Source: Lancashire Evening Post
A taxi driver and his passenger escaped serious injury after a yob threw a paving slab through the windscreen of the vehicle as it travelled through Preston.
David Neale, who has been driving cabs in the city for the last four years, was left covered in broken glass after part of the windscreen and the passenger side window shattered inwards.
His passenger, a young woman in her early 20s, screamed as the slab broke in two during the random attack on Blackpool Road between the Larches and Savick estates.
The thug, believed to be in his teens, hurled the concrete slab from above his head after running into the middle of the road.
Today, another cabbie has told how up to 30 drivers are targeted with bricks, stones and eggs every week while ferrying passengers around the city.
Mr Neale, 57, of Squires Wood, Fulwood, said: “If the passenger I was taking had been in the front passenger seat, she would be in hospital now at best and at worst an impact like that could have killed her.
“I had already been hit by something from a group of lads on my way to the pick-up, but then when I was coming back, I was this lad run across the road.
“He had this slab above his head holding it with both hands and just slammed it into the windscreen.
“It all happened in slow motion but I was just thinking that if it hit me or the passenger we would have been in real trouble.”
As well as shattering the windows of the Volkswagen Sharan, which he drives for Ashton-based Call-A-Car, it left the vehicle with a dent in the roof and the door.
He said that police officer who attended the incident, close to the junction of West Park Avenue on the Savick estate at around 2.30am on Saturday, had told him that the estate was “rife” with attacks on cab drivers.
Mark Selley, of the Preston Hackney Carriage Association who stopped to check Mr Neale was alright after the incident, said the recent warm weather had brought youngsters out onto the streets at night.
He said: “I am so worried that one day a driver is going to be so shocked by an attack that they are going to lose control and really hurt themselves and a passenger.
“It happens so regularly these day, just the other day I had an egg thrown at me on London Road, a colleague had a brick thrown at him on the Grange estate and there are lots of incidents like this which never get reported to the police.
“I just wish I could speak to the kids that do this and say to them ‘I know you are bored, but there are people’s lives at risk here – it could be your sister or your nan in the back of that cab’.”
Detective Inspector Keith Lee, of Preston Police, said: “It is absolutely mindless damage, not only to the vehicle, but the lives of the driver and his passenger could very easily have been lost.
“These people need to think about the consequences of their actions.”
The yob, who was dressed in a hooded top, was with at least two others at the time of the attack.
Anyone with any information about the attack should contact the police on 01772 203203 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
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