The afternoon of June 3rd brought a flurry of disparaging tweets directed towards the Patterson Cab Company. The tweets written by Martin Slaughter alleged both unprofessional as well as negligent behavior by owner Oliver Patterson himself. Not long after the tweets were posted, Mr. Slaughter reached out to this reporter to tell his side of the story and in his words “expose Patterson’s corruption”
Mr. Slaughter stated he requested a taxi to take him from the Vanilla Unicorn to his workplace at the trucking depot. He stated Mr. Patterson was indeed the person who came to pick him up. The ride seemed to be going well at first, but then Slaughter noticed that Patterson was taking an exceptionally long route, instead of a direct route to the destination. Slaughter spoke up and said he was not going to pay for this extra distance. He stated that Patterson told him there was construction in the area and that he was taking the better route. The ride continued to the docks, where Patterson clipped one of the bollards at the toll booth. Upon impact Mr. Slaughter was ejected from the cab and was injured and unable to get to his feet. Patterson helped him back into the cab, reset the meter then headed to the hospital. Slaughter stated he argued that Patterson should pay his $600 hospital bill due to the negligence of the driver. Slaughter made it to the hospital and he himself admitted that after he was released he tried to run out on the cab fare, as he thought he was being treated unfairly. Slaughter then stated he was struck by a local as he exited the hospital, only to be found again by Patterson, who Slaughter then asked to take him somewhere for a bandage .As Patterson drove, again taking an out of the way route according to Mr. Slaughter, Slaughter passed out, falling out of the cab, unbeknownst to Patterson. Slaughter stated he was then found by a passing motorist who notified the medics to come to his rescue.
I later reached out to & spoke to Oliver Patterson, owner of the cab company & the driver of the taxi during this fateful trip. He took this reporter on a reenactment of this particular ride, clearly stating at the beginning of the ride that, of course, the ride was on the house due to it being a way for him to clear up any misconceptions. He traced the path, explaining about the construction he was attempting to avoid. To this reporter’s surprise, the construction was simply a few traffic cones on the edge of the road on Carson Street, near Roy Lowenstein, hardly reason to take such a dramatic re-route. Mr. Patterson stated his passenger, Mr. Slaughter was “effin & jeffin” in regards to the route he was taking. Patterson did admit that he clipped a bollard at the docks & due to Mr. Slaughter’s own negligence of not wearing a seatbelt, he was ejected from the cab & injured. Patterson stated he saw Slaughter exiting the hospital, attempting to skip his fare, thus committing theft of service. Patterson went to confront him & at that point found him bleeding, due to an unrelated injury. Again, Patterson stated he was attempting to assist Mr. Slaughter to safety, but at some point during their drive, Slaughter passed out & fell out of the cab. Thus ending this ordeal between the two.
As we arrived back at the taxi depot, Patterson then said, again, the fact that i didn’t need to pay for the ride, which was Mr. Patterson’s suggestion to begin with and which he so openly offered as a way to clear his name with these accusations. An odd statement in this reporter’s humble opinion.
So, who was in the wrong? Who was in the right? Seems to this reporter that both parties were at fault to a certain extent. Perhaps a bit more communication and a bit more understanding from both sides was in order & could have helped deescalate the situation. Regardless, do keep in mind that there are legal routes one can take if they feel they have been treated unfairly. And as always, the news will be there to allow issues to be settled in the court of public opinion.
