Dicing with death: Minicab drivers race under as barriers fall
A minicab driver was one of two motorists slammed by a magistrate for risking lives by driving under closing barriers at Foxton level crossing.
Belal Ahmed, 32, was running late for a fare in Heathrow when he drove his BMW under the falling gate at the notorious train crossing – five seconds after the red lights started flashing.
The Cambridge minicab driver, who has been banned from driving for 28 days, is losing his livelihood after admitting driving without due and attention on the A10 at Foxton on September 15.
Derek Manning, presiding magistrate, told Ahmed, whose head was bowed throughout the hearing, that the consequences of his behaviour could have been “catastrophic”.
He said: “If a train had come along we dread to think what could have happened.”
He added: “You are a professional driver. You are a minicab driver and we expect you to have higher standards.”
Nick Barnes, mitigating for Ahmed, who was fined £450 and told to pay £85 costs, said his client had been a minicab driver for the last three years “without any incident or blemish on his record whatsoever”.
Paul Clare, operations manager at Panther “Taxis”, with whom Ahmed was working, said: “Mr Ahmed is self-employed and was suspended from the Panther radio network pending his appearance in court and we fully support the penalty imposed on him.”
He said any decisions over his future as a minicab driver have been “taken out of our hands” because Ahmed no longer has a private hire licence.
The defendant, who earns about £450 a week and lives in Nuns Way, King’s Hedges, was sentenced on the same day as another driver was hauled before the courts for the same offence at the same crossing.
Girish Babu, 31, brought his Mercedes to a stop on the crossing on September 25 as the barriers fell – forcing the signalman to stop the sequence to prevent the barriers hitting the car.
The court heard Babu, an account manager who lives in Nottingham, then drove off.
Representing himself, he said: “The car coming behind me was not keeping a safe distance, but it was clearly my misjudgment. I thought it was safe to go through.”
But Mr Manning said it was “an absolutely ridiculous” thing to do at an “extremely dangerous” crossing.
He was banned from driving for 21 days, fined £300 and must pay £70 costs.
Every year dozens of drivers fall foul of the Foxton barriers. In 2010 and 2011, British Transport Police recorded 91 incidents of motorists driving illegally there.
source: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/
