Taxi Driver Online

Taxi driver who mowed down fare-dodging passenger is jailed

Douglas Fraser drove at Brien Foster when he failed to pay his fare in Edinburgh.
Taxi driver: Passenger badly injured after dodging fair

A taxi driver who crashed into a customer after he dodged his fare leaving him with serious head injuries has been jailed for 11 months.

Douglas Fraser, 40, accelerated towards Brien Foster, 28, and smashed into him as he tried to jump out of the way.

A woman in a nearby flat at Edinburgh's Portobello Road heard the noise of a car skidding and looked out of her window to see Mr Foster lying injured in the carriageway.

At an earlier hearing fiscal depute Graeme Jessop said: "She saw a taxi a short distance away and saw the taxi reverse. She banged on the window and tried to stop the taxi driver and saw him look up but he drove on. She formed the impression that the taxi had hit him then driven off."

Mr Jessop added Mr Foster was lying on his back and bleeding heavily from his head.

The city's sheriff court heard he was taken initially to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary before being transferred to the intensive care unit at the Western General Hospital for treatment. He was there for 19 days before going to Astley Ainslie Hospital for rehabilitation.

Mr Jessop said the injury had had an "enormous affect" on Mr Foster's lifestyle and he had been left with speech and memory problems. He also added that Mr Foster had no recollection of the incident.

A collision investigation was carried out and Fraser was traced through CCTV footage as well as the firm he worked for City Cabs. Mr Jessop added that calculations showed the impact speed would have been around 26mph.

Fraser, of Roull Road, Corstorphine, admitted driving dangerously and hitting Mr Foster to his severe injury and permanent impairment. He also admitted failing to stop after the accident which happened on December 2 last year.

Defence agent Steven Donald said Fraser had picked up Mr Foster in Edinbugh City Centre after he had been on a work night out and drove him to an address.

But when they arrived at the flat Mr Foster told Fraser he did not have any money and would get some from inside.

Mr Donald said: "Mr Foster appeared to be pressing a buzzer to try to enter a common stairway without success. Mr Foster then returned to the taxi and simply carried on walking away. Fraser pulled up beside him got out of the taxi and said 'what are you playing at?'.

Mr Foster denied being the person in the taxi and there was a very brief altercation between the two. Fraser got back into his taxi and at that stage he didn't know where Mr Foster had gone."

The lawyer said Fraser was heading back into town when he saw Mr Foster again.

"Fraser did not want to have any more contact with him following the altercation and just kept driving. When he realised Mr Foster had no intention of getting out of the middle of the road he slammed on the brakes and tried to move away from him and Mr Foster again moved in the direction of the taxi and that's how the collision took place."

Mr Donald added that Fraser was usually a family man with a good work record.

He said: "Clearly this was a significant error of judgment of his part of this occasion with catastrophic consequences for Mr Foster, consequences Fraser will have to live with.

At the time of the incident he attempted to avoid Mr Foster and when he was unable to do so he panicked - that is also a matter of great regret to him."

Sheriff Kenneth Maciver blasted Fraser for making the "absolutely terrible" decision to drive at Mr Foster at speed and then "callously" driving off and said that custody was the only option.

Fraser was also banned from driving for three years and ordered to sit the extended test before he can drive again.

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/east-centra ... is-jailed/

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

I think the positive that can be taken from this story is that Mr.Foster won't be bumping, any more Taxis.

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

spot on skull

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oh no jimbo no the lub agian

This is precisely what I warned the Chief Constable would happen. I have the correspondence to prove it (unlike Dougie).

And which the politicians ducked.

It was only ever a matter of time because the system does not protect drivers from those who refuse to pay. All this took was a rush of blood to the head.

Now I will be laying the charges and asking for a review of how taxi fare dodgers are dealt with.

Watch this space.

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Skull, "You are a police inspector, aren't you?"
Cab Inspector Smith, "Yes."
Skull, "So, are you going to tell Mr Taylor what his rights are?"
Smith, "And ... What rights?"

You are truly mental.

How can a fare dispute be a political issue?

You're well named madjim ffs



CC

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

Mental? I must be for trying to explain it to a f u kwit like you.

Cabbies in Scotland are not protected from fare dodgers.

Procurator Fiscals, who don't want to prosecute for small amounts, interpret Scotland's common law of theft in such a way that fare dodging is a civil, not a criminal offence.

Stealing from a shop is criminal theft, rom a cabby it's not.

In my case an attempt to get the scrote's details to prosecute him was refused by the cops through Data protection.

The cost of getting he information from the court is prohibitive. The scrote gets away scot free. The law fails to protect cabbies.

I wrote to the Chief Constable, warning what would happen. I asked him to review the matter with the PF and issue a guidance to the taxi trade so that we all knew where we stood.

He didn't. The circumstances of the warning have now come to pass.

I wrote similarly, through my MSP, to Macaskill. He failed to take action. His inaction has led directly to the circumstances of this case.

And that is how it is political.

The law doesn't protect us. I asked the aithorities to make sure that it would. They didn't.

It is entirely likely that a cabby is now in jail because they failed to take the matter seriously.

Were I the cabby, I would be sueing the basterds for negligence.

However, I susoect they may get away with it. because the miscreant's defence was naive and probably consequentially professionally negligent.

Experience has shown me that lawyers have an inane inability to think outside the box. This guy's lawyer probably had him bang to rights from the outset and persuaded him to play the game to mitigte the sentence. He was always going to jail.

B ut, if he knew that he didn't have the backing of the authorities in dealing with the fare dodger, that the cops wouldn't respond and hold the dodger to account, then his rush of blood to the head becomes an irrational act rather than a premeditated assault.

BTW CC, This is the story you should be writing for the rag.

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Skull, "You are a police inspector, aren't you?"
Cab Inspector Smith, "Yes."
Skull, "So, are you going to tell Mr Taylor what his rights are?"
Smith, "And ... What rights?"

I apologise.

We have the fraud act in England, however, still numerous police officers are told by their Constabularies that evasion of payment is a civil matter.

I even heard of one case where a policewoman advised a non payer to pay a £1 and dispute the fare, thus making the dispute civil.

However, very often the police will give drivers advice if asked. This becomes very useful to drivers on the ground as the driver produces something with the chief constables signature on!.

CC

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