Taxi Driver Online

Taxi driver admits causing death of man lying in road in Partick



A taxi driver has admitted causing death by careless driving after he ran over and killed a man who was lying in the road.

Joseph Walker, 68, failed to spot 61-year-old Henry Boyd, who had stumbled on the road near the Deoch and Dorus pub in Glasgow's Partick area.

A pedestrian and a driver coming the opposite way had tried to warn Walker.

But Glasgow Sheriff Court heard he kept on driving and ended up hitting Mr Boyd, who had previously been drinking.

Mr Boyd - a divorced father of three - was pronounced dead at the scene.

Walker pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to causing Mr Boyd's death by careless driving on 25 November 2018.

Prosecutor Alasdair Shaw said Mr Boyd was lying on his back prior to the collision, but was conscious as efforts were made to get him up.

Mr Shaw added: "There were two pedestrians who saw him on the ground and another car coming in the opposite direction.

"The driver tried to flash his lights to get Walker's attention and one of the pedestrians waved at him but he kept on driving.

"While driving at 19 miles per hour, Walker ran over him and Mr Boyd was dragged under the car for a short distance."

'Didn't react to signals'

A 999 call was made but Mr Boyd was pronounced dead at the scene.

A collision investigation after the incident found that Walker had six seconds to see Mr Boyd on the road as he approached.

Ross Yuill, defending, told the court Walker had since surrendered his taxi licence and had not driven since the incident.

Mr Yuill added: "He never disputes that he was responsible for this man's death.

"He thought at that point that someone was trying to flag down his taxi.

"He checked his rear-view mirror and that's the point that he didn't react to the signals from others to stop.

"Mr Walker wasn't expecting someone to be lying on the road and wasn't expecting this to happen."

It was also revealed that Walker had previous convictions for speeding and driving through a red light.

Sheriff Martin Jones QC ordered Walker to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and disqualified him from driving for three years.

Walker was also tagged for five months and must stay indoors between 20:00 and 07:00.

The sheriff said: "Despite what it says in your background report, you accept responsibility for what happened in this tragic case."

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IDFIMH

Several reports on this, and all look as if they're just rehashed from the one source. But this headline and strapline stands out a bit:


Dad was fatally injured after taxi driver mowed him down as he lay on the road in Glasgow

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/195 ... d-glasgow/

A DAD was fatally injured after a taxi driver mowed over him as he lay on the road.


So a bit like previous headlines in the Liverpool Echo - 'mowed down' makes it sound like he drove at him deliberately. And in terms of accuracy rather than sensationalism, 'mowed down' doesn't sound quite right for someone who's lying in the road anyway.

To be fair, the strapline kind of acknowledges this, saying that the 'taxi driver mowed over him as he lay on the road'. Never read of someone being 'mowed over' before, so congratulations to the author on the inventive use of language at least

But, of course, newspapers often do their best to portray these things in terms of good v evil, rather than playing a more straight bat. Even the word 'Dad' in the headline is slightly loaded in that regard. I could think of another word beginning with D that might have been used.

But the rest of the article just looks like a straight bat rehash of the BBC piece Sussex posted yesterday.