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        General >> Off Topic Subjects >> my taxi accident
        
(Message started by: nuttyscorp on Sep 5^th, 2006, 8:19pm)

Title: my taxi accident
Post by nuttyscorp on Sep 5^th, 2006, 8:19pm

well, i have been a cabbie for the last 6/7 years, full time and part time, working for a firm who own the cars and radio, supply the fuel, insurance and some jobs from the phone, they gave me a decent car, fully loaded advantgarde e class merc 2.6 (v6)..but i only get 40% of what i take......so.......i do the gamble and jump into 10 grand of debt, to buy my own car, years insurance, meter, and hackney plate (ok so its only an 02 mondeo)

........ive had my car on the road for exactly a week now (have to be honest, missing the merc in general).....now you know whats coming up..........

now have you ever met the 80yr old metro driver on a sunday?...you know, they've got a hat, book and a box of tissues on the parcel shelf (how you get all 3 on a metro parcel shelf is beyond me ),...well i found one of these on tuesday afternoon(today).....and it was a left hooker

i was at a t junction, stationary, waiting to turn right, elderly lady was turning left, into that junction, and sideswiped me, front door, rear door and offside rear quarter, to be honest i was completely stunned, it was like watching a movie through the drivers door glass, she only stopped when her metro stalled because it wouldnt go all the way through my mondeo, i had to get out of the passenger side, trying my hardest to keep my cool (which i did), walked round to see what she had done, to be confronted with "i am sorry, i was watching the kerb" (no nuts sherlock, and to me thats admission of guilt)

oh boy am i pjssed off? how can i get aggressive with an 80yr old thats admitted fault? you cant, just as well it was not some one of my age, the anger/adrenalin in me wanted to go.

quite possibly ive got to put another two grand up front to get me back on the road, ( rental cab, excess, plate transfer, district hackney test loss of earnings) and although doubtless i will get it back, its a massive blow, and money ive got to borrow again.

after reading other members problems with insurance claims, and that of blitzboys mazda,.....well i just dont know whats what at the moment, some of you may have seen a previous post from me about taking a second a job to make ends meet, although i guess its a kind of business, but i already had the licence, so it was the easiest option.

dont know if you'll all understand this, partiularly the extreme costs, but those that drive a cab will know exactly were i'm coming from..............just 1 week into making a go of it on my own.

sry guys and galls, and thanks for reading

Russ

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by Simmo on Sep 5^th, 2006, 8:44pm

Russ !!!, what a disaster. What can we say mate except to offer our sympathy which is not a great help in the practical sense. Just be sure you keep a strict note of all your expenses etc so that you can put together a viable claim. Condolences, Mike.

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by cossie_al on Sep 5^th, 2006, 8:49pm

Hi Russ,
Sorry to hear about your missfortune mate.
Doesn't life have a habbit of delivering a swift kick to the nuts just when you try to turn things around.
You have my deepest sympathy mate, I only wish I was in a position to help in some way.
Al

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by cossieguy on Sep 5^th, 2006, 9:17pm

Good luck with getting back to business, shame it wasn't some 17 year old chav you could have at least given him a good kicking and felt slightly better. Retesting people at retirement age before allowing them to drive is the way forward. Not being ageist but the majority of elderly drivers scare me!!!

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by jonnycab on Sep 5^th, 2006, 9:36pm

I feel for you. Having been a Hackney Carriage plate holder myself for nine years I can understand the stress that this kind of thing causes. Just having the car break down & spending a couple of days in the garage makes you worry about how you're going to earn a living..... We don't get paid for taking days off.
I've been quite fortunate in the last 9 years in that Ive only had two dings.
They both happened in my old Scorp about four years ago & both happened within a week.
First one happened when I pulled into a driveway to drop someone off & some guy reversed his car into the driveway to turn around & mashed the O/S rear wheelarch. >:(
Two days later whilst sitting on the rank, another cabbie (woman) in front of me accidently put the car in reverse & mashed the front bumper. ::)

A few years back, a fellow comrade of mine bought a lovely M reg Granada Scorpio.
Within half an hour of it passing the council test & it being on the road, it was written off by a Cavalier which decided to pull out of a turning while he was going past. The front end was practically ripped off. ???
Half an hour....now that's gotta be a record ;)

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by taliban on Sep 5^th, 2006, 9:53pm

oldies on the road are a nightmare, take a visit to the cemetry above ground (bexhill on sea), my parents retired there some years back, i feel safer riding my motorbike through london traffic than i would in a tank down there!
the other year an old 'dear' came up to a roundabout, she wanted to turn right, so she did just that, straight into the path of a lorry, that squished her, killed instantly.
then there's the leccy wheelchair things; you go to overtake, they then decide to turn right so out sticks an arm and right they turn without looking.
then parking, my folks always complain about a lack of parking space at the supermarket etc, i look around and quickly realise that if these coffin dodgers parked properly there would be another 30 spaces, since when does one fiesta need 2 spaces!?

it is also said that at least 7 million people shouldnt be driving due to poor eyesight, i.e. needing glasses etc.

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by hellblue on Sep 5^th, 2006, 9:54pm

A friend of mine ran his own taxi,a fiat multipla then had a poor idle problem it was in & out of the dealers but they could not sort it & in the end they kept it for over 4 weeks waiting for spares the car came back not much better but he lost so much money over it he had to give up the taxis & now does building work.when things are good there good but when there bad boy are they bad!

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by jonnycab on Sep 5^th, 2006, 10:00pm

Quote........ "then parking, my folks always complain about a lack of parking space at the supermarket etc, i look around and quickly realise that if these coffin dodgers parked properly there would be another 30 spaces, since when does one fiesta need 2 spaces!?"....
My local council has started fining people who don't park their cars within the space provided. It's amazing how many people can park properly when they think it might cost them not to do so. ::)

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by Kjetil S on Sep 5^th, 2006, 10:11pm

How about THIS (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/04/parking_infraction/) for parking penalty? ;D

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by Baw_Flinger on Sep 6^th, 2006, 8:14am

Feel for you mate, sounds like you have just about the same amount of luck as me.
Brings to mind; You know that old saying 'everyone has their fair share of luck? Well, I hope the b@st@rd that has got mine is enjoying it!!!

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by Simmo on Sep 6^th, 2006, 8:51am

Taliban, I lived and worked in the Bexhill area for 15 years so I can identify with your tales. They did make 'em tough though. One morning an 80+ year old lady got in her car started up and shot across the road, through some railings round a hotel and ended up in the basement yard !!. She climbed a ladder back to road level,spoke to the policeman who turned up and said,"I know you. You came to my last accident!!. I can't stop here now I'm off to London on a coach trip" She was and she went!!. The other place to beware of the elderly years ago was Worthing. There they raised their walking stick to indicate they wanted to cross the road and if the car didn't stop it was likely to get the stick brought down on the roof or boot !!. ;D ;)

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by LiverpaulH on Sep 6^th, 2006, 10:59am

That's a sod russ. Hope you get it sorted very soon.

It's amazing watching oldies sometimes, it scares me to think of the low insurance they pay to drive their nissan micras like a dodgem car.

Paul

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by Spannerdemon on Sep 6^th, 2006, 1:24pm

We're not all the same. I'm nearly 60, but I take great pride in driving properly, and hopefully not causing anyone else on the road any grief.

I know what you mean though. Here in Torquay, we have a huge elderly population, and some of them........... AAaaaaagggggghhhhhh!

Basically they can just about see over the wheel. They drive around at 25mph. They stop for no reason, they are invariably nattering to each other, they couldn't care less how long the queue gets behind them, because they HAVE got all day to get to where they are going..... they don't concentrate.....but worst of all they can be so very very confrontational if you have a go at them. REALLY STROPPY!

They know it all basically!! 8)

I know that they don't want to lose the independance that a car gives them, and you can't blame them for that, but it's dire to see some of their driving.

I'd like to see re-tests at 70 and 80 myself, (backed up by a doctors certificate of competence to hear, see, and be alert), but I'd also like to see any drivers who accumulate over 12 points in the years from 60-75 having to take a retest as a matter of road safety.

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by wayne on Sep 6^th, 2006, 5:02pm

Good luck with getting everything sorted Russ.
There isn't a good side, but consider, if it had been the Scorpio instead of a Mondeo, they probably would have written it off! Also if it HAD have been a seventeen yr old you could've slapped... He probably wouldn't have had insurance!!

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by TiberiuS on Sep 6^th, 2006, 9:56pm

Hahaha, good points but I know how I'd feel if I lost my car and I don't even rely on it for work. Good luck in getting it back, we understand what you are going through :)

I have a box of tissues on the rear shelf of my Scorpio :D, not sure if that makes me a coffin dodger though ;)

Some of the stories remind me of my dear old 80 year old Aunt, still keeps her sister's Fiesta although she rarely uses it (I get it serviced and MOT'd every year for her, avg annual mileage is about 40, 40 miles that is, no joke), I even get to add £10 of petrol about twice a year, she doesn't like the decimal displays on the pumps. I try to visit her every month or two, nearly every time when I phone her she asks me if I can do her a favour because she's had "a little bump", always the passenger side mirror glass; I almost get embarrased going back to Dovercourt so often for the same part, it feels like walking into the Chemist and asking for the unspeakable ;). It gets fitted but soon gets sacrificed to the side of a bus or parked car (and no, she doesn't like those velcro clip on ones, it has to be the proper part), she's had 6 fitted by me and 2 by Rapid Fit in the past 24 months. I worry sick about her on the road but she's a very stubborn person, wouldn't easily be persuaded to give up her beloved Fiesta but I know one day she's going to whack more than a mirror on the side of a bus and some nutter is going to throttle her if she seems a bit confused, I really lose sleep over that.

Regards, TiberiuS.

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by cossieguy on Sep 7^th, 2006, 10:47am

Some of these comments are funny but it shows an underlying problem that the government seems to ignore. Would you trust an 80 year old to come in and rewire your house, be your doctor? Cut you open for an operation? Pretty certain you wouldn't, BUT we let them drive cars capable of killing and maiming with minimal checking of health,eyesight and mental capabilities. Quite worrying really, I don't want to take peoples independence away but surely drivers of a certain age should have to prove their competence annually.
This is worth a read: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/insurance/car-insurance/article.html?in_article_id=409311&in_page_id=35

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by jonnycab on Sep 8^th, 2006, 3:10am

I personally don't worry too much about the oldies on the the road. They are pretty much predictable in the way they drive & you can sense what their next manouver is going to be. So you tend to keep a safe distance.
What worries me is youngsters, who think they know everything about driving, but know nothing about road safety.

These are statistics.........did you know that.......

1 in 3 young male drivers will write off a car in their first year of driving.

25% of all 'Death by dangerous driving' convictions are given to drivers under the age of 20. Even though they represent only 3% of all drivers.

25% of drivers under 21 have had an accident due to losing control of their vehicle.

Over 50% of all driving convictions in 2001 were given to under 25 year olds for not having insurance.

Now these kind of statistics worry me. :(

I'm not having a go at all young drivers....I know some of you own Scorps.....so you must be sensible ;)
The main culprits for these statistics are obviously Burberry clad Chavs in hot hatches. Unfortunately these thingyheads affect everyone elses insurance premiums >:(

I think a bit of 'Chavnic cleansing' might be the order of the day :D

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by taliban on Sep 8^th, 2006, 11:55am

its reckoned that 1 in 10 drivers in london have no insurance, this isnt helped by the the fines if caught are often lower than the cost of insurance.

one idea that would definately reduce accidents on the roads that unfortunately isnt really workable and the majority of car drivers wouldnt understand it, is if everyone who wanted to drive a car had to ride a motorbike first for 12 months. motorcyclists have to know how to 'read the road ahead', if they dont, they get wiped out.

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by taliban on Sep 8^th, 2006, 11:56am

oooooh, chavnic cleansing ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Title: Re: my taxi accident
Post by TiberiuS on Sep 8^th, 2006, 9:27pm

True point jonny, yes I'm fully briefed up (was 19 when I bought my Scorpio) and I look after my car; if I break something, I'm the one who has to pay for it :). I think it's more than 1 in 10 drivers in London by the way some of them fly along bus lanes and past cameras, at the very least their cars have cloned plates.

And taliban, good idea except it'd be a bloodbath ;), watching the yobs screaming around on scooters at 2am is bad enough ;D.

Regards, Bruce.