March 8, 2007
CABBIE CHRIS IS MY KNIGHT OF THE ROAD
Driver came to the rescue when skip fell on Sharon's taxi
A CABBIE who cheated death after a skip fell from a lorry on to her taxi today thanked the good Samaritan who rescued her.
Sharon Wilson was trapped for more than four hours and her silver Hackney cab destroyed in the accident under a railway bridge in Edinburgh.
But as the 44-year-old lay shocked and in pain, the quick thinking of fellow taxi driver Chris Dearns helped her to stay conscious and calm.
That's why she's nominated him for an Our Heroes Neighbourhood Hero award.
"Chris didn't know who I was and it would have been easy not to get involved," said Sharon of Tranent, East Lothian.
"Instead he ran over, smashed the window and crawled through the debris and broken glass.
"He held my hand for about 10 minutes until the emergency services arrived.
"I remember listening to his voice and struggling not to black out. He kept reassuring me."
The taxi's passengers, a woman and her nine-year-old twins, managed to crawl free from the back of the cab after the accident at Abbeyhill on October 20 at around 4pm last year.
The lorry carrying two skips was on the other side of the road when one of the eight-tonne skips hit a bridge and plunged to the ground, crushing her taxi.
Sharon, whose body was trapped by the steering wheel and feet pinned under the pedals, recalls praying that the second skip would not also crash down onto them.
"If the other skip had fallen too then Chris and I would have both been killed," says Sharon.
"The roof of the taxi was around my head. The skip had come right down on the railings on the bridge. If railings hadn't been there, I wouldn't be alive.
"Chris was very brave to stay and put his life on the line."
Amazingly Sharon escaped with just a broken rib, severe bruising and whiplash after she was cut free by a fire crew from Marionville Fire Station.
But she has never forgotten the kindness of her good Samaritan, Chris, from Edinburgh. He said: "I did what anyone would do in those circumstances. I don't think I was a hero. I didn't think of the danger at the time. I just wanted to help Sharon in any way I could."
Sharon, who had only bought her taxi seven weeks before the crash, has not driven one again since.
"I've felt too scared to get back in a taxi and I'm suffering from post traumatic stress disorder," she said.
"I'd like to drive a taxi again but at the moment the thought of it makes me freak out."
But two weeks before Christmas, she went ahead with her wedding to Martin Wilson.
"A lot has changed since then," said Sharon."But our wedding day was very emotional. I know I'm lucky to be alive."
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