Taxi Driver Online

LONDON TAXI SAVES FOUR LIVES IN SKIP ACCIDENT

A purpose-built London taxi saved the lives of four occupants when a skip landed on top of it in a horrific accident.

The strength of the London-style cab, manufactured by Coventry-based LTI Vehicles, shielded a mother and her two children who were in the vehicle at the time, as well as the female driver.

The passengers were able to walk away from the crash in Edinburgh. Driver Sharon Bain, aged 44, was trapped by the skip for four hours as firefighters fought to cut her free, but was protected from serious injury by the rugged shell of the vehicle.

And Sharon believes she would have been killed if it had not been for the solid construction of the taxi.

She was driving up a hill when the lorry coming the opposite way, carrying two empty skips, hit a bridge and toppled over, shedding the skips onto the purpose-built cab.

“I was trapped against the steering vehicle, lying on my left side, with one of the skips right at my shoulder,” recalled Sharon, a cab driver for three years, who had bought a TX model in September with fiancé Martin Wilson.

“The passengers had been protected by the vehicle and because the taxi is so solid it took the fire service quite a while to free me.

“If I had not been in a purpose-built taxi, I would never have survived. The fire brigade told me that.

“They also said they had never had to get to anyone in a taxi before and it took longer than they thought because of how well built it is. They are going to be getting one involved in training their crews in the future.

“I will definitely be getting another LTI Vehicles purpose built cab. It saved my life. If I had been in a normal vehicle, it would just have crumpled on top of me.

“I would definitely encourage other drivers to get a purpose-built taxi. It could save their life.”

Sharon, a driver with City Cabs, suffered a broken rib in the accident.

The incident has raised concerns over recent changes in taxi licensing regulations which allowed other, non-purpose-built vehicles to be used as Hackney carriages in Edinburgh.

Keith Landles, an Edinburgh taxi driver and member of the Edinburgh Taxi Information Group, said: “There is a strong ground-swell of sentiment growing within the cab ranks that it was only the solid, sturdy, traditional design of the TXII vehicle that saved four lives in this accident.

“Significantly, there is also a flipside that other vehicles, by virtue of their adapted design, would simply not have done the same.

“In other words, had these people been travelling in an adapted vehicle not custom-built for the taxi trade, these four people might well have died.”

The robust design of the latest version of the London taxi, the TX4, and its predecessors, ensures that both passengers and drivers are given maximum protection in the event of an accident.

Matthew Cheyne, Sales and Marketing Director for LTI Vehicles, said: “As our vehicles are purpose-built for work as a taxi, they are designed and built with safety and strength in mind to protect occupants as much as possible in the event of an accident.

“The steel shell of the passenger compartment can withstand significant impact. This is something which is not always a feature on vehicles converted for use as cabs.

“Like our new taxi, all of our models go through rigorous testing to make sure they are the safest they can possibly be.

“LTI Vehicles is proud that it can provide this assurance.”

For further information about LTI Vehicles and the TX4 visit www.lti.co.uk.

Photograph supplied courtesy of the Edinburgh Evening News.