On Instinct(2)

Regarding the recent attack on a Melbourne cabbie and the resulting dilemma I posed, here’s an example of one cabbie’s reaction to being attacked. This story has appeared before on Cablog, somewhere.

I remember it being a State of Origin night at Sydney Football Stadium when I carried a fella and his boy to the game. He was a barrister who sat up front and related a case where he represented a cabbie, charged with killing a passenger.

It occurred on Syd Einfeld Drive, a high speed by-pass of Bondi Junction. The cabbie, a youngish bloke of Chinese descent delivered two Pacific Islanders to the end of the by-pass where they refused to pay and left. In my experience when Islanders ‘run’, they simply say, ‘Hey, thanks for that bro !’, then walk. They’re such big men they don't need to run cause, what are you goin' do..?

Well Chinese Joe showed some spunk, hopped out and abused them. At which point the Islanders returned to bash him. He scurried back into the cab but unfortunately both front windows were fully open. One bloke came at him through the driver’s window and the other through the passenger window.

Immediately the cabbie’s ‘fight or flight’ instinct kicked-in and he floored the throttle, taking off down the freeway. The attacker at his window quickly fell away but the other fella, half-way in the cab attempting to reach the driver, hung on for some 500 metres. The terrified driver then closed-in on the noise abatement barrier and 'scraped' him off, at high speed ! He died.

‘You’re joking’, I said to the barrister, ‘how many years did the cabbie get ?’. He shrugged and replied, ‘Nothing, he walked. We demonstrated he was in genuine fear for his life and the judge agreed, it was self defence’. Case dismissed.

Comments

[alan]

Police down here in Melbourne are seeking witnesses to an assault by a taxi driver on a passenger, who got to his destination and then wanted to go inside to get some money. Driver then appears to have struck him, while the passenger is on the ground the driver appears to have struck him with a baseball bat several times causing a broken jaw, and several broken ribs.

Thats one driver that needs to be off the rooad.

[Sharon Ferguson]

Great blog! Have added you to my blog roll (Across the Pond) - I am enjoying reading your posts.

[Adrian]

Hey Adrian,
We are all Aussies... Whats with the Chinese disent crap and Pacific Islander Crap...
WE ARE ALL AUSSIES

[Kellie]

I think the ethnic origin of the participants is pretty relevant actually - imagine your average Chinese guy against your average Pacific Islander. Misplaced political correctness strikes once again...

Good story Adrian. It's nice to see that the justice system works at times.

[Hardman]

Were all Aussies....

What PC crap. It might be the case that the people involved here were Aussies but there is nothing wrong with mentioning their ethnicity. Its descriptive. Nothing wrong with that.

[Walter]

Dang straight that was self defence. Glad to see that Australian courts have some sense left (near as I can tell in the UK you do NOT have much of a right to self-defence left).

[Lee]

I see nothing wrong in saying what ethnicity they were! Please stop with the political-correct b/s!

[Simon]

How do you know the Pacific Islanders were "Aussies" Adrian ?

Maybe they were tourists.

I haven't read a non - critical comment from you on this site. Perhaps you think this is some political site where the usual commenters come to fight it out with trolls. If so you are wrong.

To the other adrian - keep up the good work.