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Chatham

Cab Driver Recounts Details Of Attack In Chatham

A local cab driver, who was assaulted by a passenger last month, says a camera in the backseat could have been a good deterrent.

Charles Stanley Spice, who is a part-time driver with Courtesy Cab in Chatham-Kent, says he was sent to pick up a customer on Pine St. in Chatham on February 25. He says the man jumped in the cab and asked to go to the end of the street.

Spice says when he got to Eugenie St., the man asked him to pull over and pretended to look for money in his coat.

"All of a sudden, he's on me. He was pounding on my chest and I thought he was stabbing me... I put a hand up and somehow he had something in his hand that cut my hand in a couple of spots," explains Spice. "I started swinging back at him and I got a hold of the mic and hollering into the mic for somebody to come and help me."

Spice says the man then took off and he didn't see where he went.

"It was very frightening at the time of course. Once he was gone, I radioed the cab centre saying I had been cut -- well I thought I had been stabbed," he explains. "Of course they had they had the ambulance and the police waiting for me as soon as I got back to the cab centre."

Spice says EMS bandaged up the two deep cuts he had, but he was fine afterwards and has been back to work since. He says he has not spoken with the police since the time of the assault and isn't aware of whether the man was ever caught.

Chatham-Kent police told BlackburnNewsCK.com last month that they were looking for a suspect, who is described as a 40 to 50-year-old white male, 5’10” tall, around 180 lbs, with a scruffy beard. He was last seen wearing a dark coloured two-piece track suit.

Spice, who has been driving cabs for over 30 years, says there may be some strategies cab companies can implement to protect drivers against these random acts of violence.

"I know in some big cities I think it's mandatory for them to have cameras in there... I don't know if whether that would help, or even just a sticker saying that there's cameras or something in the cabs," he says.

He says a camera in the back seat maybe could have prevented the attack.

"That probably would have been a deterrent, especially if they could see a camera and they could see a sticker there saying that they're being surveyed... that definitely would do it, but that would be an awful expense for the company too," he explains.

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