Taxi Driver Online

HALCYON THEURI DEATH: Faulty demister meant taxi driver did not spot young man in Derbyshire road


A taxi driver did not spot young chef Halcyon Theuri as he lay drunk in a Derbyshire road because of the car's faulty demister, an inquest concluded.

Other factors which made it difficult to see Mr Theuri before the taxi delivered a fatal head injury were his dark skin, low light and poor weather conditions.

A coroner concluded the taxi driver did not see the 21-year-old, who worked at the Peacock in Alfreton, but that he 'should have been apparent to an observant driver'.

Speaking after the inquest at Derby coroners' court yesterday, Mr Theuri's mum Faith Marriott said 'there are lessons to be learned' concerning the 'care and upkeep' of taxis.

Mrs Marriott said: "We feel there are lessons to be learned concerning the circumstances of his death, surrounding the care and upkeep of taxi vehicles and the duty of care they should have to passengers in vulnerable states.

"We can't leave people in vulnerable states and we can't leave their fate to chance."

Her husband Andi supported Mrs Marriot during the inquest and stood silently next to his wife as she read a heartfelt tribute to their 'beautiful boy'.

She said: "This was a devastating loss because we loved him dearly – and he loved us. He was such a wonderful person and he will be missed so very, very much."

Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Louise Pinder said he was hit by a motor car at 3.46am on Monday, August 31, resulting in fatal injuries.
She said 'the driver of the motor car did not see Halcyon in the carriageway' and he 'should have been apparent to an observant driver', but factors including the taxi's faulty demister contributed to the driver not seeing Mr Theuri.

Ms Pinder said there was confusion as to who was responsible for the upkeep of the taxi as the driver was not directly employed by Alfreton company Amber Taxis, which had an arrangement with him.

She said: "There are issues that I remain concerned about. It's open for debate as to who is responsible for the maintenance of that vehicle. I will be writing to Amber Taxis but it will be in a fairly informal way."

However, the coroner revealed that the taxi has now been decommissioned and the driver in question is no longer doing taxi work.

Forensic collision investigator PC Iain McGregor said the investigation and circumstances surrounding Halcyon's death were 'unique'.

He said: "Sadly we do investigate collisions involving intoxicated people who fall or stumble into the paths of cars, but the circumstances of this is that the driver may not have been aware that he had been involved in the collision.

"It has been an exceptionally thorough investigation. There has been a lot of background work. A lot of people have been spoken to, a lot of vehicles have been examined by myself and my colleagues.

"But we have to bear in mind that a young man – it transpires a very nice, very polite, hard-working young man – has lost his life on a night out."

source: http://www.ripleyandheanornews.co.uk/ne ... -1-8303403

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

Personally I am appalled by the coroners words. The fact that the chap was [edited by admin] up and had fallen in the road was the main contributing factor here and to say that a more observant driver would have seen the chap is pure speculation. This coroner was not at the scene that night so can't possible state that a more observant driver would have seen the chap.

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Grandad,

Who is this we?

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IDFIMH

they found a fault with the vehicle so now they have someone to pin the blame on

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

I get that, but I would love to know who the 'we' is that can leave people in vulnerable states?

Maybe the 'we' is family members.

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IDFIMH

oe "we" as in society in general

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

I wonder how many people have "Balints Syndrome"......."We" have all been there - where we have looked.....but not seen!

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Fortunately the narrative verdict means that no one was to blame. But it does leave things open to speculation.

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Grandad,

or open to a claims company probably

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

This is total bollox. Where he was laid there's blind dips in the road. It's a nightmare in a daytime and much worse at night.

Amber Taxis rent their cars out to the drivers at £280 per week, the drivers then have to do all the repairs like servicing, tyres, bulbs and I think gearboxes too. To blame the Taxi driver for his death is nothing short of deplorable. It's alright the Police having these lasers trying to work out what happened then doing a blame game. Try driving down that road of a night time when it's raining and you'll be hard pressed to see the road never mind a young black lad laid in the middle of the road half cut on beer with dark clothing on.

As for the faulty demister that's another bag of bollox, when it's raining you've got all on keeping the windows clear with the air con when passengers are on board, are they saying the air con wasn't working or are they saying it was a faulty demister as in it wasn't working at all?

The Coroner on this one IMO has got it wrong. As for your stern letter to Steve Shirley the owner of Amber Taxis. Good luck he lives in Spain, he'll just laugh at it.

It means they tried to blame the driver but couldn't pin anything on him. A faulty de-mister (no aircon gas) doesn't effect the running of the car.

Try working for Amber Taxis, maintaining someone else's car while doing sub standard contract work at a reduced rate. The drivers have all on making a living never mind repairing the cars at Amber's garage where they get charged top dollar for a service.

Not us, it's the pubs fault. They serve them this falling down water.