Taxi Driver Online

Hinckley taxi drivers call for more protection while working



A TAXI driver from Hinckley who was assaulted after a customer urinated on his car seat is calling for more protection for town cabbies.

When Barry Moore started work one Thursday evening, he did not envisage ending up in hospital having stitches in his forehead and nursing a badly bruised arm.

The 47-year-old was attacked by two men at 3am on Friday August 16 at the George Street taxi rank.

The men got into his taxi and Mr Moore told them it would cost £45 to drive them to Coventry but they said it was too much money and an argument broke out. Mr Moore then politely asked the men to get out.

Mr Moore said: “One of the men threatened me while the other urinated on my back seat.

“He had a bottle on the floor and he picked it up and hit me over the head. I was covered in blood and bruised my arm trying to defend myself.

“It was totally unprovoked.”

Mr Moore said there were two witnesses that called the police but there were no police officers on patrol at the time so he decided to drive himself to hospital. He went to the police the following morning to give a statement.

He added: “Us taxi drivers - we have no protection. The town centre bars have CCTV and bouncers and police patrolling because people get drunk and aggressive.

“We have to take these people home and we get no help at all. We need something outside the taxi rank.

“I think I was very lucky to get away with what I did get.

“We have a pregnant lady on the taxi ranks and older guys. What if something happened to them?”

It is understood there is a CCTV camera that has partial coverage of George Street but taxi drivers still feel more should be done.

Tina Duane represents Hinckley taxi drivers. She said: “We don’t have enough back up.

“We have campaigned for a long time for this. We should not have to put us with this behaviour - we are human beings too.

“I bet if you asked every taxi driver in Hinckley they would all have a story about being mistreated.”

Inspector Jonny Starbuck of Hinckley police has defended his officers and says the incident is being investigated.

He said: “Police officers do routinely patrol Hinckley town centre.

“We have more patrols on Friday and Saturday nights but police may need to be called to somewhere else - it depends on other demands in the borough.

“The incident is being thoroughly investigated by PC Clive Clarke.

“We will continue to monitor the situation and we are willing to work with the council.”

A spokesperson from Leicestershire Police said: “Officers attended the area within 10 minutes of the report being received and were informed by the ambulance service that the victim had made his own way to hospital for treatment.

“The victim attended a police station to provide a statement later on the same morning.

“The assault is currently under investigation and enquiries are being made locally in a bid to trace witnesses. If anyone witnessed the incident or knows who the perpetrators may be they are urged to contact the police.”

A spokesperson from Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, said: “We will be happy to work with the police and the taxi drivers to discuss the situation.”

source: http://www.hinckleytimes.net/news-in-hi ... -33782388/

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Lots of talk but no real suggestions.

Just put a CCTV in the cab, and see the faces of the scum when they first notice the cameras.

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IDFIMH

Here's my little runner from yesterday, footage took to the Police who will be charging him with making off without payment and obtaining services dishonestly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPY20D5k ... e=youtu.be

thats a good quality picture what camera are you using?

Surely all the kids up your way ain't as thick as that pillock?

He couldn't be any nearer to the CCTV if he was sitting on it.

Is there some sort of local Facebook that you can put it on.

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IDFIMH

It's on the local Ashfield group, I got a name within minutes of me putting it up. The Police are going round sometime this next week.

This little puppy. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Taxi-Cab-Dual ... 53f8a75c65

That is an interesting piece of kit Nidge. Does it need to be connected to the power supply all the time or just to charge it up?

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Grandad,

You get a decent length of cable with a 12volt power plug, I've routed mine round the headlining, down the door pillars and under the dash and I still had to coil some cable up.

It can be connected all the time or you can run it off the battery. There's no wires showing where I have mine.

I see that it doesnt offer the 32 bit encryption that some authorites insist on. But how long does the 32gb card give you?

i like that kit kills 2 birds with one stone.does it just clip over yer mirror or replace it totally and can customers see themselves being recorded

32gig gives you at least 8 hours recording depending on the size of recordings you use, I've got mine set to 5 minutes, I can set it for 2-3-5 or 10 minute recordings.

You don't need encryption as long as you don't abuse the data on the card.

I wouldn't be without it mate, we worth the money.

Like loading the images up to facebook.

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Grandad,

the forward facing pics are a bit dark considering it was still daylight at that time

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