A 73-year-old private hire driver caused a two car pile-up after she drove the wrong way onto a dual carriageway in South Devon.
According to the Totnes Times, Louise Keay was confused by an unfamiliar road layout as she joined the A380 Expressway near Kingskerswell and headed North towards Newton Abbot on the Southbound carriageway.
She panicked when she realised her mistake and tried to drive onto the verge next to the central reservation but had a near miss with another taxi which was carrying three passengers in the opposite direction.
The taxi had to veer off to avoid a head-on collision and crashed into a third car which was damaged as it was hit, causing minor whiplash injuries to that driver’s neck.
Keay, who has a clean driving record dating back to when she passed her test in 1969, had a part time job as a private hire driver and only earned £50 to £70 a week by taking elderly people to hospital appointments.
Keay, of Marldon, near Paignton, admitted dangerous driving and was fined £250 with £340 costs by Judge Anna Richardson at Exeter Crown Court, where she was also disqualified for 12 months and ordered to take an extended retest.
She told her: "You travelled down a road which was clearly marked with a No Entry sign onto the A380 dual carriageway when you should have been travelling in the opposite direction.
"You panicked and instead of pulling over and stopping, you pulled onto the central reservation as far as you could and continued to drive."
Mr Herc Ashworth, prosecuting, said the accident on the dual carriageway happened shortly after Keay’s Skoda Octavia private hire vehicle joined it in the wrong direction at 7.03 pm on March 11 this year.
A Kia taxi containing a driver and three passengers saw Keay approaching them and took evasive action which led to the car hitting a Vauxhall Corsa.
Both vehicles were damaged but the only injury was to the Corsa driver’s neck, but no treatment other than Ibuprofen was needed.
Keay told police she panicked when she joined the road from Riviera Way and realised she was in the wrong carriageway but thought it was safer to carry on than to stop.
Mr Ashworth said: "This was obviously a highly dangerous manoeuvre but clearly was a genuine, if very bad, mistake."
Mr Paul Dentith, defending, said the inevitable driving ban will be the greatest punishment because Keay suffers from arthritis and lives in a hilly and isolated area where it will be difficult to get to shops and services.
She will not be able to carry on her work in which she helped other people by taking them shopping or to hospital.
Source: https://www.totnes-today.co.uk/news/taxi-driver-granny-went-wrong-way-down-a380-632471
A blind woman has told how her last moments with her dying guide-dog in Sheffield were made painful and harrowing by a row over dog poo in a taxi.
According to The Star, Frances Newton-Marshall, from Hillsborough, called City Taxis after arranging an emergency appointment for her gravely ill dog, Helena, at Hallam Vets.
As guide dog Helena exited the cab at the surgery, she soiled the gap between the front passenger seat and door. Frances’ fully-sighted partner cleared up the accident, leaving what she described as a ‘minimal trace’ behind.
The driver insisted they pay £50 for cleaning there and then. The couple, upset and worried for their dog, had only £15. Frances said drivers should invoice the charity Guide Dogs for the money in those circumstances, and tried to explain to the driver.
She said: "I explained I only had £15 cash on me as I had to get my guide dog immediately inside to the vet.
"I left my partner outside the vets, to reiterate that Guide Dogs would pay and to invoice them. She gave him the contact details. He refused to even speak to her.
"I was inside with my guide dog being told the tragic and devastating news, that she was dying and would have to be put to sleep.
"The actual vet herself went outside to speak to the taxi driver, so my partner could be with me and my guide dog in her final moments, which the taxi driver had prevented my partner from doing before, wasting precious minutes my partner could have had with my guide dog.
"He still refused to leave without the £50 in cash even when the vet explained the grave seriousness of the situation and confirmed that all the taxi office had to do was contact Guide Dogs. Still he refused. To resolve the situation, the vet herself or the vet receptionist had to take £50 cash from their own till and give him the money.
"As you can imagine, this was utterly heartbreaking and distressing to go through.
“All the situation needed was understanding and compassion. Now those crucial, dire and cherished minutes that were painful and harrowing enough were made needlessly agonising.”
City Taxis said in a statement they expressed to Ms Newton-Marshall their condolences for her loss and explained the charge to her. They understood her distress at an upsetting time and were thankful the driver was able to get her and Helena to the vet on time for her appointment.
But fouling the vehicle meant it had to be valeted, the firm said. It was standard practice to charge £50 for a thorough cleaning, to cover the cleaning of the carpet and door sea, but also for time the vehicle is out of service, added the company.
City Taxis said: “It is essential that licensed vehicles are kept clean and hygienic, especially after such incidents. Sheffield City Council allow this fee to be charged in its approved table of fees for Hackney Carriages, and the licensing view is that the Private Hire service should be afforded the same fee.
“We do sympathise with Ms Newton-Marshall’s circumstances, it was a difficult situation for all involved. Owing to the nature of this episode, we have decided to make a goodwill gesture payment of £50 to The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association which will contribute to their outstanding work.”
A long-serving taxi driver has warned other cabbies to “always be alert” after he was the victim of a brutal attack which left “blood everywhere.”
The Oxford Mail reports that self employed taxi driver Colin Dobson, who works primarily in Abingdon and Wantage, was sat in his cab near a pedestrian crossing in Kidlington, when a man approached his car, opened the door and punched him in the face.
The courageous cabby said: “I noticed the perpetrator some time before the attack. I and four or five other drivers hadn’t let him cut into the lane, so he overtook the entire stream of traffic on the wrong side of the road.
“He then stopped at the pedestrian crossing and got out of the vehicle. I sat there, he walked up to my car, opened the door, leaned in as if he was going to kiss me, said I should have let him in, then punched me in the face.
“There were no swear words, no verbal abuse. He did the whole thing very calmly. There was a lot of blood. There was blood everywhere.”
The taxi driver of 14 years, from Oxford, said usually he would lock his car doors if approached, but because he was in a new car when the attack happened, wasn’t too sure how to lock them.
Mr Dobson will have to undergo expensive dental work because of the assault.
He said: “I’m pretty upset. There was no choice but to take the tooth out, because it was split down the middle.
“The dentist said he’d never seen anything like it, the amount of force the guy hit me with.
“It’s cost me £300 for the emergency treatment, which is just a cap to stop the pain, but it will cost me £3,000 for an implant.”
Mr Dobson said he took the weekend off following the attack, which took place at around 3.30pm on Friday, August 11.
He said: “If you’re a self-employed taxi driver you rely on driving jobs for income, so I had no choice but to get back in the car.
“I took some time off to recover, and now I’m back serving the people of Oxfordshire.”
Having picked up from the Abingdon taxi rank before going independent, Mr Dobson has seen his fair share of antisocial behaviour.
He said: “Before this attack nothing had happened to me personally, but I’ve witnessed it multiple times with other drivers over the years.
“It’s a very high-risk occupation, especially between 1am and 5am when people are frequently drunk."
A Thames Valley Police spokesperson said: “We received a report of an assault in Kidlington, at around 5.40pm on Friday, August 11.
“A man got out of a car, approached the victim, a man in his fifties, who was also in a car, and shouted at him before punching him in the face.
“The offender then got back in his car and drove off. The victim suffered a facial injury but did not require medical treatment."
Source: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23722581.abingdon-taxi-driver-attacked-blood-everywhere/
A London taxi driver has pushed back against card payments as he warned the decline in cash was affecting his business.
The Express reports that cab driver Howard Taylor revealed that cash is only used for around one-tenth of his journeys every day. The rest all use cards to fund their trips which forces Taylor to make less money on every journey.
Card payments take around two per cent of the revenue he makes on every trip meaning he is missing out on extra income.
The news is likely to be replicated across the industry with the situation only made worse with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
Taylor told GB News: “What happens in the future is anybody’s guess. When they’ve got the game to themselves and there is no cash, they can charge what they like – no one’s got any options.
“I don’t like anybody to have too much control over everybody else. Especially when you’re talking about something as basic as one’s finances.”
Transport for London warns all taxi drivers must accept card and contactless payments.
Meanwhile, they warn all vehicles must be fitted with a TfL-approved payment device with other tools not allowed.
Earlier this year, taxi drivers in Tunbridge Wells were told off by the borough council after reports from passengers that drivers were insisting on cash.
Some locals had reported being turned away by taxis after explaining they could not pay with notes or coins.
But, drivers explained the fees are “very high” with added costs often not subsidised.
Clayton Berry of Cleggy’s Taxis told Times of Tunbridge Wells: “Taxi drivers are already paying for licensing, petrol and the vehicle, and this is another cost on top.
“We are stuck to the meter price, set by the council and we cannot increase our fares to cover the extra cost, unlike private hires can.”
Toni Conlon, from Tunbridge Wells 888 warned some firms could lose up to 3.5 per cent of a fare by using a card.
Meanwhile, drivers can sometimes be left waiting up to a week to get paid by card companies after a transaction.
He also pointed out that a lack of signal can make it difficult to receive money from customers.
The Federation of Small Businesses warned transaction rates could increase in another blow for drivers.
They explained: “If we ended up with a cashless high street, then that is a big competitor to the card companies in terms of a payment method gone.
“Without that competitor, naturally that gives them more of a monopoly position.
“And so it's not that much of a stretch of the imagination that they could then put up their fees because, for a retailer, they may have no other way of taking payments.”
Source: https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/1802026/taxi-driver-london-card-payments-cash
Clydebank taxi drivers have reacted to the news that stones will be removed from a local train station following a rise in antisocial behaviour in the town.
In July the Clydebank Post reported that frustrated drivers were calling for urgent action to be taken at Clydebank train station after eight years of stone-throwing incidents in the Chalmers/Alexander Street area.
Last week it was confirmed that ScotRail will be removing the red chip stones from the platform at Clydebank and replacing them with soil and grass landscaping.
However, the news came as little comfort for the Clydebank Taxi Operators and Drivers Trade (CTODT) which says they can’t see this move ending the problem.
Charles Murray, chairman of CTODT, said: “I’d rather they [ScotRail] just tarred it and then the kids have got nothing to throw because they can still throw grass.
“Since we last spoke a month ago there’s been three or four different incidents where buses have had their windows smashed.
“The police turned up last week and they’re telling us they can’t do anything, the kids are just running free.
“I just can’t see this ending, especially with the lack of policing powers. This isn’t solving anything.”
ScotRail confirmed the stones will be removed however said there is no start date for the work to begin.
It is understood that West Dunbartonshire Council will need to grant the rail operator permission to carry out the work before a date can be set.
A local councillor has sparked a debate on passenger safety after claiming that using locally licensed taxis is safer than hailing an Uber.
A taxi driver was attacked and subjected to racist abuse after two brothers refused to pay him up front.
Christopher Hilling, 64, admitted to engaging a child in sexual activity at Chelmsford Crown Court on Thursday 8 August.
Abdigani Ebrahim, 38, of Grangetown, admitted charges of affray and criminal damage following the incident in Northcote Street, Roath, last July.
The crackdown targeted drivers operating across council boundaries to ensure public safety and compliance with regulations.
Lucio Valentino relies on his six-year-old Border Collie, Pixel, to help manage his mental health conditions, including depression and personality disorders.
Taxi drivers across the Fylde Coast are set to receive a briefing note aimed at clearing up confusion over out-of-area private hire vehicles.
Police are appealing to find a taxi driver who may have "vital clues" about the murder of Ryan Passey seven years ago since he was fatally stabbed in a Stourbridge nightclub.
A joint operation by Hull City Council, Wolverhampton Council, and Humberside Police has uncovered a number of safety issues with taxis operating in the city.
French taxi drivers are calling for government compensation after suffering significant revenue losses during the Paris Olympics.
Coventry city centre has introduced a new taxi marshal service aimed at improving safety and efficiency for late-night revellers.
A court heard harrowing details of the moment a drink-driving uninsured motorist killed three people in a 90mph crash.
The Taxi Charity for Military Veterans was amongst the thousands who enjoyed the Battle Proms at Highclere Castle on 3 August.
Swindon residents could be facing a hike in taxi fares from October after councillors gave the green light to a £1 increase in the standard fare minimum charge.
Ricky Harold, a 20-year veteran of the town’s taxi trade, was parked in a lay-by when his vehicle was struck from behind by a black Audi A2.
Chinese automotive giant Geely has deepened its commitment to the UK electric vehicle market with a £120m cash injection into London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC).
North Tyneside Council is facing a backlash over plans to increase taxi fares by 6.3%.
Nazim Asmal preyed on his victims after nights out in Preston and Darwen, driving them to secluded spots before carrying out horrific sexual assaults.
Newcastle is set to see a surge in pink taxis driven by women as part of a new initiative aimed at improving passenger safety.
An unlicensed taxi driver who picked up two vulnerable women in Aberdare has been ordered to pay nearly £1,500 in fines and costs.