Posted on 07/01/2002 2:33:46 PM PDT by marshmallow
It should have been a simple 15-minute ride from downtown to the Adam's Mark hotel.
But for three young men from New Orleans who climbed into a taxi around midnight Friday, it became "The Cab Ride From Hell."
For 90 minutes, the men cowered in the back of Yellow Cab No. 1163 as the driver shared beers with a friend in the front seat and careened through city and residential streets at speeds up to 90 miles per hour.
"We've just been through the worst experience of our lives," Clayton Lyons said Saturday. "We've never been this scared. Ever."
Lyons, 20, along with friends Edward Simon, 21, and Jeremy Maggio, 18, had been in Kansas City since Monday attending the Skills USA/VICA national championships. The event drew more than 13,000 people from around the country, with 4,100 students competing in skills such as carpentry, plumbing, wiring and computer technology.
According to interviews with the men and police reports, the three had attended an awards banquet Friday night at Kemper Arena and then stopped by the Doubletree Hotel at 1301 Wyandotte St. to see some friends. Shortly before midnight, they said, they hailed a cab outside the hotel to take them back to the Adam's Mark, where they were staying.
"We sort of had a curfew of midnight," Lyons said. "We were supposed to go back and meet with our adviser."
Since Lyons had been to the convention here before, the men didn't think twice about getting a cab late at night.
"We've never had any problems before in Kansas City," Lyons said. "It seems like the city shuts down and no one's around. We thought it would be safe to take a cab, because the shuttles weren't running anymore."
The cabdriver told them the ride would cost about $15.
"We got in, and then the guy started taking us the opposite way," Lyons said. "He had a drunk guy in the front riding with him.
"We kept telling him he was going the wrong way. He'd say, `I know where to go.' He took us on the freeway twice and got off in residential neighborhoods going about 90."
Lyons said the driver and the man in the front seat passed two 32-ounce cans of beer back and forth, "and he had mentioned having Jack Daniel's before that."
At one point, the men persuaded the driver to stop at a gas station, telling him they wanted to get something to drink.
Lyons said the driver threatened them if they didn't return, and sent his friend in to watch them.
"We went inside and tried to get the cashier to call the police," Lyons said. "But I guess he thought it was a joke. Then the other rider came in to watch us, so we had to go back to the cab."
The men said they were so afraid that they considered jumping out.
"In Louisiana, cabdrivers are allowed to carry guns," Lyons said. "So we didn't know if he had a gun. We definitely feared for our lives, because the gas was running out and he said he had no money.
"He said we were going to be the last fare of the night and he needed $75 to pay for his cab. As soon as the gas ran out, we figured we were going to have to defend ourselves."
Once they realized they weren't going to get back to the hotel, Lyons said, he tried calling police on his cell phone. He said the driver didn't realize what he was doing because the radio was blaring.
"I pretended to have a headache and would lean over and talk on the phone, and the other two would talk to him about music and stuff," Lyons said. "We called the cops three times, but since I had a cell phone, every time I got to a new tower, it would disconnect."
Eventually, police from Grandview, Raytown and Kansas City got calls.
"He was speeding the whole time," Lyons said. "The cops had to chase us for a long time to catch up with us. He kept going in circles. We were just giving out street names to the dispatcher."
At 1:22 a.m., Raytown police stopped the cab in a car wash parking lot at 122nd Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard in Grandview.
Grandview police arrested David S. Lane, of Kansas City, on charges of driving under the influence, said Police Chief Bob Beckers.
Beckers said that Lane got out of the cab stumbling, mumbling and with a strong odor of alcohol on his breath.
"He was big-time drunk," Beckers said.
Lane, 50, was being held Saturday in the Belton jail on $1,000 bond. He could not be reached for comment.
A Yellow Cab supervisor came to the scene after the arrest.
"She didn't offer us anything but a free cab ride home," Lyons said. "We were like, `Hey, we've just been through the worst experience of our life. We're not getting in another cab."'
A police officer dropped them off at their hotel around 4 a.m.
"We haven't been able to sleep since," Lyons said. "We're from New Orleans. We have a large crime rate. But we've never seen anything like this."
Simon said the experience left him "just sort of freaked out about everything right now."
"I've never been this scared in my life," he said. "I don't think I'll be stepping in a cab any time soon. Maybe ever."
Doug Tystad, general manager of Metropolitan Transportation Services Inc., which includes Yellow Cab, said Saturday that Lane had been working for the company only three days. He said Lane had a valid driver's license and a valid taxicab livery permit issued by Kansas City on June 17.
He said Lane's application did not list any criminal record.
Area cab companies have come under increased scrutiny because of loopholes in a city ordinance that recently allowed a registered sex offender to drive. After that case arose, an investigation by The Star found that at least three other sex offenders had driven cabs this year -- all of them allowed to drive by ordinances in effect when they applied.
Tystad said he was sorry about the men's terrifying taxi ride.
"We apologize," he said. "Obviously, this was a terrible incident. It's clearly not our policy to have drivers do this kind of thing."
The men left Saturday afternoon to go back to New Orleans.
"We definitely will come back," Lyons said. "The cops were nice, everybody else was nice.
"But I'll tell you what: Next time, we're renting a car."
I'm also wondering why the cab driver was not charged with kdnapping.
I'm also wondering how big a pay day these two guys will get from the cab company, and probably from the city.
He took us on the freeway twice and got off in residential neighborhoods going about 90… passed two 32-ounce cans of beer back and forth and mentioned having Jack Daniel's before that…He was speeding the whole time. The cops had to chase us for a long time to catch up with us. He kept going in circles...
Sounds kinda fun to me, but I’m weird.
Ever seen Hillary in a bathing suit?
Think about it for a minute - the story makes no sense. They thought the cabbie might have a gun because cabbies in New Orleans do? If they don't live in KC, how did they know the cabbie was going the wrong way? Why didn't they just hop out when the cab stopped, we're to believe it went 90 mph for two hours straight? The cel phone went dead EVERY TIME they switched cel towers? No dice, these guys are either the biggest rubes ever born or there is some aspect to this story they aren't sharing with the police. My guess is they wanted hookers, drugs, or both, and they had some kind of falling out with the cabbie over the deal.
Take it to the bank - this isn't what really happened there.
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