of criminal cases rose in the daytime, so nights did not become more dangerous for taxi driv-ers, Főtaxi added.

The number of instances in which pas-sengers did not pay their fare but did not at-tack the drivers also soared.

The number of non-paying passengers has been rising steadily since November, and at the end of last year the number of monthly cases was around 100.

In January 121 such cases occurred, an unprecedentedly high monthly figure. Last year and the year before 1,000 passengers left without paying, causing millions of forints worth of damage to the drivers.

The despatcher keeps a registry of which passenger telephone numbers are linked to problems.

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Budapest Taxi Fares Rising From Monday

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