"He told me he couldn't take disabled people in his taxi." This is the complaint made by a 61-year-old man, Tonino Muriana, originally from Sicily but who lives in Moncalieri, on the outskirts of Turin, where he works in accessible tourism. He has been in a wheelchair since 2009. As he told the newspaper La Stampa, at the beginning of October he had to go home after having lunch with a friend at the Lingotto shopping center . So he approached two parked taxis. "I asked which of them could take me," says Muriana. "The first one replied that he was available, but he had a car with a high seat: I can't stretch out my legs, like I used to, and so I can only get in cars with a low seat."
So he turned to the second taxi driver: "A Toyota Prius, a car that was perfect for me," he says. "I knew it was the right size for the wheelchair, too." He asks the taxi driver to get in, but the man allegedly told him he couldn't carry disabled people in his taxi. His friend offered to help load the wheelchair into the taxi, but again he refused: "I don't transport disabled people."
On the advice of another taxi driver, the 61-year-old called the station and asked for another taxi. The first one to arrive refused to let him get in front, then the man managed to go home once another car arrived. " It was an injustice, discrimination and it's not the first time ," he commented to La Stampa. Roberto Sulpizi, president of Taxi Torino, once he heard about the incident called Muriana to apologize for what had happened and said he was mortified.