Taxi Driver Online

Not really sure if this is job, because I suppose it could have happened to anyone, whether or not they're in the trade. On the other hand, some people will get particularly riled up if it's a taxi driver involved in this kind of thing, so maybe that's why he was targetted


Abingdon taxi driver attacked: 'blood everywhere'

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23722 ... everywhere


Image: Oxford Mail

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.”

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.


Image: Oxford Mail

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."


Image: Oxford Mail

Presumably emergency dental work and a later implant doesn't count as 'medical treatment'

Police could at least have said he didn't require 'hospital treatment' or whatever...

I find that driving a private car as opposed to a taxi these days that I get treated with a LOT more respect than when I drove a taxi

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

It might have helped the police out if the cabby had had CCTV.

Without that, or any details of the car, the chances of a successful prosecution are slim.

_________________
IDFIMH

He's supplied the police with the car reg, a photo of the guy and witness details and the area is covered by council CCTV.

He's on twitter as @theabingdontaxi

I think he's been in the local Oxford area press a few times (and mentioned on here if I remember correctly). He doesn't tweet much about his taxi work as much as he used to, as he now works for his local church.

That's good to hear.

Hopefully the police will pursue matters.

_________________
IDFIMH

Well spotted, Cerberus. For anyone unfamiliar with Twitter*, this is what the driver posted. Or at least some of it, but clearly he's not a happy chappie, but a lot of what he says reflects some of the comment that's regularly posted on here about police attitudes, and how they often try to downplay, mislead and gaslight, blah, blah...




*Or, strictly speaking, that's what he posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. It's now called X, but saying someone posted something on X could easily be misconstrued

Each to their own but I'm not convinced airing your grievances on Twitter/X is the way forward.

There are a number of avenues where someone can formally complain about the police, Twitter/X is not one of them.

We are now a nation of people wanting everything done and dusted within hours. Sadly the police don't work that way.

I will be surprised if the police don't catch this thug.

_________________
IDFIMH

I'm in two minds about this kind of thing. On the one hand, social media can have its uses and if, for example, if police aren't doing what they should be doing, then it's worth bringing it to the public's attention, for whatever reason.

I mean, in a way I'd guess that's why the likes of this website was set up in the first place, only that the target was presumably licensing authorities rather than police per se.

So I'm not so sure about the driver here posting the incident on twitter in the first place, but if police are trying to downplay it all and misrepresent it in the press then I think he's well within his rights to point this out. After all, it's kind of what some of us have been doing on here for years

And, for example, while not wanted to sensationalise all this kind of stuff, there's echoes of the Lucy Letby scenario about a lot of this kind of thing - it's more about the optics and the PR imperative, and brushing inconvenient stuff under the carpet.

On the other hand, to my mind the likes of Jeremy Vine and 'Cycling Mikey' are just elitist sociopathic bullies, in my opinion. They'll get people sacked, for example, for some minor offence that's not in the slightest bit dangerous, and splatter the culprit's face all over social media with, for example, slow-motion zoomed-in close-ups of the culprit's face.

That's a bit like the unoffical version of, for example, police here sitting in camera vans clocking people just over the speed limit, but causing zero substantive danger. And Fife Council have a small army of people going round the area installing speed bumps and various 'traffic calming' measures. Meanwhile, the worst and most dangerous of the boy racers, the lunatic summer bikers and reckless cyclists are just left to get on with it.

In the past couple of weeks, for example, one biker dead and another two seriously injured, and two boy racer types seriously injured on the very roads I'm on every other day. Who'd have expected that?

And more specific to the trade and the Jeremy Vine kind of thing, there's the likes of this trial by media thing last week initiated by a semi-literate tweet by the Bishop of Worcester (with photo):


So the driver's registration number is splattered all over twitter, and rehashed in the local press. And it's not even clear from the tweet whether it was the driver or passenger who threw the can out. Nor, of course, do we know with absolute certainty whether the can actually came from the taxi.

To be fair, the Worcester News website did blank out the rego number with their screengrab of the tweet but, I mean...

And, on slightly different note, the likes of the bishop must have life pretty easy if they think *one* discarded tin can is worth tweeting about

So it's all a matter of opinion, but while social media and the internet has its uses regarding stuff like this, it can be used for what looks to me suspiciously like picking on people and bullying.

Incidentally, for anyone unaware of who Cycling Mikey is, or who haven't read this piece, there was quite a lengthy article about him in today's Sunday Times:

https://archive.is/GOZ71

I'm well aware of him and posted a comment or two on his you tube channel suggesting that he's also blocking the traffic whilst trying to stop motorists misbehaving his reply was to call me a few names that I won't repeat on here the guy is an absolute d1ckheed

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

The point I was trying to get across is that the police take time, and people have an issue with that as they want everything all done and dusted within hours.

So moaning on Twitter/X isn't really going to help.

The other week one of my neighbours had his motorbike stolen. He put all the details up on Facebook.

The bike was found in a nearby underground garage.

However my neighbour made a song and dance, on Facebook, about the police not pursuing the matter further, despite the bike being found undamaged. Apparently, he wanted the police to find the thief. Which I suppose isn't an unreasonable request.

However, part 2, I asked my neighbour exactly what he expected the police to do. He said to fingerprint the bike. But what would that prove?

Even if they found fingerprints, no one saw the thief take the bike so any prints on the bike prove nothing. The thief could merely say he saw the bike on the floor where it was found and picked it up.

The police know that, and they know it's a waste of their time, especially in light of the bike being recovered undamaged.

_________________
IDFIMH

Reckless/attention-seeking/compo-chasing cyclist videos himself driving into the side of a car, tags Cycling Mikey on Twitter, asking whose fault it is.

Cycling Mikey thinks it's the driver's fault

These guys are a danger to themselves and others, and should be on suicide watch

https://twitter.com/Thenorthernlad7/sta ... 7497136426

Same with that elitist narcissistic bully Jeremy Vine.

I mean, look how early he anticipates the hazard, yet he just bulldozed on, obviously bent on creating danger and confrontation. Could have easily avoided any potential hazard, but look closely and he's literally too busy finger-wagging. Literally like this

https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine/statu ... 7134431571