{"id":30274,"date":"2019-01-23T12:28:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T12:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30274"},"modified":"2019-01-23T12:28:22","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T12:28:22","slug":"taxi-driver-badly-hurt-in-spains-anti-uber-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30274","title":{"rendered":"Taxi driver badly hurt in Spain’s ‘anti-Uber’ strike"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A taxi driver in Madrid was seriously injured in a car accident that occurred while he engaged in protests against ride-hailing services such as Uber.<\/p>\n

He “is in very serious condition”, a spokesperson for Madrid’s La Paz hospital said.<\/p>\n

Emergency services in Madrid tweeted the man, in his 30s, suffered a brain injury.<\/p>\n

Footage broadcast by Spanish media showed the taxi driver, wearing a yellow vest<\/a> like anti-government protesters in France<\/a>, jump onto the bonnet of a black vehicle surrounded by demonstrators.<\/p>\n

He fell heavily onto the road as the vehicle sped off, pursued by protesters.<\/p>\n

The Civil Guard police force said the driver of the vehicle involved in Tuesday’s accident turned himself in and was questioned before being released.<\/p>\n

Unfair regulations<\/h2>\n

The accident happened during a protest by taxi drivers who blocked a highway on Tuesday afternoon amid increasing tensions between these and ride-hailing services such as Uber or Cabify, also known as VTCs (Tourism Vehicles with Chauffeur).<\/p>\n

Spanish taxi drivers complain that rival drivers from ride-hailing apps compete unfairly since they do not face the same regulations and costs.<\/p>\n

The drivers Madrid started an indefinite strike on Monday to protest competition from VTCs, following their colleagues in Barcelona who began striking on Friday.<\/p>\n

Protest leaders said talks to end the dispute were unsuccessful and the demonstrations would continue. Hundreds of taxis held up traffic in Madrid on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Unauto VTC, the association representing the sector, said 80 VTCs had been damaged in Barcelona and 50 in Madrid during the strike.<\/p>\n

On Monday, taxi drivers in Barcelona tried to force their way into the Catalan regional parliament but were held back by police.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A taxi driver in Madrid was seriously injured in a car accident that occurred while he engaged in protests against ride-hailing services such as Uber. He “is in very serious condition”, a spokesperson for Madrid’s La Paz hospital said. Emergency services in Madrid tweeted the man, in his 30s, suffered a brain injury. Footage broadcast…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}