A taxi driver in his 50s was punched and kicked by a foreign man and briefly lost consciousness after trying to stop an unlicensed paid ride, police said. Illegal private-car ride services, known in Korean as "ddwigi" calls, have spread in parts of Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, where many foreign workers live, deepening friction with the taxi industry.
Punches Thrown as Driver Took Photos and Tried to Call Police
According to the Hwaseong West Police Station in Gyeonggi Province on the 24th, a man in his 30s identified as A, a national of Uzbekistan, is suspected of punching and kicking a taxi driver identified as B at about 2 a.m. on the 18th on a road in Pyeong-ri, Hyangnam-eup, Hwaseong.
The confrontation began as A was trying to pick up foreign passengers in his private car. B, who was waiting for customers at a taxi stand, saw A soliciting foreign nationals and moved to stop him. A turned violent when B began filming the scene on his mobile phone to secure evidence and tried to report it to police, according to the account gathered by investigators.
Investigators found that A struck B in the jaw, knocking him down, and continued to punch and kick him afterward. B, who briefly lost consciousness from the blow, used the two-way radio inside his taxi to call for police help after coming to.
"He was soliciting customers openly right in front of the taxi stand, and when I tried to stop him I was beaten one-sidedly. I still cannot go back to work," B said.
Police identified A on the 22nd based on dashcam footage from the taxi and nearby closed-circuit television. They plan to summon him soon to question him on the circumstances of the assault and on whether he was running an unlicensed paid ride service. Depending on the victim's medical condition, police are also considering upgrading the assault allegation to one of inflicting bodily injury.
Illegal Rides Evade Enforcement, Clashing With Taxi Industry
In Hwaseong districts with large concentrations of foreign workers, including Hyangnam, Baran and Namyang, illegal "ddwigi" operations that ferry passengers in private cars have long been flagged as a problem. In some cases, drivers approach foreign customers waiting at taxi stands and take them away from licensed cabs.
Police have continued cracking down. In May, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency caught 29 foreign nationals who were earning 100,000 to 150,000 won a day from unlicensed paid rides in the Hwaseong area. Some of them were also found to have driven without a license.
Proving illegal operations, however, is difficult. Drivers running such services often carry only foreign passengers rather than Koreans, or claim during enforcement checks that they gave a free ride to an acquaintance, making it hard to secure evidence that they were paid.