Taxi Driver Online

Taxi driver suffers trip from hell with racist passengers

A taxi driver was attacked in his cab by racist yobs who took him on a journey from hell. The Bangladeshi cabbie was subjected to a tirade of abuse after picking three thugs up from a takeaway in Whitley Bay. They called him sickening names and assaulted him while ordering the petrified driver to take them home.

The cabbie managed to press an emergency button in his car to alert control staff but, although they rang the police, the taxi firm claims officers only turned up after the attackers had fled.

Today Paul Irwin, owner of Whitley Bay-based East Coast Foxhunters Taxis, criticised police for their response. Northumbria Police say they acted as quickly as they could.

Mr Irwin said: "We have a GPS tracker and when the drivers press the emergency button the system zooms in and gives us an exact location for the car. "These thugs were in the car for about 15 or 20 minutes being tracked by us and we told the police but they failed to catch up with the taxi.

"Our taxi dispatcher thought the guy was being murdered because all he could hear on his mobile phone was the sound of him being hit and beaten. "I spent a lot of money on this tracking system to make the drivers safer. "The victim is a really decent family man and he did everything right in trying to defuse the situation and I feel so sorry for him."

The cabbie had picked up his attackers, aged around 40, from a Bangladeshi takeaway in Whitley Bay, at around 12.30am on Sunday. They travelled through North Shields and one of the men got out of the taxi at Royal Quays, near the shopping outlet. The other two got out at East Howdon, all without paying.

Alan Fidler, secretary of North Tyneside Taxi Organisation, said: "The council and police devote considerable efforts towards protecting the public from unsuitable persons becoming taxi drivers but, unfortunately, it seems the same effort is not devoted to protecting taxi drivers against attack from undesirable customers. "This was violence on no grounds other than the man was from an ethnic minority."

Chief Insp Bruce Storey, of North Tyneside Area Command Police, said: "The report was made at 12.56am on Sunday. It was responded to urgently and we were with the driver within seven minutes. "During that time we were in continual touch with the taxi firm. "We are continuing to treat this matter very seriously and are trying to trace three men who were verbally abusive to the taxi driver and made off without payment."

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IDFIMH

If the police were really with him within 7 minutes, then that's not bad, but the firm claimed they were tracking the car for 15-20 minutes.

As usual, it's often difficult to work out who's telling the truth.

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