If you could tell us what the driver had for breakfast...

jcrofts

Sorry in advance - this is a bit of a rant. :evil:

I'm off work today but it's glorious so I figured I'd go out for an hour or so this afternoon. Headed off, had a great cycle, discovered a new route and headed home... then was nearly knocked off my bike at the junction turning into my street!

It's not a busy junction. It's a roundabout on a quiet street with a turning off onto my street, which is a cul de sac.

So, I'm pedaling along toward the left of the lane and, approaching the roundabout, look over my shoulder. I see a car coming up and, as I'm having a nice ride, decide to be nice and let it by (there was plenty of room and I didn't need to slow much). Once it's by I look again and see another car but this one is a way back and there's more than enough space for me to manoeuvre. The arm goes out, I give it a second or two to be registered and then I start to move over.

Once I'm all the way over to the right, ready for the junction, I hear the driver lift her foot off the accelerator... then floor it. Next I know she's whipped by on the right, narrowly missing my back tyre. As she goes by, window down, she screams at me to "Get off the road!", then she has to whip back in (narrowly missing my front tyre) to get back on the correct side of the road before the bollard at the junction!

Unfortunately for her, she's driving a minicab (Glasgow plate 4594, Hampden Cars - if you're interested) and her passenger lives a few doors down from me. We live at the top of a hill so she races ahead whilst I (thanks to her) make it up the hill in record time to catch her as she's turning in his driveway. I'm not really ashamed to say that I stood in front of her, blocking her escape, asking her what the f*ck she thought she was playing at (neighbour-who-I-don't-know has just retreated indoors quite rapidly). She told me to get out of the way or she'd call the police... I believe I laughed here and told her that she'd be saving me a phone call. Eventually, anger abated, I moved out of the way and let her go... safe in the knowledge that I had her taxi plate, description and company details and there was no way this was being left at a mere embarrassment for her.

Few minutes later, I've burst into the living room and ranted the whole story out to the other half with barely a breath. I then picked up the phone and called the council, intent on ranting it again to whomever was unfortunate enough to be on duty in the taxi-licensing-office-place... except nobody is until 09:30 tomorrow.

Can't wait that long - I have to rant... so I look up the number for the local police station.

Having explained the situation to the woman on the other end of the phone she, quite rightly I think, sounds appalled:
"So this woman overtook you on the right despite you indicating that you were turning right? That's awful".
I agree.
"Do you have her registration details?"
I don't.
"Sorry, we can't do anything without the registration number."
But I do have her taxi license number.
"But we can't do anything with that because the Council won't tell us who that license belongs to."
What? Even if I've reported them for dangerous driving and you are investigating a crime? :shock:
"Afraid not, no. Best you can do is complain to the council tomorrow."

So (sorry) I'm left to rant to you all until the person I need to speak to at the Council is back in the office tomorrow morning. :evil:

I think I may have just convinced the other half that a helmet cam mightn't be a bad idea. This week I've been left-hooked twice, spat on and now nearly knocked off by a dangerous overtaker. If nothing else, it'd make my YouTube account more interesting...

phil_ss1

jcrofts,

Sounds like you had a bit of close call there.

Waiting with baited breath for the next installment.

Would imagine that it would be easy to get the reg number from the Taxi firm? I can imagine too that the "jobsworth" council employees won't say/do much!!

Phil

always_tyred

The council "will take safety matters seriously"

The council will "look into it"

The council will "take appropriate disciplinay action" (if you are lucky)

You will not be entitled to an apology from the person who did it, you will not be entitled to know what happened to them.

I predict....

hoathy

Demand to know what they are going to do. Exactly. And if they won't let you, write to the local paper! and to the police (this could be alot of work...) Alternatively, call up the Taxi company and ask for the Number Plate then complain to the Police again...

BentMikey

Frustrations! There's always some impatient fool like this driver, sounds a lot like the other RAB video posted on here this morning.

dang65

jcrofts wrote:

I'm not really ashamed to say that I stood in front of her, blocking her escape, asking her what the f*ck she thought she was playing at (neighbour-who-I-don't-know has just retreated indoors quite rapidly).

Did you ever try talking with this neighbour, out of interest, as a potential witness?

If I was ever a passenger in a cab which pulled a stunt like that then I'd demand they stop immediately and let me out, and I'd refuse to pay. Call the cops if you like, I don't intend to pay someone who is putting mine and other road users' lives at risk!

(Yeah, not sure how far I'd get with that idea, but you never know.)

Clever Pun

The question to my mind is why didn't the crazy bint go past you on the left like any normal driver???

How'd the council phone call go?

andrewc3142

Actually, the council may do more than you think. A friend of mine prepaid a cab to pick me up at the airport a few years back but it didn't turn up. Next day I was near the cab office (home, actually) so thought I'd pop in to ask for a refund. I was very polite, not at all confrontational. I'd got another cab easily enough and it was only £20 anyway.

However, he shouted and swore at me, then grabbed my arm and threatened me physically. So I left and reported this at the police station a few hundred yards away. They were sympathetic but that was all. So I called the council. They took down all the details and were very professional. They'd had one or two other less clear complaints about him in the past but not something they could act on.

A few months later the council called to say his licence had been revoked, mainly because of what I had reported.

They also respected my friend's confidentiality, since I didn't want the driver going and threatening.

Don't hesitate to report her. Regardless of her driving, abusing members of the public in that way could get her into a lot of trouble.

jcrofts

Clever Pun wrote:

How'd the council phone call go?

They asked me to submit my complaint in writing (I suppose that makes sense) and then directed me to a handy form on their website. Complaint has been duly posted and I'll let you know the outcome.

To be fair, the conversation I had with them was quite reassuring - they certainly seemed geared-up to handle complaints about taxi drivers. We shall see.

jcrofts

dang65 wrote:

Did you ever try talking with this neighbour, out of interest, as a potential witness?

You know, I hadn't.. that hadn't crossed my mind. I shall see what the council say and then maybe go introduce myself. Thanks

NorwegianBlue

The major moral of this story is that if you are involved in a traffic inident the one thing you should take note of is the other party's registration mark.

The police required by law to investigate every complaint as far as they can. Normally they can't get very far without a registration mark, however the taxi licence number should be enough to go on. They could get the registration mark from the council if they wanted it badly enough, however that would not normally be their first port of call. Since you had the licence number, the operating company's name and a description of the driver their first line of enquiry would be the taxi firm.

Sounds to me like you spoke to somebody who didn't want the paperwork. If it was possible that it would get anywhere at all then it would be worthwhile complaining to the police about their refusal to deal with the issue. However we all know that the woman concerned (probably not a police officer) would deny that the conversation ever happened, or at least deny that she'd told you she couldn't help.

Eat My Dust

NorwegianBlue wrote:

The police required by law to investigate every complaint as far as they can.

lolololololololololol. Sorry that really made me laugh. I handed a written complaint (with full reg number and make and model) into my local police station after a very BIG HGV ran me off the road. I could tell by the look of disgust the female cop gave me that the report found it's wat to the office bin very quickly!! Did I ever hear anything? Did I f_ck!!!!

mtbcommuter

Eat My Dust wrote:

NorwegianBlue wrote:

The police required by law to investigate every complaint as far as they can.

lolololololololololol. Sorry that really made me laugh. I handed a written complaint (with full reg number and make and model) into my local police station after a very BIG HGV ran me off the road. I could tell by the look of disgust the female cop gave me that the report found it's wat to the office bin very quickly!! Did I ever hear anything? Did I f_ck!!!!

Simple as this, contact the police and ask them what action was taken, if the cop binned your complaint then complain, it's neglect of duty simple as that. You don't say how recent this was, it could be that it is being looked at.

JoeSoap76

Well, I'd all but forgotten about this one (yep, this is me... changed my login because I felt like a dork using the other one). What a surprise when I saw an email from t'council in my inbox this evening.

I refer to the above and can now make you aware of the conclusions reached as a result of our investigation into the allegations raised. 

We have traced and interviewed the driver of the vehicle detailed in your letter of complaint. 

Having taken account of the various versions of events we have concluded that the driver’s actions, as described in your letter, do not reflect the actions expected or required of a licensed driver. 

You may be aware that the Act of Parliament that governs the driver’s licence requires us to be seen to be reasonable when taking action against a licence holder and it is with these points in mind that we have decided to: 

    * Remind the driver of the requirements of his licence
    * Warn the driver with regard to his/her future conduct
    * Advise him that your complaint will be logged against him and may be referred to at the time of any renewal application or, sooner, should he be the subject of any further complaints of this or any other nature.

 

It is our view that the driver has learned a valuable lesson as a direct result of your complaint and our subsequent investigation.  

This concludes our part in this unfortunate incident.   

Yours sincerely 
 

Scott Hannigan

Taxi and Private Hire Enforcement Manager

Initially I though "well, at least they did something". Then I realised this is the same letter as my other half got from the council when she reported a taxi driver for smoking in his cab. Ah well, not sure I really expected more than a standard response.

They didn't even bother to change the template's "him"s to "her"s :roll:

downfader

Just read this and it reminds me of the times I have officially complained about bus drivers. Twice I have had to put in a serious complaint, the second was being cut up at the lights (which were red) and the driver not using his indicators

But the first I felt more serious and odd. I was actually on the bus, upstairs and directly above the driver. Going down Bedford Place at about 7am there are often lorries unpacking on the right for the convinience stores, plus there are those traffic calming protrusions down the right. So a lorry is on the left, and theres a parked car in a council designated spot on the right - no space to move through as the road is too small in the middle.

Bus driver begins honking the horn. Lorry driver (unpacking) looks on bemused and says he cant help as he's in the middle of a job. Fair enough i thought. Then a little old man came out of the shop and unlocked the car on the right. Bus driver is hanging out the window shouting al kinds of abuse at him about how he's not supposed to be there (he's paid for christ sakes) and he'll move the car if he knows whats best for him. :shock:

So I took down the bus number (the three digit one), and told First Group what had happened. Turned out others had reported him too. I think he lost his job as I havent seen the same driver since. :?

With regards reporting incidents. I wonder, do people ever use Crime Stoppers to report these kinds of abuses? I'm not really sure thats what its for but I'm curious. Thing is I can see why people would want to be anonymous with drivers like that around.

NorwegianBlue

Ah well. It's to be expected really. If there were no witnesses then it was your word against hers, in which case things have gone slightly better than they could have done. They could simply have responded with "the driver denies it" (which happened to me once) at least in this case they have logged the complaint so it will show up if there are repeated complaints against the same driver. If they use the same licensing system as we do at work then it has built in facilities to highlight licensee's who are the subject of frequent complaints.

As ever the best thing to do is to try to find witnesses. Even if you can only find one independent witness who corroborates your version of events then the council would be much more likely to take action. Were they to penalize a driver on the basis of a single uncorroborated complaint the driver could sue with a good chance of success. With independent witnesses or multiple reports the punishment would be much more likely to stick.

I know drivers in our area have had their licences removed after being the subject of repeated complaints, so it really is worth reporting every incidedent.