Taxi driver filmed watching football match while driving Nottingham passengerhttps://www.nottinghampost.com/news/loc ... ll-6806626
A man says he believes his life was put in danger when his taxi driver watched a football game as he was taking him home. The taxi driver, from Nottingham company DG Cars, has now been suspended by his employers and the matter is currently under investigation.
Jezz Heald, 57, from Mapperley, had booked for a taxi to take him home from nearby Westdale Lane in Gedling on Thursday, March 10 at around 7.30pm. He was surprised to see that, when he entered the taxi which he had arranged to pick him up, the driver appeared to be watching a football match on the monitor above the car's dashboard, which usually displays sat-navigation or the radio station.
Mr Heald claims the match stayed on throughout the 10-minute journey, with the volume on loud. He told Nottinghamshire Live: "He didn't switch it off when he started driving, he was going down the road and watching the football match.
"It is definitely illegal under the Highway Code. If he had been parked up waiting for a ride and watching it I could understand, fair enough. But watching football when you're driving, instantly I thought 'this isn't right'."
Mr Heald said he felt he needed to gather evidence of what was happening and so he started recording from the back seat. He didn't feel comfortable enough to confront the driver about what was happening, so he then contacted DG Cars to inform them about his journey.
"I told them that their driver had just endangered my life," he said. "To watch TV while driving, I was just in disbelief."
The company has told Nottinghamshire Live drivers should be trained to not do anything to distract them while driving before they start working with DG Cars. A spokesperson for the company said: "At DG Cars we work hard to provide a high standard of service to our customers and customer safety is paramount.
"All drivers attend training before they start with us that includes safety first. No eating, using mobile phones, or anything which might distract them from driving. We pride ourselves on being the only Private Hire company in the East Midlands with a Training Department that trains every driver before they start working with us.
"The driver in question has been suspended pending a full investigation. It would be unfair for us to comment further whilst this is under investigation. We would have welcomed a phone call at the time of the incident from the customer in order that we rectify the situation at the time."
Login
Register
FAQ
