Taxi Driver Online

'My cabbie crashed, then charged me £77 while we waited for ambulance'

8th October 2010

A taxi passenger who was injured when the vehicle smashed into the back of a parked cab has been charged the full fare — including extra for the time it took to call an ambulance.


Crash: The crumpled front of the taxi

Penny Bickerstaff, 50, was treated at St Thomas' Hospital for concussion and needed two days off work after the crash — allegedly caused because the cab driver was reading a text message. The management consultant is furious that the taxi company, Computer Cab, or ComCab, refused to scrap the fare and insisted on charging the £77 on the meter while she waited for the ambulance.

Ms Bickerstaff's company had hired the cab to take her from her Wanstead home to meet a client in Trafalgar Square on Monday during the Tube strike. But as she sat in the back working on her BlackBerry at 11.10am, she became aware that the cab — travelling at about 25mph to 30mph — was getting very close to one that had stopped in the bus lane in High Holborn.

She said: “We were coming along at a good clip and, according to a passer-by, my driver was looking down. My guy never braked — didn't see it. We just went smack. I was thrown out of the seat and hit the partition and was concussed.

“I was woozy and bruised in the back of the taxi. He said are you ok?' and went off to talk to the other taxi driver.” Ms Bickerstaff was found slumped against a door by passerby Jonathan Jennings who witnessed the crash. He called an ambulance and tried to help her.

Mr Jennings said he had looked on “in astonishment” as the cab rapidly approached the stationary taxi.

“He hit the cab in the rear with an almighty crash causing the third party taxi to be shunted approximately 15 feet along the road, leaving behind its exhaust pipe and a ruptured fuel tank which was rapidly discharging fuel on the road. I could then see the top of someone's head in the passenger compartment who had been thrown into the partition and ended up on the floor.

“I was appalled at the attitude of the driver who had no concern for his injured passenger. He spent his time chatting to the other driver.”

The taxi firm told a colleague of Ms Bickerstaff that she was to blame for her injuries because she was not wearing a seatbelt. It said it was entitled to charge the full fare as it had taken her to her “destination” — although she was some way short of Trafalgar Square.

ComCab failed to respond to requests for comment.

Source; http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/ ... bulance.do

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
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When debating on the TDO Forum.

she should be making a claim off his public liability

the accident was obviously HIS fault so he has no leg to stand on

Maybe his Brakes failed!!!

even bigger claim

and if hes got no PL then its the small claims court

Best in the world?

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IDFIMH

Should of had the seat belt on

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

assuming the cab had belts......

The taxi firm seem to think it has

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

awarded damages can be reduced where a claimant can be proven not to have been wearing a seatbelt, of course a seatbelt is not a cloak of immortality, injuries can still occur

The law states every passenger should wear a seatbelt.

She didn't.

She got injured.

I would imagine any compensation would be lessened.

Perhap's she's a retard?

I've lost count of how many times passengers have come flying off the rear seat because I've had to stop suddenly for a pedestrian / bus pulling out with no signal / woman with pushchair sending a text / minicab driver playing with his sat nav / rmt member trying to recruit the 34th member/ white van man / . . . .

There's a large notice in the back of my taxi telling people to put their seatbelts on.

It ain't hard.

Why has this post decended into the rights and wrongs of wearing a seatbelt?
Surely the point about charging the customer £77 for the fare when the taxi had actually crashed.
Should the customer have been charged?

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Grandad,

She wasn't paying, it was an account job, therefore it's between the company and Com Cabs as to whether the job is charged or not.

True, we could be smashing into each other at Brighton Station instead with a sticky accelerator.

her claim will be against the text-reading taxi driver, police can access phone records to check, he may as well give her a blank/signed cheque

less 20% for her not wearing a seatbelt if, in fact, she wasnt

Seems the cab firm have backed down.

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/8 ... sh_charge/

But then they compound the story by saying;

"It was simply not possible to derive from the taxi-meter what part of the journey might or might not be chargeable, so the decision was to cancel the full fare."

Why say that? Just say sorry and cancel the charge.

FFS we ain't talking thousands here.

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IDFIMH