Driving ban for cabbie who hit drunk woman

ACABBIE who ran over a drunk woman who was standing in the middle of the road has been banned from driving.

Mohammad Tofazzul Ali, who has been a Hackney carriage driver for more than 20 years, was driving in Gateshead when he failed to see the victim in the middle of the road.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that although the woman had voluntarily entered the carriageway, Ali was not paying proper attention and left her with multiple fractures.

Ali, 64, of Beaconsfield Street, Newcastle, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by careless driving and was given a community order and unpaid work, along with a 12-month driving ban.

The court heard it was on July 21 last year that the victim spent the evening socialising, initially at a birthday party in Gateshead, where she drank several double vodkas and mixers and then in Newcastle city centre where she drank another five double vodkas.

Michael Bunch, prosecuting, said: “She states she was drunk.

“She decided to go home by herself and took a taxi to somewhere in Gateshead and can recollect getting out of the taxi near a roundabout.

“She has a recollection of getting into a vehicle, getting back out and standing in the middle of the road.

“She then began to think she wanted to be run over. She can give no explanation for this as she had not had any bad experiences during the night. Her next recollection is being in an ambulance being spoken to by a paramedic.

“At 1.30am a witness was travelling in a taxi along Old Durham Road, Gateshead, when they became aware of the car directly in front of them swerving.

“They then saw the complainant standing in the middle of the road.

“The witness states it was hard to see her until the headlights shone on her.

“The complainant stood in the centre of the lane, the taxi driver braked sharply and came to a halt.

“The witness asked the taxi driver to allow the complainant to get in the vehicle and they would take her home. The complainant did get into the taxi, she was crying and said, “I wanted you to kill me, I wanted to die, I wanted to die.”

The witness attempted to find out her address, the complainant continued to cry and state that she wanted to die before becoming volatile and getting out of the taxi.

“The complainant them ran towards another car which came to a halt, lay on the bonnet and shouted to the driver to kill her.

“The witness began to contact the police while her husband left the taxi and stood in the carriageway to make other drivers aware of the presence of the complainant.

“The complainant then approached the vehicle driven by the defendant and a collision occurred.”

The woman was taken to the RVI in Newcastle and was found to have sustained several fractures to the right side of her pelvis, a fracture to the right side of her jaw, a haematoma to the right side of her head, bruising to her right lung and a laceration to her chin.

She said in a victim impact statement: “As a result of this incident, I was in hospital for just over three weeks and I was off work for approximately four months.

“When I returned home from hospital, I was unable to do anything I would usually do myself, and I required a lot of physio to get myself back physically, to somewhere close to how I used to be before the crash.

“Even after returning home, if I went out anywhere like the shops, I had to take a wheelchair and be pushed around by my parents or friends.

“I required the wheelchair for a few months. When the incident first happened, I would often get flashbacks of the incident, and I struggled to sleep.”

Judge Robert Adams said it was not clear why the woman had said she wanted to be run over and killed.

Passing sentence, he said: “I accept she was, in part, the author of her own misfortune and injury but you had the opportunity to see her and you didn’t.”

Rachel Hedworth, defending, said: “He is devastated at the fact he has caused this young woman these injuries. He recognises he should have been paying better attention and he doesn’t seek to minimise the effect that accident has had on her.”

Miss Hedworth provided several references, said he was an “inspirational father” to his six children and had never been in trouble or had a collision before.