A long-serving taxi driver has warned other cabbies to “always be alert” after he was the victim of a brutal attack which left “blood everywhere.”

Self employed taxi driver Colin Dobson, who works primarily in Abingdon and Wantage, was sat in his cab near a pedestrian crossing in Kidlington, when a man approached his car, opened the door and punched him in the face.

The courageous cabby said: “I noticed the perpetrator some time before the attack. I and four or five other drivers hadn’t let him cut into the lane, so he overtook the entire stream of traffic on the wrong side of the road.

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“He then stopped at the pedestrian crossing and got out of the vehicle. I sat there, he walked up to my car, opened the door, leaned in as if he was going to kiss me, said I should have let him in, then punched me in the face.

“There were no swear words, no verbal abuse. He did the whole thing very calmly. There was a lot of blood. There was blood everywhere.”

The taxi driver of 14 years, from Oxford, said usually he would lock his car doors if approached, but because he was in a new car when the attack happened, wasn’t too sure how to lock them.

Mr Dobson will have to undergo expensive dental work because of the assault.

He said: “I’m pretty upset. There was no choice but to take the tooth out, because it was split down the middle.

“The dentist said he’d never seen anything like it, the amount of force the guy hit me with.

“It’s cost me £300 for the emergency treatment, which is just a cap to stop the pain, but it will cost me £3,000 for an implant.”

Oxford Mail: Colin Dobson, with his taxi

Mr Dobson said he took the weekend off following the attack, which took place at around 3.30pm on Friday, August 11.

He said: “If you’re a self-employed taxi driver you rely on driving jobs for income, so I had no choice but to get back in the car.

“I took some time off to recover, and now I’m back serving the people of Oxfordshire.”

Having picked up from the Abingdon taxi rank before going independent, Mr Dobson has seen his fair share of antisocial behaviour.

He said: “Before this attack nothing had happened to me personally, but I’ve witnessed it multiple times with other drivers over the years.

“It’s a very high-risk occupation, especially between 1am and 5am when people are frequently drunk."

Oxford Mail: Colin Dobson, with bruise after attack

A Thames Valley Police spokesperson said: “We received a report of an assault in Kidlington, at around 5.40pm on Friday, August 11.

“A man got out of a car, approached the victim, a man in his fifties, who was also in a car, and shouted at him before punching him in the face.

“The offender then got back in his car and drove off. The victim suffered a facial injury but did not require medical treatment."

 

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1