Taxi Driver Online

Nothing to do with me, and this happened just outside the East zone. Although I am on this road every couple of weeks or so, unlike other parts of Fife which I could barely find on a map


Police probe claims taxi driver shared photos of dead man’s body after Fife crash

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/lo ... ife-crash/

Police in Fife are probing allegations a taxi driver who managed to avoid striking a pedestrian involved in a fatal road accident at the weekend subsequently shared photographs of the dead man’s body.

Relatives of Robert Walker, who was from the Levenmouth area, have branded the alleged behaviour as “sick” and “disgusting” as they try to come to terms with his tragic passing in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Mr Walker, 59, was pronounced dead at the scene of a collision on the A915 Largo Road, near Scoonie Brae in Leven, at around 2.20am.

Witnesses revealed a taxi had taken evasive action to avoid Mr Walker, with the driver staying behind to offer assistance while awaiting emergency services.

It has emerged Police Scotland has since received formal complaints about the taxi driver’s alleged conduct.

Liz Moir, Mr Walker’s sister, described the alleged behaviour as “very inappropriate”, and took to social media to suggest photos had been shared with immediate family members and other taxi drivers.

Magnum Taxis, which operates the vehicle seen at the scene on Sunday morning, released a statement to clarify its position and it is understood the company has taken steps to address the allegations.

It read: “The owners and staff of Magnum Taxis would like to express our deepest condolences to the family of Rab Walker who sadly lost his life in the early hours of Sunday morning.

“As many people seem to be aware, one of our drivers was a witness to the incident.

“Although it was late and dark and the weather conditions weren’t great, he managed to avoid Mr Walker and subsequently stopped (along with the driver and passengers of another vehicle that was following close behind) to attend to Mr Walker and call the police.

“The police have since been able to access the CCTV cameras that are installed in our vehicles and were clearly able to see that Mr Walker was sadly already lying in the road on our driver’s approach and that our driver clearly avoided him.

“We would ask you all to please pass on this information to anyone who has been led to believe anything other than the facts.

“We sincerely hope this does not distract from the sad situation that the family of Mr Walker find themselves in.”

Mr Walker’s daughter responded to the statement, stressing the family does not want to “destroy anybody’s company” but has issues with the individual driver’s alleged conduct.

Police are still appealing for witnesses to the accident, including anyone that may have seen Mr Walker on Saturday night or Sunday morning, or who might have passed him while he was walking from the direction of Leven High Street towards Blacketyside some time after 1.30pm.

A spokesperson for Police Scotland refused to confirm or deny complaints had been made, but simply noted: “Enquiries into the circumstances of the crash are ongoing and we are liaising with the family.”

is that where james bond villains go to retire

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

Anybody still doubt the value of CCTV.

That said the driver is a c*** of the highest order if he took photos of a dead man.

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IDFIMH

Oh, aye, that's what I meant to say earlier, but forgot.

The statement from the taxi firm says *nothing* about the claim about the photographs. It's merely about the driver and that he wasn't responsible for the death.

But whether the statement is simply meant to deflect attention from the photograph allegation, or whether there have been claims that the taxi driver was responsible for the death, isn't clear

No taxi element to this, but another incident (a double fatality) maybe a couple of hundred yards from where the pedestrian was hit and killed in the early hours a few months ago.

Happened about 3am this morning, and both twenty-somethings, car with two occupants struck a building, so at around the same time of night as the pedestrian fatality, which police were also questioning a twenty-something about.





I know this road quite well, but couldn't place where the photos were taken.

But if you look at StreetView you can see that the photos exaggerate the curve and the slope down towards the damaged building (which is bang in the middle, at the far end of the visable stretch of road).

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.20216 ... 6656?hl=en

And if you turn the view round you can see that's it's a similarly straight road up the incline for several hundred yards:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.20216 ... 6656?hl=en

But the photos probably taken with powerful telephoto lenses, which make long distances seem short, so a bit like lots of these photos taken during lockdown which showed people close together on a beach (say), but in reality probably quite far apart.

Anyway, that road would be a 30 stretch, and at that time of the night very probably zero other cars and pedestrians in the area, even outside lockdown.

To underline how this photo distorts the scene, check out the cream coloured building to the left, which has a street sign attached at the end. You'd almost think it was joined on to the damaged building, or at least very close.

But look here at the link below, and the car has demolished the corner of the building to the right, the corner with that blue door which says CORRACH or similar above it.

The cream coloured building is the one at the other side of the roundabout

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.20302 ... 6656?hl=en

Compare too this view of the approach to the damaged building with the photo above

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.20268 ... 6656?hl=en

And in case anyone hadn't worked it out, the car is a Golf GTI. Or was a Golf GTI

(By the way, best way to compare the photo to the StreetViews is to right-click on the links, and click 'Open link in new tab'. You can then click between the various tabs to quickly compare the views.)

remind me never to eat cream from Scottish cows if it's that colour !!

seriously though that car must have been going at some speed to veer off the road and hit the building like that

I take it this is a road that drivers tend to put their foot down a bit ?

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

It's normally early hours if I'm on that road, so zero or very little traffic around, but does seem type of road where many would drive quite fast at that time without particular danger.

But, as you suggest, something would have to be badly amiss to fail to negotiate a light curve in the road like that in a 30mph zone.

If it had been an 80-year-old during the day you'd suspect a 'medical episode', or similar.

But early hours, Golf GTI, two twenty-somethings

Of course, there's all sorts of stuff on social media, from 'two of the lovliest guys you'd ever meet', to them being drunk and the car stolen.

No doubt we'll hear the facts in due course. Then again, when only the deceased involved and no other casualties, the investigations into this kind of thing are often not publicised much. I suspect it's out of sensitivity to the deceased's friend and relatives - there's no one to charge, and there are no other victims, but families are still grieving

Actually there are victims such as the garage whose premises are partially demolished, the insurance company that has to pay for the mess;the grieving parents who will probably never know exactly what happened. Then there's the emergency services who have to cope with dealing with the gruesome remains etc. etc.

pedant mode off

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

Indeed, but I think they tend to put the deceaseds' families sensitivities above all others where the victims only suffer financial losses and there are no actual victims of a crime.

And the 'grieving parents' might be spared the full facts and get a sugar-coated version of events from the authorities, because there's no crime to prosecute, or whatever.

Just my impression of these things, like

And probably depends on factors like the seriousness of the thing, and where and how it's investigated and reported - suspect the national press more likely to go for the jugular, while local papers maybe more inclined to sugar-coat it all.

I mean, not unusual to read about boy racer types dying alone in a crash, and all we read about is what a great guy he was, and photos of flowers and soft toys left at the scene.

But nothing about the fact that he drove around like a headcase half the time

Of course, this is a bit more serious than even a young guy alone hitting a tree and dying, so we shall see

Got to be 100 yards away.

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IDFIMH

with modern digital cameras the amount you can zoom in and still be in focus is vast compared to negative film

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

'Lens compression', I think it's called. There was/is quite a lot of debate about it as regards overcrowded beaches and people queueing during lockdown, and how media used the technique to exaggerate how close together people were on beaches and in queues etc. Obviously media like to spice up stories with stuff like that, but it can portray things inaccurately.

In fact, had a quick Google about it, and came across this photo in an article about an ice cream shop in Cornwall reopening (and it had to close again because of complaints about cross-contamination due to choclate flakes, or something like that ). Note the caption below the photo:


Long queues outside Jelbert's in the afternoon of the first day of its reopening. (Note: Social distancing was being adhered to. Compression of telephoto lens makes people in the queue appear closer than they are.) (Image: Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)

But there's a lot worse than that. Basically, you get a monster telephoto lens, go maybe half a mile away from a crowd of people on a beach, zoom in, and the result looks like the people are a lot closer together than they are in reality.

So here's a slightly different version of the Leven photo, showing the cream building which looks like it's right beside the damaged building, but in reality they're maybe 100 yards apart:



Anyway, a report in the Courier claims the Golf hit a BMW parked on the other side of the road, then mounted the pavement and collided with the building. But if this is a photo of the BMW then it's actually on the same side as the damaged building, but about four houses further up the road:



Ironically it's next to the speed camera sign. But note that there are no fixed speed cameras in Fife, only mobile vans, and you definitely wouldn't see a mobile van at that time of the night.

Anyway, the Courier says one of the guys worked at a bar just round the corner. And I actually wondered if this happening after the pubs had reopened for just the second night could have been a factor somehow, although I wasn't thinking that one of the car's occupants was actually working in a bar (although it's not clear whether he'd actually been working there before the crash).

But media reports are full of gushing tributes to the two deceased, but maybe I should stop there

And thanks to Edders for pointing out my minor spelling error last night which is now corrected.

And I've also corrected the following, because it referred to the two deceased as 'victims', so potentially confusing them with the victims in terms of the building's owners, insurers etc.

I've also added another apostrophe, so thanks to Edders for not sticking the knife in and saying I'd missed one out

Another good example of 'lens compression' in the local press. You can almost tell by looking at it that it distorts things:



I'm guessing it's taken from about this point in Streetview below, using a powerful lens to zoom in on the area to the centre of the photo. Use the + arrow in StreetView to zoom in, and you can see the lamppost and lifebuoy on the right hand pavement, plus the pale coloured modern building to the centre of the photo. (You can see the row of parked cars on the left in the photo above, but not the row of buildings, which are off the photo to the left.)

https://www.google.com/maps/@56.4644427 ... 384!8i8192

But Streetview gives a much better idea of the distance involved, and suggests that in reality the pavements and road are very sparsely populated.

And go back to the original Streetview on the link above (ie before using the + function) and travel forward up the road and see how far you have to go before arriving at the cream coloured builing at the centre of the photo above. (However, the first Streetview scene is quite recent, but when you move up to that building it seems to go back to the 2012 view, so it looks like only one of the blocks (of flats, presumably) had been constructed at that time, so the reality is maybe that the flats are now closer than they appear on the old StreetView )