A Bucharest cab driver turned aggressive after the client declined to offer him permission to smoke during the drive, Digi24.ro reported.

Gabriel Tatu, a cardiologist at the Floreasca hospital in Bucharest, told the local TV station that the cab driver asked him to get out of the car after not letting him smoke in the car. When the doctor started taking photos of the driver, he hit the client with the door of the car.

“The driver starts to drive and asks the passenger if he could smoke. The passenger asks him not to. The driver insists. He ends up screaming, pulls over and asks the passenger to get out and take another cab because he is addicted to smoking. The passenger says he hasn’t encountered such a situation before anywhere in the world. The driver screams even louder. He is warned that he will be photographed. While he is photographed from outside the car he suddenly opens the door and hits the doctor,” according to an account of the incident on the Facebook page 2035 Fără Tutun. 2035 Fără Tutun (2035 Without Smoking) is a local initiative group supporting efforts to prevent smoking adoption.

The driver, who was collaborating with Pelicanul Taxi, was fired following the incident. He had been working with the cab company for only four days.

Mihai Ghişă, the head of Pelicanul Taxi, told Digi24 that such incidents are not tolerated. “We are very strict, but, in the case of many, you cannot turn them around,” he said.

Not smoking in the car when with a client was a potential rule considered among a set of new ones the Bucharest City Hall planned for the taxi companies in the city.

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editor@romania-insider.com