Cab driver hits and kills man on sidewalk at Milwaukee and Chicago

This morning, 6:15 am, cab driver veers onto sidewalk, hits a light pole, flips the cab four times or more, and hits and kills a 30-year-old man who was sitting on a bench waiting for the bus. So horrible. One commenter at the end of the story said her boyfriend witnessed this and estimated the cab driver was going 60 mph.

 

Tribune story is here.

 

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Permalink Reply by David P. on August 14, 2012 at 1:54pm

+awholeton

notoriousDUG said:

Being a professional means that you put doing the job properly in front of customer, or even employer, demands.  It is no excuse and makes the whole thing even worse.

Think about it; if he did this because he was being egged on by the passenger for a tip he took a life for probably 5 bucks.

Anne Alt said:

I don't know if this applies to today's situation, but I've often found that passengers are a big factor in the reckless driving problem.  If they make unreasonable demands of the driver, that driver often can't resist the lure of a big tip.  I try to avoid being one of those passengers on the rare occasions when I take cabs.

Serge Lubomudrov said:

That goes for a lot of cab drivers in Chicago. I know, they must earn a living, but not by endangering lives and health of their passengers, other drivers, bikers and pedestrians.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on August 14, 2012 at 2:01pm

Unfortunately, being a "professional" in today's world (and also yesterday's as well) simply means one is getting paid for one's services.  No more, no less.

Any other definition is simply romantic hogwash.  People are people -professionalism is simply a word.  Language, and any expectation regarding job performance, is always in flux.

Permalink Reply by Laura on August 14, 2012 at 3:30pm

Saw it on my way to work this am. It has been stuck in my head all day. How horrible. Luckily I was traveling on Chicago and didn't see the body.

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on August 15, 2012 at 3:51am

Thinking like this is what helps to propagate the problem you point out.

If we expect people to be professional and do not patronize those who are not we have no right to complain when people are not professionals because we are making it OK for them to do their job poorly.

Lets turn it around.  Would you get out of a cab where the driver was acting in a unprofessional manner?

James BlackHeron said:

Unfortunately, being a "professional" in today's world (and also yesterday's as well) simply means one is getting paid for one's services.  No more, no less.

Any other definition is simply romantic hogwash.  People are people -professionalism is simply a word.  Language, and any expectation regarding job performance, is always in flux.

Permalink Reply by rb on August 15, 2012 at 3:51am

that is horrible. My thoughts go out to all the families.

Cabs scare me especially here in Chicago. 30 tickets seems to be excessive- wonder how someone can accrue that many and still have a license.

Permalink Reply by blair on August 15, 2012 at 4:03am

I've tried reporting cabs in the past, but always end up hanging up after 10-15 mins on hold with 311.  I recently had a horrible cabbie that drove over the center line on Ashland at about 50mph, weaving in and out of traffic with just inches to spare.  I got out early when the cab was almost t-boned when he turned without the right of way.  I reported online this time (http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/bacp/provdrs/consumer/sv...) and received a print out of my complaint in the mail just a few days later.  You need to sign and return within 10 days, but it sound like they're going to try to take some sort of legal action against this cabbie.  I was impressed with how much better this system worked than calling 311.  Something to keep in mind as a passenger, pedestrian or cyclist.

Permalink Reply by Apie (11) on August 15, 2012 at 4:14am

Where/when was his name released? 

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on August 15, 2012 at 4:26am

This is one of many examples where online 311 reporting can work better.

122782_ said:

I've tried reporting cabs in the past, but always end up hanging up after 10-15 mins on hold with 311.  I recently had a horrible cabbie that drove over the center line on Ashland at about 50mph, weaving in and out of traffic with just inches to spare.  I got out early when the cab was almost t-boned when he turned without the right of way.  I reported online this time (http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/bacp/provdrs/consumer/sv...) and received a print out of my complaint in the mail just a few days later.  You need to sign and return within 10 days, but it sound like they're going to try to take some sort of legal action against this cabbie.  I was impressed with how much better this system worked than calling 311.  Something to keep in mind as a passenger, pedestrian or cyclist.

Permalink Reply by Liz on August 15, 2012 at 5:16am

I honestly hope one or more of these pedestrian fatality cases results in a lawsuit for allowing dangerous drivers to keep their chauffeur license.  It may finally get the city to yank licenses for those who have have too many violations written against them, regardless of dismissal.  The review process for cab drivers needs to be much more strict than it is today. 

"Most of the tickets were written by Chicago police officers, and the city's Law Department by rule handles nearly all of those cases. For the 28 cabdrivers studied by the Tribune, the Law Department's dismissal rate was 75 percent.

Yet the dismissal rate was less than 40 percent for county prosecutors, who handle tickets issued by the Illinois State Police, some written outside Chicago and the most serious ones issued in the city."



Cameron Puetz said:

More on the number of tickets that cab drivers get dismissed:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-09-23/news/ct-met-chicago-t...

Cameron Puetz said:

Sadly, that's pretty typical for a Chicago cab driver. They are very good at getting tickets dismissed so that they are able to keep driving.



rb said:

that is horrible. My thoughts go out to all the families.

Cabs scare me especially here in Chicago. 30 tickets seems to be excessive- wonder how someone can accrue that many and still have a license.

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on August 15, 2012 at 5:38am

My first reaction was to blame the cab driver for this tragedy, but after finding out more about him I believe it makes sense to withhold judgement until the authorities investigate this further. He did have 28 tickets on his record, but that was over a 25-year career, only about one per year, which is a reasonable number. He hadn't received any tickets since 2009 and the city had no records of complaints about his driving. He appeared in a 1992 Tribune article about catching a cab to Peotone - he comes across as a responsible, likeable person. He doesn't seem like the kind of cabbie who would voluntarily drive dozens of miles over the speed limit, so it seems possible his vehicle malfunctioned.


Here's our write-up of the case on Grid Chicago: http://gridchicago.com/2012/fatality-tracker-speeding-cab-hits-pole...

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on August 15, 2012 at 5:41am

Before you go out and decry people unsafe drivers due to the number of violations they have we need to stop and think about numbers for a second...

Most people who drive on a regular basis, call it more than 4-5 times a week, get tickets during the course of their life.  I am not sure what the average is but almost every person I know has had at least one traffic ticket in their adult life.

The average driver spends an hour or two in their car a day at the outside.  I bet for most it is even less than that.  Most of that time for the average commuter is also spent on the highway where there is less enforcement and fewer places to get nabbed by 'The Man.'  Cab drivers spend 8 hours, or more, behind the wheel each day and they spend almost all of it in heavy congestion and stop and go traffic.  At that point when you consider just how much driving they do a ticket per year or so is not that unreasonable.

Speeding and rolling stops are something almost every driver does, many just don't get the tickets for it because they are not doing it as often as the guy who drives 8 hours a day. 

Liz said:

I honestly hope one or more of these pedestrian fatality cases results in a lawsuit for allowing dangerous drivers to keep their chauffeur license.  It may finally get the city to yank licenses for those who have have too many violations written against them, regardless of dismissal.  The review process for cab drivers needs to be much more strict than it is today. 

"Most of the tickets were written by Chicago police officers, and the city's Law Department by rule handles nearly all of those cases. For the 28 cabdrivers studied by the Tribune, the Law Department's dismissal rate was 75 percent.

Yet the dismissal rate was less than 40 percent for county prosecutors, who handle tickets issued by the Illinois State Police, some written outside Chicago and the most serious ones issued in the city."



Cameron Puetz said:

More on the number of tickets that cab drivers get dismissed:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-09-23/news/ct-met-chicago-t...

Cameron Puetz said:

Sadly, that's pretty typical for a Chicago cab driver. They are very good at getting tickets dismissed so that they are able to keep driving.



rb said:

that is horrible. My thoughts go out to all the families.

Cabs scare me especially here in Chicago. 30 tickets seems to be excessive- wonder how someone can accrue that many and still have a license.

Permalink Reply by Liz on August 15, 2012 at 5:51am


I understand that a cab driver is more likely to get an increase in small violations, I'm suggesting that I total count of say 10 dismissed violations/speeding camera tickets and red light tickets with in 1 year period would be grounds for revoking a license.  Also a review of the dismissed tickets should be done, dismissed tickets for speeding 20 mph over the limit should hold more weight than a stop sign.  This allows more than enough leeway to account for the time spent driving.  Spending a lot of time driving doesn't mean that repeated infractions should be ignored.  

While I understand this driver hasn't had tickets recently, and therefore wouldn't be subject to revoking even with new standards, it would provide an incentive for drivers to follow traffic laws or risk loosing their license.  

Truck drivers are often held to higher standards despite spending large amounts of time behind the wheel. 


notoriousDUG said:

Before you go out and decry people unsafe drivers due to the number of violations they have we need to stop and think about numbers for a second...

Most people who drive on a regular basis, call it more than 4-5 times a week, get tickets during the course of their life.  I am not sure what the average is but almost every person I know has had at least one traffic ticket in their adult life.

The average driver spends an hour or two in their car a day at the outside.  I bet for most it is even less than that.  Most of that time for the average commuter is also spent on the highway where there is less enforcement and fewer places to get nabbed by 'The Man.'  Cab drivers spend 8 hours, or more, behind the wheel each day and they spend almost all of it in heavy congestion and stop and go traffic.  At that point when you consider just how much driving they do a ticket per year or so is not that unreasonable.

Speeding and rolling stops are something almost every driver does, many just don't get the tickets for it because they are not doing it as often as the guy who drives 8 hours a day. 


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