Overloaded taxi goes off a cliff and kills 11 of 18 on board

Just over 2 week's ago I wrote and joked about a grossly overloaded taxi in South Africa and today I read about a crash there that killed 11 people, and that's no joke.

In the story of 2 week's ago I made all kinds of stupid jokes and included a picture of a car with people sitting and standing all over the outside, but 11 dead riders is very sobering.

We have talked about many issues on this blog that concern cab drivers such as violence against cab drivers, and the problem that is world wide of too many cab's in a municipality's.

Cab drivers have to act responsibly, as I said in the earlier post, I have allowed at times a passenger above the posted limit, and have had some wild rides with passengers that where drunk or close to it.

The driver of the cab was both lucky and unlucky to survive this crash and faces charges, the legal amount of passengers is based on the number of seat belts, so lets be smart out there guys.

DRIVER DETAINED

A Louisiana driver has been stopped and detained for having a "Don't Tread on Me" bumper sticker on his vehicle and was warned by a police officer about the "subversive" message it sends.
NOTE: What happens if you are driving your car from New Hampshire? On the tag is the state motto; "Live Free or Die!" And if your car says "One Nation Under God...! You go diretly to jail! What the hell is going on in this country?
I got the above from the VETERANS POST, July, 2009 issue. It is placed at the VA Hospitals.

If you think you have had a bad day, wait until you hear about this woman

A woman in Brisbane, Australia stole a cab and then rear ended 2 off duty cops, a start to a very bad day.

To make a bad situation worse she tested out at nearly 3 times the legal limit for blood alcohol, wow she must have had a "few" of those extra large fosters, you know those mini kegs.

Along with all her other problems the 2 cops where treated for soft tissue injuries and pain, I think she will be seeing lots of the officers in the court's, you think?

Look out big Brother is watching!!

Its really bad when you can't stop to pick up or drop off a passenger without getting a ticket, I just read a story at address below.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/06/29/taxi-calgary-parking-tickets-cab.html

One thing that caught my interest was the fact that the company sends someone to court to fight the tickets, could you just see that happening at a cab company in Tampa, no I could not either.

In the past year, Associated Cab has seen an increase of 80 per cent in tickets or about 130 tickets every two months, issued by the authority against the company but about half of them are annulled in court, said general manager Jeff Garland.

I guess city's have to raise ca$h any way in these hard times.

How to tell when a cab is available

I just read something that reminded me of when I drove a cab at night in Tampa and would get flagged many times when my cab was all ready occupied.

I would turn on my inside light so they could see that yes I already had a passenger, and at that point I would get cursed out more often then not, it would all start all over again as we passed the next bar in Soho.

I would often tell my fare if I ever get rich Ill take out a full page ad in the Trib and explain when the light is out you need to find another cab, why is it people who go out each and every weekend can't figure that out?

Big Foot???

Hey boys and girls, ha just like the ESPN PTI. I was reading Tim's new web site, something about a Skunk Ape, whatever that is. Nice picture of Tim, head band and back pack. I don't have the foggiest idea if he drives his cab like that.

Now about a little baseball. My Dodgers are still surprising a lot of folk. Considering their top hitter is still on suspension they are doing quite well. The good teams always seem to find someone to pick up the slack when there is a problem. Now in the Eastern division, most consider the toughest division in baseball, which I concur. The Red Sox are playing well, the Blue Jays are fading, which doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is the Yankees losing two out of three to the Nationals, the last by being shut out. Also the Rays losing two out of three to the Rockies. I have to admit that the Rockies are playing well. The Phillies won the last title so they should be considered the team to beat. They are the Champions until they are dethroned.

A few words about people riding a cab who like to bring all of their kids, grandma and a few cousins so they can save a few dollars. I had a situation like that a few years before I got sick, this lady and her five screaming kids two of them which were under five. She used some words on me that I didn't use even when I was in the Air Force. She got rather upset when I refused to take her to the store. It was only a few miles away. But if something happened it would be hard to live with it. Have a good day folks, be careful out there

So you think your customers want to over load your cab?

Yeah I know by law you are only allowed to pick up 4 passengers at a time with a sedan, but sometimes you might let 1 or 2 more in rather then lose the ride on a slow night, but then you get an idiot that wants to put 7 or 8 in that same cab and you ask where are you going to put them?

It seems a very special cab driver in Cape Town, South Africa found room in his cab for 122 passengers, in a cab built for 26, yeah I know you would love to borrow that baby for Friday and Saturday night's working in Ybor or Soho.

While they where all kids, your paper work does not distinguish between adults, kid's or munchkins, 4 means 4, at least that's what I have been told.

Its really too bad there are no pictures of the 122 kids in the cab or just the cab, I would like to see a cab built to carry 26 people. Maybe it looked something like this.

Pedicab Slams Into a Taxi in Brooklyn

Sometimes you have to just scratch your head a wonder what some people are thinking, if at all.

On Thursday four people where hurt when a pedicab Slammed Into a Taxi in Brooklyn when coming off the Williamsburg Bridge, on a trip that started in Times Square, a trip of about 3 miles.

I have seen pedicab's in Ybor back when I still drove for United cab and wondered how safe they where, but driving in and around Ybor is one thing, and driving on a bridge is another, but most of those trips where short, such as taking people to there car.

The Williamsburg Bridge is very much like our Sunshine Skyway, high in the middle and low at each end, which means when you get over the hump its all downhill from there, and the driver loaded down with 3 passengers could not control his speed and hit the Taxi.

The driver got the worst of it, he flew over the taxi on impact and is in Bellevue Hospital in serious condition.

Its so typical, but Fridays paper asked if there should be tougher laws regulating pedicabs, yeah the horse is out of the barn so lets lock the door.

You can read the original story in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/nyregion/11pedicab.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

No, they where not kidding!!

A few months ago I wrote about the plans of the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County to start a water taxi, in and around downtown Tampa.

Then it looked like just another build it and they will come plain, as it still does, such as the railroad station that the city spent 5+ mil on a few years ago that still has but 1 train per day, the city will remind you that most of the money is from the fed's, but it is still our tax money at work, or not.

Another bright idea was to take down the art museum and build a new and bigger building, not to worry about the fact that the old one could not support itself, just pour more money into the hole.

How about the trolley, has it paid for itself yet? Maybe they just need to make it bigger, why not what else would they do with our money...I don't know, maybe make the buses as well as the government work for the people of the county, and stop waisting more money on build it and they will come pipe dreams in downtown.

2 story's that sum up the way things are for cabby's right now

Between the way the economy is right now and the fact the price of gas is creeping up and ridership is down and today I read 2 story's that make me wonder how much more can cabby's take.

The first story, is from Fiji, where you would think the biggest problem would be to pick which beach to go to.

I wrote about a story a month ago from Australia about a cab driver, who ran over a fare beater, it seems to have happend again in Fiji.

This driver as well as the driver in Australia where both arrested, so please don't try this at home as they say, you go from being the victim to being the bad guy in a heart beat.

The second story is from North Kent, England, a cab driver was beat and robbed and it took the cop's 30 minutes to arrive, despite 4 calls to 999 (there 911 I guess) and a take out joint hitting there alarm which has a direct line to the cop's.

What makes this even more amazing is the police station is 1 half mile away, the injured driver feels the closed circuit cameras that have been installed in the cab's there have made the cop's feel that is a substitute for quick response time.

The good news is the 2 assailants have been caught and are awaiting trial, where we can only hope they get something other then probation, be careful out there.