Woman left critically hurt by cab driver
ABLACK cab driver has been jailed after he sped away with a woman clinging to the window of his vehicle, leaving her with life-threatening injuries.
Karamat Ali, from Heaton Mersey, ‘sensed trouble’ when a 22-year-old politics student stepped backwards in front of his hackney carriage after a night out drinking, so he locked the doors and refused to take her as a fare, Manchester Crown Court heard.
She then grabbed hold of the lowered front passenger side window, but the 56-year-old put his foot down and sped off.
The woman was dragged 57 yards down the road before falling, suffering a severe head injury, prosecutor Michael Morley said.
Ali left the scene and made no attempt to report the accident. Now the cabbie, of Craig Road, has been jailed for 18 months after admitting causing serious injury by dangerous driving and failing to report an accident.
The incident, which happened off Oxford Road in Manchester city centre, was witnessed by passers-by.
Witness Paul Stakes said he saw a woman shouting at the driver and thought it was ‘some kind of student prank’ until she fell off in an ‘horrific’ way.
Following his arrest, Ali said he was aware the victim had been clinging to the vehicle, but said driving off in the way he had was routinely done by taxi drivers who didn’t want drunk fares.
Prosecutor Michael Morley said: “Whatever the state of this young lady’s inebriation, she wasn’t acting unlawfully - the responsibility lies with he who was in control of the vehicle.”
The victim, who had been a ‘high-flying’ postgraduate student, was taken to hospital in a ‘very poorly state.’ She had suffered a brain injury so severe that a piece of her skull had to be removed. She has lost her sense of smell and at one stage doctors feared paralysis.
However, although her functioning remains impaired, she has made enough of a recovery to resume studying a masters at Manchester University.
Paul Prior, defending, said despite being disabled by childhood polio, Ali was a hard-working family man who volunteered with the homeless, had not had an accident in 25 years and had an unblemished 12 years as a cabbie until that morning.
Describing the father-offour as ‘profoundly sorry,’ Mr Prior appealed for a community punishment, adding: “He made an awful, impulsive decision.”
Sentencing, Judge Martin Rudland said he had no doubt about the situations cab drivers faced, but added that ‘no-one was criticising’ the victim’s behaviour.