Saturday, December 08, 2012

Dangerous Shuttle driving incident.

I was out working driving my Shuttle/taxi last evening, I was called to pick-up a man from his own Stag Night party. He had a heavy chain attached to his ankle with as a ball, the heavy centre part of a car wheel. He was quite intoxicated ofcause, I drove him to his home which was right at the top of Otago Street,  one of Picton's Steepest streets up the side of a steep hill.
I stopped in his driveway and he paid his fare then opened the shuttle van door and holding on to his heavy ball and chain he stepped out on to the drive, I heard the ball and chain crash into the concrete and turned to see if he was ok and he had vanished;  just gone. I leaned right over and looked out the passenger door and could just see a pair of boots peeking up over the side of the driveway in the sparse shrubby garden. He had nose dived over the side of the hillside pulled by the weight of the heavy ball and chain. I hastily rushed around the Shuttle to assist him and found him hanging on to the concrete  by one hand and the ball and chain caught on the concrete edging, dangling downwards down a steep slope! I quickly tried to drag his feet by the chain and could hardly move him at all, next I tried to pull his legs, then finally I tried to reach down and get my arm around his waist to drag him but couldn't actually reach far enough, so I grabbed hold of his belt and just hoped that I would not drag his trousers off by pulling him by it; and
 pulled and dragged as hard as I could with all of my strength just managed to raise him enough for him to get his knee up over the concrete edge, after that a few pulls and he was able to help himself up on to the top. If he had fallen he would of been dead or seriously damaged as there is a big drop down the hill. 
He had injured himself on his hand and maybe other places, blood was pouring from his hand, when he used his hand to support himself along my shuttle he left a trail of blood. I had to help him over to his door steps, where he said thanks he would be ok now, so I turned to go and heard the ball and chain and him go crashing into the stairs but I did not turn back to him, I consider I had done far and away more than I needed to, so I just grove back to work and left him to sleep it off where he was. But I do hope that he manages to make it to his wedding on Wednesday.
Great excitement on a Friday night shift.
As a foot note, I have since heard that this man's 'mates' hide his door key so he could not get inside his home, so he must of slept on his stairs. he also ended up spending the next day and night in hospital. Such stupid things men do to their mates on their Stag Party night.