A CABBIE injured in a dramatic three-car collision will be unable to work for at least three months, medics have said.

Derek Watson, who was driving his Skoda Estate taxi along Bournemouth’s Charminster Road with a passenger in the back when the incident took place, has suffered a broken hip and smashed ankle.

Speaking to the Echo from his Poole Hospital bed on Friday, the 46-year-old recalled that after the impact someone opened his door and he stumbled onto the pavement.

“I couldn’t walk,” he said. “Basically I’d smashed my ankle and broken my hip.”

Now the taxi driver, who works for Winton-based Mobile Radio Cars and has been a cabbie for 20 years, has been told by doctors he won’t be able to get back behind the wheel for at least three months.

Derek said: “I had a passenger on board.

“She is a foreign language teacher, thankfully she got away uninjured as she was sitting in the back.”

The incident, which unfolded just after 9am last Saturday was captured on cameras at BHVape in Charminster Road, Bournemouth.

Shop staff told the Echo it was a miracle no-one was killed. Three cars were involved in the crash, Derek’s taxi and a grey Vauxhall Insignia and a parked VW Passat.

A woman driver had just parked up when she saw the other vehicles skidding towards her.

She said she made the split decision to jump back into her car, to avoid being crushed by it.

“I didn’t have time to put my seatbelt back on so I hit my head on the steering wheel and them my head was forced back, giving me neck injuries,” she told the Echo.

  • Gareth Picton, 37 and of Milton Road in Bournemouth, appeared at Poole Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday.

He was charged with dangerous driving, aggravated vehicle taking, driving without insurance, driving while disqualified and making off without payment.

Picton was remanded in custody until a court hearing on February 21.