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DaC driver Jim Rainbird (T25) has reported for
Call Sign on many strange events that he has been called
upon to get involved with, from appearing in Japanese TV quiz
shows to Bollywood movies! But driving around the paparazzi…??? Over the years I’ve had a few photographers jump in and lay the old chestnut on me: "Follow that cab!" That usually means a cab that contains a celebrity of whom a snatched photo would feed that paparazzo’s kids for a month. But a recent filming job turned the whole scenario on its head - celebs trying to be paps! The show, being filmed for ITV, was called Deadline. It had ten celebrities working as photojournalists for a magazine with that famous temporary cabbie, Janet Street Porter, as its editor. The two wannabe ‘paps’ in my charge were Olympic athlete, Iwan Thomas and former Blue Peter presenter, Yvette Fielding. Along with a film crew, we set off in chase of Prince Harry and a girlfriend on the day of his announcement of going to Iraq - |
JIM CHASES PRINCE HARRY… Well, er…sort of! |
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 Iwan Thomas, Jim Rainbird and Fellow pap Yvette Fielding |
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since reversed due to security fears. Sadly, the info they had been given by their contact turned out to be fruitless as the Prince’s party failed to turn up at the given location. With their tales between their legs, they asked to be taken back to their base at the St Martins Hotel. Driving along Knightsbridge on the way back, Iwan saw a Bentley with the number plate initials D.B. "That’s Posh and Becks car," he screamed, "follow it!" I had a traffic island in my way as the Bentley turned through Edinburgh Gate into Hyde Park, |
so I raced up to Albert Gate and parked in the dead end by the French Embassy. Yvette stayed in the cab but Iwan, followed by the film crew, ran through the pedestrian gate just in time to grab a sequence of shots of the Bentley driven, as Iwan put it "…by some old geezer with a great big moustache – definitely not Goldenballs!" All in all, not a very successful day for the potential paparazzi but a couple of hours of fun work for me with a quick photocall at the end… Jim Rainbird (T25) |
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BENDY BUSES "TWICE AS DANGEROUS AS ANY OTHER!" |
 Lib
Dems Transport Spokesman Geoff Pope: "Bendy
Buses are twice as dangerous as normal onesFigures released in June by the Liberal Democrat Transport spokesman on the London Assembly, Geoff Pope, are suggesting that twice as many pedestrians are injured by bendy buses than by any other bus and that three times as many cyclists are hurt by them. The group has called for a review of the routes bendies cover and the standard of the drivers. Mr Pope said: "Given there are only 345 bendy buses, these numbers are worryingly high. We have had claims from cyclists that they have been terrified to find themselves crowded against safety barriers by bendy buses making left turns. Both pedestrians and cyclists find it hard to judge the line the bus is going to take." He went on to add: "TfL have launched a costly advertising campaign about safer cycling. But these figures show that the money would be better spent stepping up safety training for drivers as well as a how is my driving hotline to report poor driving. TfL should order and urgent and full review of bendy bus routes." A Transport for London spokesman called the figures unfair, claiming that bendy buses work on busier than normal routes and that accidents were more likely to occur there. He added that many ordinary routes ran out to the suburbs where accidents were far less likely and that gave a false impression of the bendy bus situation. He ended by claiming that bendy buses had covered millions of miles and collisions were rare. |
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