Taxi Driver Online

Sadly, this involves one of our local HC drivers. I passed the same garage about an hour or so earlier on my way home. As someone has already said on our local Hackney WhatsApp group, it could have happened to anyone of us. Devastated for the driver and the pedestrian and his family.

https://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/23153 ... d-deeside/

Interesting that there's no mention of the t-word. Just that it's a 'car'.

And North Wales Police don't use the t-word either. Link at the bottom is their official statement on Facebook, although not worth reading it because the press article X-ray links to just rehashes the police statement.

But, naturally, at least one person on the police Facebook page already has the driver bang to rights




https://www.facebook.com/NorthWalesPoli ... 8TTYfBazYl

Image: Newsquest/Leader Live

Higher-res photo here - the Texaco garage where it happened seems to be about a quarter of a mile from where the photo was taken.

https://www.leaderlive.co.uk/resources/images/16201229

Interesting jurisdiction thing, though - happened about quarter of a mile inside the border with Wales, so being dealt with by North Wales Police rather than Cheshire Police. (The border is at the junction and the road sign announcing Wales can be seen in the high-res photo.)

(Ironically, the sign visible in the photo at the junction points towards a Cheshire Police station, which is a bit more than a mile away as the crow flies.)

The deceased was apparently walking in the direction of the Streetview here - certainly looks like an adequate path, both before and after the garage.

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.2024873 ... 384!8i8192

(If any of the above is incorrect I'm sure X-ray will clarify.)

I know we’ve got to be careful as it’s a live investigation but the following extract from the pedestrian’s court appearance last year (concerning a shoplifting offence) might give an insight into the possible causes of the collision. Especially considering his eyesight.

“He had convictions for 170 offences, 90 of them for theft and dishonesty matters.

Scott Phillips, defending, said it was accepted the rate of the offending had slowed down in recent years. Hooper had formerly been addicted to heroin and had sought treatment for that, but unfortunately was now addicted to alcohol.

A report from probation said Hooper had been "very honest and open about his offending", which had slowed when he gave up heroin at least 12 months ago, but now drank alcohol daily, drinking "strong lager and whatever he could get his hands on".

Hooper was now in "stable accommodation" and "well supported" there.

He had failing eyesight, being blind in one eye and with only 20 per cent eyesight in the other.”

Ooft

No winners here.

The family of the deceased must be having a horrid time, and the driver must be besides himself having been involved in a fatal crash.

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IDFIMH

I forgot to add, that road is unlit and it’s pitch black. The garage is the only place for miles that sells alcohol 24hrs.

Ah, so one driver had dumped him at the Texaco garage because of the deceased's behaviour, and another driver collided with him in the middle of the road

Who'd have guessed that the Facebook dafties who automatically assumed it was the driver's fault and/or that the driver was drink/drugs driving would be talking nonsense?


Man died after being hit by taxi while walking along unlit road at 3am

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north- ... t-30072347

Warren Hooper, who was registered blind, was wearing dark clothing as he wandered down Sealand Road

A man died when he was hit by a taxi as he walked in the middle of the road, an inquest heard. Warren Hooper, who was registered blind, was walking down Sealand Road on the Wales and England border when he was struck by a vehicle.

Dashcam footage shown at the hearing in Ruthin revealed how Mr Hooper, who was wearing dark clothing, suddenly appeared in the headlights of Tarek Mokhtar’s taxi. In a statement read at the inquest Mr Mokhtar said: “There was nothing I could do.”

The collision occurred at about 3am on November 27, 2022, in Sealand Road, Sealand, as Mr Hooper, 50, was heading back towards his home in Cotes Place, Blacon, Chester. The inquest heard that he had taken a taxi to the Texaco garage, which is open all night, but because of his behaviour the taxi driver – not Mr Mokhtar – had left him there.

He bought some cigarettes and was said to be stumbling and bumping into things. In the dashcam footage Mr Mokhtar’s headlights picked him out close to the centre of the road as he appeared to be crossing which was unlit and had a 50mph limit.

Forensic collision investigator Meilir Hywel said the dashcam showed that Mr Mokhtar had been driving at a sensible speed and although the vehicle’s standard halogen headlights had been replaced by LED lights, they would have been brighter. Mr Hooper suffered multiple injuries and although some alcohol and traces of cocaine were found his system pathologist Dr Mohammad Aslam said they would not have contributed to his death.

John Gittins, senior coroner for North Wales East and Central, read a statement from Mr Hooper’s mother Maureen Hollingsworth in which she said he had been registered blind since an accident in which the retina in his right eye had been damaged. He was totally blind in that eye and had limited sight in his left eye.

It was from his right-hand side that Mr Mokhtar’s taxi approached. Brought up in Rhyl, he enjoyed reading and watching quiz TV shows.

“He was extremely knowledgeable,” said Mrs Hollingsworth. An electrical engineer, he worked with his father in Germany for some time but after the accident was no longer able to work.

“He fell in with the wrong people,” she said.

The coroner recorded a conclusion of a road traffic collision.

So the right result for the driver, but what makes me think the cororner's verdict seems a tad sanitised?

Read the article above and then read what X-ray said at the time about the deceased's history and it all takes on a different complexion, in my opinion at least

...but, of course, in daftie-comment-land it's still the fault of the first driver for leaving him at the garage

And the second driver was driving too fast. Quite a few comments, and can't be bothered reading them all. But this is the mentality which says that a pedestrian can never be at fault, while a driver is always at fault. Or two drivers at fault here, according to this daftie

presumably coroners are trained to use the addage "don't speak ill of the dead" so sanitised seems correct

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