Two teens were forced out of an Ola taxi onto the Auckland Harbour Bridge by their driver after he drove the wrong way.
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Paddy Devlin and his friend were trying to get to Curran Street at the bottom of Ponsonby on Friday night.
"The boys had asked to be dropped at the bottom of Curran Street (the road that runs under the bridge)," Paddy's mother Andi Brotherston wrote on Twitter
"Instead of heading into Ponsonby the Ola GPS directed them to SH1 and onto the Bridge."
The driver didn't notice his mistake until he was already on the approach to the bridge.
"Once the driver realised, he pulled over at the start of the Bridge, and told them to get out," Brotherston wrote. "This was after 10pm, in total darkness on an eight-lane highway!"
Fearing for their safety, Brotherston says the boys protested. But the driver then became aggressive.
"When the boys said 'we're not really keen to get out on the Harbour Bridge because it's really dangerous', the guy swore at them and told them to get out and so they did," she told NZME.
"The boys' said he was saying: 'You f***ing get out of my car'. It's so dangerous."
They were then forced to run down the onramp from the motorway back down to Curran St, she says.
A spokesperson from Ola told Newshub that safety is the "number one priority" for Ola.
"We take any reports of behaviour that endangers passengers or drivers seriously. Any such reports are investigated by a specialist team as an urgent priority and drivers are given an opportunity to respond to any actions taken against them," they said.
"Drivers who are found to have breached our standards receive warning notices and may be subject to sanctions including being permanently banned from the platform if the incident is serious.
"The matter reported is under investigation and the driver involved is not driving on the platform while this process is underway."
Newshub.
