Taxi Driver Online

Hardly a surprise this happened here. Crime all over the place, and taxis driving down the hill all day and night into the city centre. I lived a few minutes walk up the hill for about 25 years, so have walked/driven past here literally thousands of times.

But it's amazing how you never see police, yet they appear en masse when something more serious happens. An ongoing theme in this newspaper's crime coverage is to state the number of vehicles attending a particular incident.

Something funny about these photos though - you can see the taxi rank markings, and taxis ranking in the second photo, but it says the incident took place at 7pm, and taxis tend not to use this rank in the evening at the best of times, never mind just now. Of course, there's no emergency vehicles in the second photo, so it could have been taken at a different time.


Thief hit by taxi after nicking two bottles of vodka from Dundee store tried to drive off in the cab

https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/t ... nce-store/


Image: Evening Telegraph

A hapless thief stole two bottles of vodka from an off-licence before running straight into the path of an oncoming taxi – then tried to steal the vehicle that struck him.

After failing to commandeer the car, he attempted to flee the scene by crawling away with one of the vodka bottles.

The culprit, believed to be in his early 20s, was taken to Ninewells Hospital with “a serious leg injury” after trying to flee Premier News Food and Wine Plus on the Hilltown on Tuesday evening.

Ambulance and police arrived on the scene at around 7pm after staff member, Antonio Casci, alerted the authorities.

Speaking today he and store manager, Umayr Asif confirmed the thirsty thief tried to make off with two bottles of Ciroc Vodka, which were worth £33.99 each.

The man – who was known to the shopkeepers – placed the items at the cash desk before grabbing them and running out of the store and attempting to flee in the direction of the multis

However he was not paying attention to the traffic and ran in front of an oncoming cab which did not have time to stop.

Antonia, 23 added: “The taxi must have been going at least 20mph when they guy got struck by it.

“I’d gone out and he was crawling around the taxi trying to get the driver to take him to hospital, whilst still holding one bottle of vodka as the other had smashed.”

The taxi driver was about to take the man to hospital when he found out what had happened in the minutes prior to the collision.


Image: Evening Telegraph

Umayr, 29, added: “The guy that stole these items has actually spent money in the shop before so when he initially came to the cash desk there wasn’t any reason to be concerned that he wasn’t going to pay for these items.

“When the taxi driver spoke to Antonio, he told him the injured guy was trying to steal the taxi -after everything else that had happened.

“He started to crawl back towards the multis in his attempts to get away.”

Antonio said the police arrived on the scene before the man was transported to hospital.

He added: “I was obviously a bit shocked by everything that had unfolded. When the guy got hit with the taxi I thought given the level of impact he wasn’t going to get up.

“It was his right leg that had been injured in the incident.”


Image: Evening Telegraph

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “At around 7pm on Tuesday June 9, police received a report of a theft having occurred from a premises in Hilltown Dundee.

“Prior to officers arriving at the scene, the suspect fled the premises and was involved in a collision with a vehicle.

“As a result he sustained a serious leg injury and was treated at the scene before being taken to hospital by the Scottish Ambulance Service.

“Inquires are ongoing into the full circumstances of the incident.”

That'll be one of the four multi-story blocks on the other side of the road (what we call a multi would be called a tower block in England, I think).

A quick Google of one of the multis reveals this in the past few months, and there will be a lot more than this:

Man dies after falling from 13th floor of Hilltown multi in Dundee

https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/m ... own-multi/

Man taken to hospital after a disturbance in a Dundee multi involving people reportedly wearing ski masks

https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/m ... ski-masks/

Ex-boyfriend who snorted on partner at Hilltown property avoids prison term

https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/e ... ison-term/

Pair accused of Halloween attack with hammer and screwdriver at Dundee multi

https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/p ... dee-multi/

How many police are needed to deal with that matter?

Must be at least four vehicles there.

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IDFIMH

Many years ago in my days as an off license manager when I got held up by armed robbers ( I've told the story on here before ) there were parked up along the kings road (Fulham) 7 police vehicles a fire engine two ambulances ! they tend to pull out all the stops when it is a "major" incident


I remember a couple of years ago following a mini in town when a shoplifter running from the staff of the shop came out of a passageway straight into the mini (only doing about 10MPH) hit the windscreen badly smashing it then after a a few seconds got up and ran off again in the direction of the train station. Don't think the police caught them as they had a 10 minute head start but when the only thing on their mind is scarpering they don't look for traffic.

By the way doesn't that garish sign on the shop ruin what is otherwise quite a nice building architecturally ?

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

It’s also been/is raining in the second photo, must have been taken at a different time, probably BC!

Well spotted - almost certainly taken during the day - as I said, normally just the odd taxi sitting there in the evening, and generally the rank not used at all. And certainly not four cars on the rank - that looks like cars three and four in the photo - there's a gap between them and the front two cars where the entrance to the block of flats is.

By the same token, you can tell that the other two photos weren't taken during the day, because there would almost certainly be more evidence of traffic movement, and cars parked either side of the road. (Although not so much during lockdown.)

Anyway, as I said, never a dull moment here - I'm sure either that shop or the newsagent up the hill a bit just out of shot have been robbed several times in the past.

And since the taxi incident a few days ago, a van came off the road at 5:40am and crashed into the railings



(Was almost 100% sure that I'd replied to this thread at the weekend, but obviously not, and it was just seeing this latest incident online that jogged my memory )

how did he manage that on a straight bit of road

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

Pished or fell asleep, I'm guessing. Or maybe just a minor misjudgement which ended up looking a lot worse than the actual misjudgement.

I suppose brake failure is a possibility and the driver panicked and came off the road deliberately to stop the van, because if they'd continued to the bottom of the hill to the traffic lights they wouldn't have been able to take the corner and would almost have hit the railings/buildings there almost head on.

Suspect the real explanation is less dramatic, though

Maybe they came out of the side street at the other side too fast and lost control

What a dreary looking place and to sit there all day working. Got to be the ugliest looking place for a rank.

Never really assessed ranks in terms of their scenic qualities myself (although I'm sure there are some ranks with nice views, but can't really think of any offhand, from my experience at least).

However, I did use this rank for a while back in the 1990s, and my abiding memory of it was the problem of actually getting out of the rank and into the traffic. Problem is that for hours on end (particularly afternoon rush hour) the traffic is backed up at the lights and it's unusual for the traffic to clear when the lights go green.



(The lights are the ones beside the wee traffic island in the photo. Front of the rank is slightly up from that. Traffic is backed up maybe typically as far as the front police vehicle in the photo, and behind the photographer at busier times, and typically won't all get through the lights, which are on green for quite a short period.)

So because the car on pole on the rank is level with maybe the third or fourth car in the queuing traffic, you have to rely on someone's goodwill to let you out, which is often in short supply. Problem is that when lights turn green, maybe around half a dozen queuing cars get through, and queuing traffic might have to wait maybe two or three cycles of the lights to get through, so they're often not keen on letting taxis out - letting one taxi out could end up wasting half the green light time as far as queuing members of the public are concerned.

And most fares from the rank need to go back up the hill away from the city centre (you can't turn left at the lights, which is very restrictive as far as optimal routes are concerned), so that takes a tad longer than just letting a taxi join the traffic moving towards the lights.

And the the other lights take an eternity to change from green, so you're sitting waiting to get out, and the fares are generally quite short from there, so you think you should put the meter on while waiting to get out, but obviously the punters think the opposite (and many of the people who get taxis from there aren't the type you want to get on the wrong side of, even during daytime).

But the bit that really used to annoy me is that even when the green light ended cars would still keep on coming and stop you getting out - if they knew the score they could let a taxi out while the lights are at red by leaving a gap, and the taxi could then go through the gap and up the hill - so that would mean the queing members of the public wouldn't be delayed in any way. And in fact not letting taxis out when it wouldn't cause a delay actually might result in a delay when someone later lets the taxi out when the lights are at green.

Anyway, that's my abiding memory of that rank, and its scenic value wasn't something I ever thought about.

(I think the lights may have been rephased slightly since then to let more cars through the lights, but other than that I think I'm guessing it's much the same 20+ years later.)

Won't bother with an update on the crime that's continuing here near in the tower blocks next to the taxi rank, but at last police have decided to do something a bit more, er, proactive, but whether it's just a PR gimmick I'm not sure:

Police to target Hilltown area of Dundee to battle violent, anti-social and drug-related crime

https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/p ... ted-crime/




But at about the time of the taxi rank incident, there was another incident further up the road at the top of the Hilltown (guess why it's called 'Hilltown').

Noteworthy for us because it happened during the day outside the Cabshield world headquarters.


Police called after disturbance near ‘busy’ shopping district on the Hilltown

https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/p ... -hilltown/

Police are looking to trace those involved after a reported brawl in broad daylight in Dundee.



Nothing to do with the trade, though, as far as I know - not someone kicking off because of their renewal premium


Now today it's reported that a woman was seriously injured after falling from one of the flats above the Cabshield office.

But I see they've now got the Paton's sign up outside after their merger and closure of the Paton's office about a mile away.

Suspect the Paton's staff unhappy about their office move in the first place, and this will just confirm why

(Photo taken round the corner from where the photo above taken, so I'm assuming the Cabshield sign is still on the other side.)


Woman suffers ‘serious injuries’ after falling from block of flats in the Hilltown

https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/w ... -of-flats/



Stuff that's gone on there over the years. In fact, about three years ago another woman died in a similar fall about 150 yards away, close to where I lived for 25 years

In fact must have been around the time I moved there that someone was murdered outside the pub just on opposite side of the road from the Cabshield/Paton's office

And another murder maybe ten years very close to where this other photo taken the other day:

In fact looks from that photo that they've got both the Paton's and Cabshield logos on the same sign. The pub where the murder took place is in fact just hidden by the insurance office in this photo.

Anyway, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the stuff that's gone on here over the years, and something else I'd go to town on if I won the lottery. Suspect I'll probably end up dying first, though

you clearly have never seen the town centre rank in Corby !

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

Not a particularly interesting story in the grand scheme of things, but couldn't help noticing that the taxi below is sitting in about exactly the same position as that grey/silver Ford Fiesta (or whatever it is) on the right hand side of the road in the photo above, which was taken during lockdown

So it's just opposite the taxi rank, and it's a busy area in the afternoon, although quiet enough at 7.30am when this happened, and at that time pretty unusual to see taxis ranking unless it's office cars really just waiting for a run.

Area just on the edge of the city centre, but it's awash with drugs etc, although still a bit surprised this happened at that time. I'd guess his money bag might have been left on display, and some opportunist just happened to pass...

(Third photo a bit big to display on here...)


Thieves smash Dundee taxi window with rock to steal cash

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/52 ... -break-in/

A small boulder was used to smash the window of the cab on Hilltown during Monday morning.


Image:Police Scotland/DC Thomson

A Dundee taxi driver lost a morning’s earnings after a smash-and-grab raid on his cab.

Police have launched an investigation after a boulder was used to gain entry to a Peugeot Horizon on Monday morning.

A taxi moneybag containing around £60 was taken during the incident on Hilltown near the junction with Dudhope Street.

The taxi driver, who did not wish to be named, said he had been at JD Gyms in Dundee when the incident happened.


Image:James Simpson/DC Thomson

He told The Courier: “I’d been in at the gym at the Wellgate Shopping Centre just before 6am.

“I’ve come back to the taxi and seen the driver side window had been damaged at around 7.25am.

“There was a small boulder in the rear seats amongst the smashed glass.

“I’ve looked in and they’ve taken the taxi float of around £60.

“One of the neighbours confirmed they’d heard a bang at around 6.30am.

“It’s frustrating this has happened.

“I’ve got school contracts and also deliver the meals which had to be reorganised.

https://wpcluster.dctdigital.com/wp-con ... 6rppr9.jpg
Image:James Simpson/DC Thomson

“Thankfully I was able to get an alternative taxi and get back to work this afternoon.”

A police spokeswoman said officers were at the early stage of their investigation.

She said: “We received a report of a break-in and theft from a vehicle on Hilltown, Dundee around 7.35am on Monday March 17.

“Inquiries are at an early stage.”