Rescue the passengers

That is what they say when the cab breaks down, or gets smashed up. I really remember the first time I ever rescued passengers quite well. It was the corner of Park and West Washington.

It was a Saturday or Sunday, I was working a 3a-3p. All morning long this maniac had been zooming all over downtown, snatching stuff from right in front of me, and I'll assume everybody else.

When you've got a ride in, the dispatcher should simply give you the fitter. Give you the ride in front of you that goes with the ride you have in. But there are times when that doesn't happen. This morning it wasn't happening.

Who was this guy? He contested every call, and he never left downtown. I distinctly remember him stepping on my fitter in the 300 W. Washington, he came up the incline doing at least 45, in a semi residential 25 and did a U turn 100 feet in front of me to get in front of the house. The dispatcher let him keep it too. Who was this guy? A new guy for sure, nobody on the street knew him. Maybe a dispatcher knew him, but none of us did.

If I'd pulled that kind of crap the dispatcher would have yelled at me, taken the call back, retaliated by not giving me any calls for an hour. It just wasn't something that should have been tolerated. But it was.

Then around noon, there was a call to rescue the passengers, and I got it. Sure enough, it was that new guy. He'd T-boned a car in the middle of the intersection. Totaled both of them. I asked the lady who got in the cab what happened. She said he was sitting there watching the light, and when it changed, he floored it. Well, gee, there just happened to be a car stretching the yellow, and it was right in front of him. No matter! The light changed. Boom.

The lady telling me about it was pretty amazed that somebody would do that. All I could do was sigh, and say to myself, it figured. The only guy they ever let me train drove like that and I told them to not hire the guy, and they didn't. They also never let me train anyone again.

The moral of the story? Doing the right thing, and having the company's best interests at heart doesn't mean a thing. Simply doesn't.

Oh, yeah. We never saw that guy again, they did can him, and to the best of my knowledge he never came back.