Issue 293 - TAXI Newspaper

More readers than the rest put together! 14 MAY 2013 | TAXI 3
Top Trade Story
HOLDING OUT
FOR A HERO
STEVE MCNAMARA LTDA General Secretary
A typical everyday story of yet another cabbie hero but the media find it surprising
Hardly a day goes by when
the LTDA does not receive a
telephone call, email or letter,
praising the actions of a Good
Samaritan cabbie, somewhere in the
Metropolis. The reasons vary from
rescuing elderly ladies’ cats,
refusing payment from passengers,
or utilising detective skills worthy
of Sherlock Holmes, to reunite
people with property left in the cab,
and everything else that you can
possibly think of.
“HARDLY A DAY GOES BY
WHEN THE LTDA DOES
NOT RECEIVE A CALL,
PRAISING THE ACTIONS
OF A CABBIE
”
I was therefore surprised by this
story in last week’s Standard; not
because of what the cab driver did,
but by the media frenzy that
followed the publication. Although
it did make a pleasant change to
hear caller after caller on LBC, and
the other talk stations, all phoning
in with similar stories of hero
cabbies, how refreshing to hear what
we already know, we’re great!
From the Standard...
A mother whose baby suffered an
extreme allergic reaction today
asked for help tracing the black
cab driver who helped save the
boy’s life and refused to take a fare.
Kate Moore said the driver used
the Knowledge to navigate back
streets she never knew existed to
get her boy Algie to A&E
within minutes.
Mrs Moore said his actions
“restored my faith in
mankind”.
It happened as she
fed Algie, eight
months, his first
piece of egg and
he went into
potentially fatal
anaphylactic
shock. His face
swelled and
he came out
in hives.
Mrs
Moore, 38, an
advertising
executive,
said:
“The
entire
lefthand
side
of
his
face and his lips had swollen up, he was
red and blotchy, had a rash around his
mouth and was rasping for breath.
“We live very close to St Thomas’s
paediatric A&E on the South Bank so I
reckoned it was faster to grab a cab than
wait for an ambulance. I put him in his
buggy and ran into Lupus Street to find
Image courtesy of London Evening Standard
help, I was in a bit of a tizzy.”
Mrs Moore saw a black cab driver
chatting outside a shop. She said:
“I dashed over and he did not see me as
his back was to us. I asked him if he
was working, he said, ‘Sorry love I’m
off home’ then he properly turned
around, seeing me burst into tears and
my son with hives all over his face.
Within seconds he had bundled me,
Algie and the buggy into the back of
his cab.
“We didn’t break any laws but he
took little side roads that I didn’t
know existed.”
The streets around Mrs Moore’s
house are known among cabbies as
the ‘Pimlico Triangle’.
Mrs Moore said: “He nipped in and
out and we were at the hospital in no
time and the driver was calm and
amazing throughout.
“I had a £20 note in the buggy,
which I shoved through the window
and he shoved it back at me and said,
‘Go!’ He hadn’t even turned the meter
on. When we got into A&E, Algie was
seen straight away by an amazing
team. Within 15 minutes of being
given the medication he was better.”
Steve McNamara of the Licensed
Taxi Drivers Association, said:
“This driver’s actions were in the
finest tradition of the taxi trade.” n
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