Nidge2 wrote:
Around 7-8 years ago round here a Taxi driver who worked on our firm was travelling down a narrow street, there was only room for one car as the street was only 7ft wide.
He was travelling down this road at 25MPH when all of a sudden a pedestrian appeared from a side road, the driver didn't have a chance to stop even though he was only travelling 25MPH, contact was made and the pedestrian was thrown onto the kerb.
The driver got out of his Taxi to find that it was a 13 year old child, the ambulance was called and the child was taken to hospital, the driver was arrested, "yes arrested" and taken to the Police station. The Taxi was taken away so the police could pin something on he driver.
A few hours later the child sadly died of his injuries, blood tests revealed that the child was drunk and was three times over the drink drive limit. It turned out that the kids mates where also drunk and were messing around when he decided to run out without looking.
The Taxi driver was kept in limbo for over 8 months before the police had the courtesy to inform him that they wouldn't be taking it any further.
He got the car back 7 weeks after the accident and the police mechanics had ripped it to bits and only found a small oil leak.
The Police are always unfair when it comes to the motorist. It's never the pedestrians fault.
And if the poor innocent motorist happens to be someone from our trade the media always make a big thing about it being a "taxi driver".
Similar thing happened our way some years ago when a drunk walked out into the road giving the driver no chance. The poor guy had to put up with chants of "killer" from people in his own street.
I hope they have offered this poor guy some counselling