Cabby bashed with wine bottle for 'taking longer route'

By Zaihan Mohamed Yusof The two men shouted at him to stop the taxi. They were angry that he had taken the "wrong" route. Spotting a bus stop ahead, Mr Muhamed Malek Mohd Amin did what he was told. Just as he was about to stop the car, he heard a loud crack and felt wetness spreading over his upper body. It was blood. He had been struck on the head with a wine bottle by one of the passengers, he said. When Mr Muhamed picked up the two men in the Holland area just after midnight on Christmas Eve, they did not seem aggressive. The men, who appeared to be in their 40s, had just left a Christmas party and were heading to Hougang. The cabby remembered them wishing the owner of the house "Merry Christmas". While he was driving towards Hougang, the two men continued talking to each other. But the jovial attitude soon disappeared, he said. Said Mr Muhamed, a 47-year-old Trans Cab driver: "I don't know why it took the two passengers so long to realise I had taken the 'wrong' route. "Logically speaking, taking the CTE was the shortest route, I thought. "But on Serangoon North Avenue 3, one of them suddenly shouted at me, accusing me of trying to take the longer route." Almost immediately, his passengers hurled vulgarities at him. Mr Muhamed assured them he was on the way to their destination. He even drove a little faster in the hopes of calming them down. Mr Muhamed, whose forehead was still bandaged when we spoke to him yesterday, said of the attack: "I was taken by surprise and I was disoriented. I couldn't see anything with blood dripping from my head into my eyes. "I wanted to get out of the taxi, but the man who had attacked me was now standing outside the taxi holding the jagged edge of the bottle."