Taxi drivers save girl from bridge plunge

TWO taxi drivers sprang into action to stop a girl throwing herself off the Humber Bridge.

The 17-year-old had to be restrained as she tried to get over the railings, telling one of the men: “Leave me, leave me, I want to die.”

Marian Dobre, from East Riding Cars (Cottingham) Ltd, picked the teenager up from Cottingham in the early hours of Tuesday and she asked first to be taken to the city centre then the Humber Bridge.

Halfway across she leapt out of the car and made a dash for the railings, but Mr Dobre just managing to grab her.

The second taxi driver, Craig McDonagh, who was taking another passenger across the bridge saw the pair struggling and got out to help. He said: “We managed to calm her down but then she made a bolt for the railings. We managed to restrain her and marched her away.

“The other driver ran to get his car and we forced her into it. We locked her into it until Humber Rescue and the police arrived.”

Mr Dobre said the girl, who was wearing pyjamas, had been calm at first but became agitated when they got onto the bridge. He said: “She told me she didn’t have enough money and she wanted to stop on the bridge but I told her I couldn’t, I’m not supposed to let people out.

“At one point she said if I wasn’t going to stop she would jump from the car. I tried to lock the doors but she was too quick and opened the door. She was trying to get over the first barrier and go towards the second barrier but I managed to stop her.”

Both men were modest about their actions. Mr Dobre said: “I think everybody would do the same thing to be honest.”

Taxi firm director Tracy Simpson said Mr Dobre was one of a group of Romanians who had been verbally abused when they were first employed last year.

She said: “When Marian and the other drivers first started working here 18 months ago they had to put up with a lot of verbal abuse and bad publicity. It just goes to show it doesn’t matter where you originate from, we are all the same.”