Taxi Driver Online

Evening Gazette

August 15, 2006, Tuesday

HEADLINE: Heroic cabbie's terrifying ride

BYLINE: Angus Hoy

Courageous cabbie Wendy McBurney was given a pounds 250 reward by a judge for tackling a passenger who grabbed her taxi's steering wheel and tried to crash it into oncoming traffic.

Teesside Crown Court was told that Mrs McBurney brought her cab to a safe halt near Redcar and locked the doors on the man, who was threatening to throw himself under a car.

Judge Peter Armstrong said it must have been a terrifying incident, and she acted with bravery.

Martin Cochrane, 31, from Redcar, who was depressed over his father's death, had been drinking heavily in Saltburn. When he got into Mrs McBurney's taxi he kept repeating "I want to die", prosecutor Gale Gilchrist told the court. Cochrane suddenly grabbed the wheel, causing the car to go into the path of oncoming vehicles, but Mrs McBurney managed to steer it to the side of the road.

Miss Gilchrist said: "He said he wanted to run under a car, and she bravely managed to lock the doors. She pressed the panic button in the car, and the police were called to the scene."

Michael Bosomworth, defending Cochrane, said: "He owes Mrs McBurney a debt of gratitude for what she did that day, and he asked police to convey his gratitude. "He was very close to his father, who died five weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer. "He has now refocused his grief and he speaks of the good times with his father. He has overcome the bereavement problems that he had and he concentrates on looking after his mother."

The judge said: "If the taxi driver had not managed to steer away, there could have been a tragedy of appalling proportions. "She acted with commendable bravery, first of all managing to steer her taxi so as to avoid a collision. And secondly she acted again commendably in preventing him from leaving the car when he said that he wanted to jump out and kill himself.

"She clearly recognised the state that he was in and acted in a most sympathetic way, and probably saved not only her own life and others' lives." The judge awarded Mrs McBurney pounds 250 from public funds.

She was driving for JP Taxis of Lord Street, Redcar.

Cochrane, of Park Court, Redcar, was given 18 months community rehabilitation with supervision and ordered to pay pounds 300 prosecution costs after he pleaded guilty to interfering with a motor vehicle on May 5.
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