Grab driver allegedly spits at and punches elderly woman

PETALING JAYA: A Grab driver allegedly spat and punched an elderly woman for asking him to confirm that he was indeed the driver she hailed.

Twitter user, Zuin @jkkljh165, said her 63-year-old mother asked the driver if he was going to Hospital Kuala Lumpur, and when he did not answer, she asked if he was the Grab driver she hailed.

Zuin said her mother asked all those questions to make sure she didn't get into the wrong car.

"Anyways, he flipped out with all those questions and said "LOOK AT THE NUMBER PLATE, LOOK AT THE NUMBER PLATE"," Zuin said in a series of tweets.

The incident occurred on Thursday (June 27).   

Zuin's mother then replied that she was just asking, and enquired as to why was he being arrogant.

She then opened the door and wanted to get out of the car.

The driver told her that not only was she being rude, she was also very old.

To this, Zuin's mother commented that the driver's hair was also white. The driver reacted by getting out of the car and spitting at her.

He then punched her in the jaw.

"A guard came, and he panicked and ran away. Please, I just want people to be extra careful so that this incident would not be repeated," said Zuin.

When contacted by MStar, Zuin, who wanted to be known only as Awin, 22, said that the incident occurred in front of her home at Wangsa Maju.

"At first, I wanted to send my mother to the hospital, but I had some work to complete. I called a Grab (car), which arrived in several minutes," she said.

Awin said she immediately rushed her mother to hospital for treatment.

"The tissue on my mother's face tore and she was injured.

"After that, I brought her to the police station, although she wanted the matter to be settled as she was worried about my father.

"But my brother and I forced her to lodge a report," she said.

Awin said it was difficult for her to accept the actions of the driver, who attacked an old lady.

"I felt sad looking at my mother at that moment, when she was holding food in both her hands. How could he attack 'my heaven'?" she said.

Awin also said the offspring of the driver contacted her to apologise and asked her to remove the tweets of the incident.

In response to the Twitter feed, Grab said they had suspended the driver, with the authorities alerted about the incident.

They also apologised.