Taxi Driver Online

Ooft

Well this is interesting, but hardly surprising in a way...

And some interesting stuff about the badging process as well from a historical perspective. I mean, when he was licensed almost three decades ago it took him three years to get a Sefton PH badge?


Taxi driver who waited 50 minutes to report Southport killer 'to face council probe'

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/li ... 0-32552969

Sefton Council said Gary Poland will be investigated to see if his behaviour on July 29 last year was appropriate

The taxi driver who waited 50 minutes to call 999 after the Southport killer stormed a child's dance party will be investigated to see if his behaviour was "inappropriate". Gary Poland told the ongoing Southport Inquiry on Thursday this week that he drove away from the Hart Space after hearing screams and seeing children fleeing the building because he heard "four or five gunshots".

The driver recalled seeing six and seven-year-old children "stampede for their lives" out of the building within 30 seconds of Axel Rudakubana's attack. But following the incident, Mr Poland called his friend twice and picked up an extra fare before he eventually went home and called the police to provide details about what he knew about the teenage killer.

Rudakubana, who is only being referred to in proceedings as AR, murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and attempted to murder 10 others when he "specifically targeted" the Taylor Swift-themed dance party on July 29 last year.

Giving evidence to the inquiry, sitting at Liverpool Town Hall, Sefton Council's head of taxi licences Mark Toohey was asked about Mr Poland's delay in calling the emergency services.

Richard Boyle, junior counsel for the inquiry, asked Mr Toohey: "Do you agree that when Mr Poland left the immediate scene he was aware that AR had made off without paying…that he had heard what he believed to be four or five gunshots…that he believed that AR had actually shot people…and that he had a loaded gun that he was using?" Mr Toohey agreed to all.

Mr Boyle then asked: "Do you agree because of his role as the taxi driver who had transported AR, he was uniquely placed to assist the police because he knew the address that AR had been collected from…and he could give a description of AR’s appearance and demeanour immediately before the attack…and that he also had dashcam footage on his vehicle?"

After Mr Toohey agreed again, Mr Boyle asked: "Do you agree that Mr Poland should have called 999 immediately after he was satisfied it was safe to do so?" The council employee replied: "I would say yes," and said the decision to wait 50 minutes to make the 999 call went against advice provided by a handbook issued to all Sefton Council drivers.

Mr Boyle asked if Mr Poland's actions amounted to "inappropriate behaviour". Mr Toohey said: "I think it warrants an investigation into the actions of Mr Poland, yes." Mr Boyle added: "It is not my role in any way to make a suggestion as to the outcome of any such investigation but do I take it...that the council intends to do so?"

Mr Toohey said: "Yes, I don’t make decisions in isolation. We have a licensing panel and a driver such as Mr Poland would be invited to make representations and supply any information that he thought was relevant to support him before any decision was made."

In his own evidence Mr Poland confirmed he was an "experienced private hire taxi driver" and had been doing it for 27 years at the time of the attack. He told the inquiry it took him three years to qualify as a taxi driver which included nights at college.

He said "nowadays they give licences to anybody" and added: "I get picked up when I get a cab, they are foreigners that can't even speak English." Mr Toohey told the inquiry that since the end of 2013 new taxi drivers in Sefton were tested on the contents of the council-issued handbook, while drivers renewing their licences such as Mr Poland did not have to take the same test.

Also giving evidence to the inquiry was Liam Rice, general manager of One Call Taxis. He was asked by the inquiry's senior counsel, Nicholas Moss KC, "in this situation, your expectation of any of your drivers, if they thought there had been something so extreme that gunshots had been fired, you would have expected them to call 999 as soon as they got to a safe position?"

Mr Rice responded: "Yes, as with anyone, we would expect them to ring 999." He confirmed there had not been any disciplinary action taken against Mr Poland since the incident.

However, it appeared Mr Rice was not aware of some of the details about the incident until the inquiry began, confirming in his written statement "I now know I was not fully aware of what Mr Poland reported to the police about what happened".

Mr Rice added: "In my mind he had accepted a job and then obviously come out, was in shock and then phoned but obviously there was a lot more of a delay than I thought."

The inquiry heard Mr Poland had collected Rudakubana from his home at 10 Old School Close in Banks under the false name "Simon" before driving him to Hart Street because he thought the teenager was collecting his car from a local garage.

The inquiry heard when Rudakubana left the taxi and walked away, Mr Poland followed him and said "you pay now or the police are on their f***ing way you k***". When asked if he would have still confronted Rudakubana in the same way if he knew he had a knife, Mr Poland said: "If I thought he had a knife, I probably would have got out and disarmed him…it is only a knife."

Mr Poland said he had "accidentally" accepted a new fare after he had driven away from the scene. His dash-cam revealed he told his female passenger "he's in a rush" when they passed a police car with its sirens and blue lights on, likely on its way to the scene of the crime.

Mr Poland drove home, spoke to his wife and then called 999 - 50 minutes after he had dropped off Rudakubana. However, the inquiry heard his delay in making the call would not have affected the response time from the police and ambulance service because dance teacher Leanne Lucas had already phoned 999.

In his statement to the inquiry, Mr Poland said: "On reflection of events I do consider that I should have called the police earlier, in hindsight I wish I had done and it is something I think about every day, what I should have done and how this is my fault because I drove him there.

"I should have checked on the welfare of the children and helped. I thought there was a gunman shooting at people and I believed this to be a person who I had just been shouting at to pay a fare. I did believe I was in danger of being a target.

"I regret not helping the children, their screams were harrowing and I can still hear them when I think back to that day. I cannot imagine what the victims and the families of the victims have been through and they have my deepest sympathy for what happened that day."

Rudakubana was jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years in January at Liverpool Crown Court, after admitting the "sadistic" murders and attempted murders.

Sir Adrian Fulford, chairman of the inquiry, previously said: "What occurred on that day has made it critically necessary, moreover, to identify all the changes that need to be implemented in order to ensure, as best as our society is able, that there is no repetition."

The first phase of the inquiry, which is expected to run until November, continues.

This is a link to Sefton's Taxi Licensing Handbook, and the stuff below is maybe the most relevant part of it, and is easily findable on the 68-page document, because it's quite near the top.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 42W7tYZ6kV


Safeguarding Children and Young People & Sexual Exploitation
(L & R 30th March 2015)


1. As members of the general community, drivers of hackney carriages and private hire cars are in a good position to help to keep children and young people safe. Drivers work with all sorts of members of the public, and will often see things that seem strange or troubling, but they do not necessarily know what to do about it. The following advice is given in order to help licensed drivers to help us protect the children and young people in our area.

2. Child protection is the business of all members of every community. If a driver sees anything that seems troubling or wrong, he or she has a responsibility to report this to the relevant authorities, so that the child might be helped. People are often unwilling to get involved, but without the help of all members of the public, social workers and the police have no way of knowing which children are at risk.

3. The things that could indicate that a child or young person is at risk or being mistreated could include the following:

• Someone punching or kicking a child or young person, or hitting them in a way that goes further than reasonable chastisement or normal physical discipline

• A child or young person with physical injuries

• Someone screaming or shouting at a child or young person in a way that seems more than just a person telling a child off. This can involve calling the child nasty names and speaking in a way that would be very distressing to the child or young person, and would be likely to make them feel worthless and unloved

• A child or young person who looks very poorly dressed, perhaps, for example, a child who is wearing clothes that don’t seem warm enough in the cold winter weather

• An adult bullying a child or young person

• A child or young person who seems hungry

• A child or young person who seems scared and cowed

• A child or young person who looks dirty and neglected, or is smelly and unkempt

• A child or young person who seems to have nowhere in particular to go

•A young child in the care of someone who seems to be so drunk or drugged that they are not in a fit state to look after them properly

• A child or young person who seems to be going somewhere they shouldn’t, such as places where there are known dangers

4. If a driver should see anything similar to the above, or anything that gives them a sense of real unease about a child, then they should ring the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub, (the MASH) and report their concerns. The number for the MASH is 0345 140 0845. If, of course, you feel a child or young person is in serious danger of immediate harm, you should call the emergency Police telephone number 999.

So it's all the usual pretty obvious stuff. (The second part of the safeguarding stuff is more specifically about sexual exploitation.)

And, to an extent, the type of stuff we'd normally question on here if a council was doing a 'test purchasing'-style thing to see if the driver notices and reports anything.

Of course, this is of a different ilk entirely, and the consequences off the scale, and the red flags more than obvious to any human being.

On the other hand, precisely what the legal status of the kind of thing above is, is anyone's guess, and it will be interesting to see how this progresses. I mean, the word 'advice' is used above, so to that extent is there a legal obligation for the driver to report in terms of his licence? On the other hand, it also states: "If a driver sees anything that seems troubling or wrong, he or she has a responsibility to report this to the relevant authorities."

Of course, it's hardly surprising that Sefton council is carrying out an investigation into the driver, but how it proceeds is maybe a bit more questionable

And, I mean, you don't need safeguarding training or whatever to realise you should maybe phone 999 when something like what the driver witnessed happens

I wonder if he will be judged by licensing officials who never go out alone, due to concerns about their safety.

I've said what I've said about the driver and what I would have hopefully done if I were in his place, but considering taking enforcement action against the driver, given his current mental state (as expressed in the inquiry), looks to me quite mean.

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IDFIMH

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