Andy Peters Brighton & Hove Cab Trade Association
info@bhcta.co.uk www.bhcta.co.uk
JEYES TO THE RESCUE!
How was Easter for you? Here in Brighton & Hove the weekend was quite reasonable… until Sunday night that is.
My cab was out with my driver, Dan, who takes it at weekends and at around 9pm on the Sunday I got a frantic call from him telling me he’s having a problem with a customer. I can hear a commotion in the background but can’t understand what he’s saying, but I can work out that he’s quite distressed.
I managed to get his location, which fortunately was quite near my house, so I jumped in my car whilst trying to get more information as to what’s happening. The only thing I could make out was there’s a drunk woman in the back of the cab who’s giving him trouble. I told him I’m on my way and to call the police.
Within a few minutes I’m with him on the seafront, and I stop opposite where he’s parked up and standing out of the cab and on the phone. I run across four lanes and when I get there he is speaking to the police and I can see a woman in the back of the cab. Dan is trying to speak to me and the police at the same time, but my instincts are to immediately open the door and find out what’s going on,
The woman is about fifty and it’s obvious that she’s drunk but the smell was horrendous! And not only that, I can see she’s sitting in a pool of urine which is soaking into the leather seats and dripping on to the carpet!
I remember an old school police officer telling me years ago that in some situations you use ‘Shock & Awe’. So, without hesitation I ‘ordered’ her to get out of the cab, and no doubt the police on the other end of Dan’s phone could hear what I was yelling at her. At first, she ignored me, but then I made it very clear what would happen to her if she didn’t get out.
Now, at this point I can assure everyone that I know the limitations and I was certainly not going to physically drag her out. We all know that things can escalate, plus there is council controlled in-vehicle CCTV to consider.
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But I bluffed her by telling her what I ‘would’ do if she didn’t get out - just call it tactics.
She got the message and slowly got out. All I could see was a pool of urine on the back seat. I watched in disbelief that someone could produce so much as the urine dripped, dop by drop onto the sopping wet carpet.
The cab was parked by a bus stop with a seat, and it was my intention to guide her to that seat and wait for the police as by then Dan had told me that she had grabbed him whilst he was driving, so this was now a serious issue including an assault.
However, this drunk had better ideas and decided instead to walk, or rather stagger, across the four lanes. Fortunately, there was very little traffic, but I had to do the right thing to ensure she wasn’t run over and was able to slow down the oncoming traffic. Having followed her to the other side she then went into a hotel which was directly opposite, although this wasn’t her destination.
As far as I was concerned she was no longer our responsibility and I deemed her to be safe. By then Dan had cancelled the police and I told him to drive to my place, which he had to do whilst enduring the horrible smell in the car. I swear that I saw steam rising from the back seat!
Back at mine, with rubber gloves on, I mopped up as much as I could of the urine and took the back seat out whilst Dan told me what had happened....
He had a call to pick up from a pub and a member of staff was standing at the door assisting this woman who was clearly not very steady on her feet. She spoke to him saying (the usual) that: “She’s OK driver” (how many times have you heard that) adding that she had been receiving medical treatment.
He could see that she was blotted and smelt of booze but thought he should help her out. However, when trying to get her to state her destination she was immediately abusive, but he managed to get the road she needed which was nearby. She continued to be abusive and then grabbed at him which is where he stopped the car and eventually called me. So poor Dan was trying to do her a favour and be the good taxi driver but ended up getting the brunt of it.
MAY 2023 PHTM
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