Had my first close call with a pedestrian tonight.....

I was leaving the Treasure Island trying to make a right hand turn on red onto the strip. I edge out enough so I can see the traffic coming from my left...looking left, looking left..waiting for my spot...lookin left, lots of traffic, edge out some more...lookin left. Finally my spot opens and Im off the brake, on the gas, turning the wheel and starting to look right all at the same time. As soon as my eyes catch up to where Im driving I see a ped right in front of me. I hit the brakes hard and my tires screech a little as this guy looks like he just shit his pants. I wasn't going that fast, I was just at a standstill and had maybe traveled 5 feet. However it was surely fast enough to fuck up this guys program.......His fear then quickly turned to anger. It was nice out so I had my windows down and "2 seconds ago shitting his pants guy" is now "tough and all up in my window guy". Saying all kinds of shit, cussing at me at whatnot.

I guess I cant blame the guy. But on the flipside it would have been an accident. Im not out here trying to kill people. Driving as long as I have its amazing that this is the first one of these I've had considering the shear number of insubordinate pedestrians in Las Vegas. Furthermore, the guy could have just as easily walked behind my cab as opposed to in front of me. I mean if your trying to cross on a crosswalk and you see a car trying to make a right on red, who is looking away from you...Common sense tells you that that "hey...The guy doesn't see me, he's looking the other direction. Maybe I should walk behind him, or stay put until he does see me...Sure I have the right of way right now but I could be right and dead at the same time".

So he is continuing letting me know what he thinks of me and again I cant say that I blame him. But then he comes out and says:

You're fucking lucky you didn't hit me man

WHAT? No....you're fucking lucky I didn't hit you.

There are 13 other cab companies in town, all of which are desperate for drivers. Im driving some other companies cab tomorrow meanwhile you're sitting here with a crown vic parked on top of you. But Im the lucky one.

XV

If you monitor your two way radio long enough you are bound to hear some crazy shit.

A while back shortly after I switched to night shift I was staging somewhere listening to the radio and this driver comes on the air in an obvious arab slang and started explaining that he was at the Rio and had two females in his cab that were being unruly and verbally abusive (not the words he used im sure) and he was refusing the ride, they were then refusing to exit the cab. So the driver is basically asking for Rio security as well as TA to respond. While he is explaining this to dispatch you can hear what sounded like two black females in the back round being very loud and saying shit thats pretty much the worst shit you could say to an honest arab man.

Now if this were me in the same situation I would like to think I could get them out of the cab without having to envolve dispatch,security or the TA and also without getting myself into trouble at the same time. But this guy was prolly doing the right thing by calling it in before it escalated and also to cover his own ass more than anything.

I found out later that this drivers problem ended without incident. Lucky for him.

A few hours later I get fucking stuck in the massive traffic jam on 15NB at like 3am. I find away around it but heard on the radio that is was a Nellis Cab (co.) envolved in a colision, and all traffic was being diverted off the freeway.

An hour later Im at home and for some reason or another I was watching local news which I never do and all the coverage is about this crash. Turns out Nellis Cab had a passanger exit his cab on 15 @ Flamingo, who then was struck by a car. At the time this was all the news that was being reported and I remebered thinking why the fuck would you pull over on the side of the freeway and let your passengers out?

I find out a day later that Nellis picked up the same two girls as our Arab friend. They were two local girls, UNLV seniors actually. They gave a destination of south LV. Shortly after they got on the freeway (not even a .5 mile) one of the females started striking the driver in the back of the head repeatedly. He pulled over for obvious reasons and one of the girls exited the passenger side of the cab and tried to run across the freeway. She was struck by a gravel truck, then an Metro squad car (who wasnt responding, wrong place wrong time) and then a buick I believe. The other girl never left the cab, and watched the whole thing happen. The freeway was closed down for hours.

Ultimately the Nellis driver was never charged or cited.

you can read about that here:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Aug-27-Sat-2005/news/27111526.html

XIV

It was four o'clock on Saturday and I was just leaving the yard. Since moving to the night shift the Stratosphere has become my ritual first stop. It's only two blocks from our yard and it's as good as place as any to start your day. This day wasn't unlike any other so far in the first 4 minutes but while staging at the Strat I got an interesting proposition from a homeless lady.

Its not uncommon at all to have homeless people come up to your cab while your staging, usually they are trying to sell you things. Whatever the last thing they were able to pinch from the nearest souvenir shop...hey you never know when that scale model stratosphere tower or a keychain with the replica "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign on it might come in handy. Other times they are unlucky war veterans that are just looking for a handout. On this day a get this knarly looking Mexican lady whose looks reminded me of my favorite Simpsons character Hans Moleman......You know, this guy:


She wasn't carrying anything, so as she is walking over to me Im trying to think of some clever reason to not give her a dollar. After all I just got started so Ive only got ten of them in my pocket. It was a nice day out so my window was already down....

If you give me $1000 today I'll give you $2000 tomorrow

I don't know why I did it, but I decided to play along...

Wow, that sounds like a pretty good deal

(pause)

Well?

Well, how do I know you have the $2000?

I have it

Where do you have it?

Its in the bank, I can get it tomorrow

Tomorrow is Sunday, the banks are closed

I tell you what, why don't you get a hotel room for us and you can do whatever you want to me until Monday and then I can get the money out

really?

oh yeah

I don't know though...I'm still kinda unsure that you have the $2000

Well, how about you give me $300 right now and Ill give you $600 on Monday?

ehh, I think the $2000 had a nicer ring to it..maybe some other time. Give me your cell number and I might give you a call so we can do this

I think the cell number line finally made her realize that I was fucking with her, b/c she stormed off and walked to the next cabbie behind me. I doubt she had better luck with him. I mean really, I would have bought a Big Shot magnet for 2 bucks.

XIII

You may recall a few editions ago my adventures in cab #5149. The flagship of all my employers vehicles there is no question. And by "flagship" I mean biggest piece of shit in the fleet. Since that day, I dont believe that I had been given that cab again, until last Thursday that is. The strange part about this is that the irony of the situation did not occur to me until days later.

I was working on a Thursday which is actually my Saturday. I picked up an extra shift to help my boss out with all the extra cabs the company had for CES. Its not a bad deal though, there is a lot of money out there that week. My day started out good, I got a couple of good rides from the convention center. I always like impressing the tech guys with my knowledge of the shit. I was a supervisor of the video dept. at Best Buy and commission sales "expert" at the Good Guys for the last five years prior to becoming a cabbie. I remember I had a Monster Cable guy in the car and I was reeling off everything from the 100 series up to the Z & M series...and the guy was going nuts about the fact that I knew more about his products then he did seemingly.

At about sundown I had found a ride DT and after clearing there I grabbed a spot on the Casino Center stand by Binions. Thinking Id have a few minutes with two cabs in front of me I pulled out the cell phone and gave a call to my brother in law to check up on my sister who had been in the hospital. As im having that conversation I notice a black woman, kinda long dready hair, messed up grey t-shirt and blue jeans on. Shes trying to get in the first cab and this guy drives off before her hand can get anywhere near the handle on the door. The cab in front pulls up and I pull up and this lady is visibly upset about what had just happened. The cab in front of me talks to her through the window for a minute and then she gets in. They sit there for a minute and then shes getting out, now even more pissed than she was two minutes ago and shes looking right at me.

Hey Tom I gotta let you go I got a psycho bitch 12 o'clock

My doors are locked (they were already) and I crack the window. Lady tells me that she needs to get to the UPS store on MLK & Bonanza.

Bingo, the reason other cab made her get out. This is whats considered a "short ride" Generally when you pickup DT you're headed back to the strip which pretty much guarantees you a 15+ ride. However a ride to MLK & Bonanza is only going to net you around 7 bucks, you're going to be stuck in traffic the whole way and there wont be a ride waiting there for you when you get there. However what they did was illegal. The law states that if:

1 a passenger can give at least a major intersection as a destination

2 Is orderly

3 Has money, enough for the ride

A cab driver must accept that ride.

Anyway, the lady actually looked pretty clean, and she had in her had a stack of twenty's folded in half. Prolly 10-12 bills. So at least 25 bucks. So having figured out what the deal was, realizing there was no danger and the fact that I like to do good deed once and a while, I loaded her. Hoping that she would take care of me for my kindness. Especially considering I wrote down the cabs number that was in front of me and called TA and explained the situation to them as we were on our way to the UPS store. Hopefully that guy will get a ticket.

Shortly after arriving at the UPS store I realized that my first mistake of the day was not made in loading this lady, but in unlocking the doors before she paid me. She got out of the cab and strolled into the UPS store like I wasn't even there, and also like she had done 100 times already. Fuck that...not on my watch. So I park the cab and walk into the UPS place and she's in there filling out her forms and shit.

I start getting into it big time, and everyone in line is now looking at me. Shes going off to me about cabbies are scum and this and that....on and on and on, then she just gives me the ignore treatment. Im standing right in front of her and explaining that im calling the cops and shes just staring off into space, saying nothing.

I walk outside. Fuck this bitch, I cant kick her ass but I can send her to county. Which is the next best thing I think. So having just called TA 10 minutes ago I hit talk twice on the phone and explained to the officer what must have sounded like the dumbest driver he had ever heard. I mean, think about it......I just called this guy so he could write a ticket to a cabbie for refusing a ride,...that I picked up and now need assistance in retrieving funds with. Perhaps those first guys aren't such ass' after-all. Nonetheless the officer tells me that they are busy and cant send an officer over.

So I shoulda just ducked tail and go the fuck out of there at that point. The meter amount was nothing compared to the business that I was passing up by being there. But no, I had to wait outside for this bitch to come out of the UPS store. I wait 10 minutes maybe, and she comes out. She sees me and starts walking towards the street. I pull up alongside her and just following, but laying into her at the same time. Saying some really bad stuff actually. So we make it to the street, (Bonanza) and she makes a turn to get onto the sidewalk and starts walking eastbound. Im still yelling as shes walking away from me.

As im pulling out of the parking lot there is a lot of traffic in the WB lanes. Stopped traffic actually. I need to go EB so im trying to inch my nose in the first lane and get the cars to stop so I can cut through and go the other direction. The first car stops and I wave and the second kinda looks like she wants to go but then stops and waves at me to go. Im inching forward, now blocking two lanes of traffic, looking west to see oncoming traffic. Just as my nose gets into the turning lane (or suicide lane)

BAM!

I nailed a car I couldn't see in the turning lane. My front end fucked up the whole passenger side of his car. If I had been 4 feet further ahead at that exact moment I would have gotten it right in the driver door. Luckily just the whole cosmetic front end was ripped off the blazer. Right away I knew it was my fault. Regardless of the fact that he shouldn't have been traveling in that lane, its his lane and I didn't yield. Ultimately the officer explained that we were both at fault,we were both cited however I was listed as the number 1 vehicle (at fault/most at fault) b/c I caused it.

As soon as homeboy gets out of his car I had accessed the situation already (thinking we were both at fault) but he gets all up in my window talking shit and the first thing I asked him was.

are you alright?

the motherfucker thought about and then comes back with

I dont know

What an ass. I guess you cant blame him though, lawyers see $$$$ for this type of shit I bet.

So I got suspended for a week, had my job held over my head. $2000 out of my pocket, plus my lost wages. And as if that weren't enough I gotta spend $200 for a driver safety class w/ skid car training (X100). All of that might have been worth it if I fucked up 449 enough that I wouldn't have to drive it again.

**Now watch the actual video footage from the crash**

Front View-http://youtube.com/watch?v=F-CeitLZkvk
In Cab View-http://youtube.com/watch?v=1W19cnojM1s

My Night at the Wynn Hotel & Casino

For now...... I have this story and all the pics hosted somewhere else so for my own mental health you can just check it out there If you want.
http://www.phishhook.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=547543&highlight=