A 92-year-old Holocaust survivor was left beaten and bloody after a violent attack at the hands of another passenger on a transport service specifically for the elderly and disabled.
According to an article in the Canadian media, Hanka Fogelman, 92, got into the taxi with a stranger who she was told by the cab driver was “dangerous”.
“The driver knew that he was aggressive … said not to talk to him. [He said] he’s aggressive. He’s a little dangerous,” Hanka told Go Public, according to CBC.
According to the news report the young man, who attacked Hanka, was quietly drawing when he “suddenly hit the client seated to his right, without any apparent reason.”
“She had a broken nose. Lacerations on her face… Black and blue,” daughter Debbie Rona told CBC Canada.
Hanka spent a month in rehab recovering from the attack and two months after said she’s still not healing.
Man wasn’t charged
Hanka was riding in a cab contracted by Société de transport de Montréal (STM) on her way to visit one of her daughters in November 2018, CBC Canada reports.
The stranger, a young man has an intellectual disability and wasn’t charged according to the news report.
Rona told CBC Canada, “I look at my mother and she’s so mentally aware, but there’s physical vulnerability there. Why was he even in the taxi? Why would the taxi driver have sat my mother next to him and closed the door and started driving?”
STM spokesperson Philippe Déry said in an email to Go Public, “we can assure you that at the time of the incident, nothing led us to believe that the customer was in danger by being paired with the other customer.”
No person, vulnerable or otherwise, should live in fear of being attacked.
I hope lessons have been learned and nothing like this ever happens again. Please SHARE.
