Irish Taxi Driver of the Year

From The Examiner;
And The Winner is;
A TAXI driver whose quick thinking saved the life of a passenger was last night crowned Taxi driver of the year.
Declan Heagney, from Clonee, Co Meath, was honoured for going above and beyond the call of duty when he rushed a man whose heart had stopped to a medical centre.
When the doctor examining the man could not find a pulse, the taxi driver and GP lifted the patient out of the car into the clinic, where they resuscitated him.
“There is no doubt that without the quick-thinking on Declan’s part as well as his actions on insisting on a doctor straight away, the individual concerned would not be still alive today,” said Brian O’Neill, managing editor of Taxi Times.
“The victim had survived only from the actions which Declan took and his going the extra mile.”
Mr Heagney picked up the man, his wife and their daughter in the Finglas area on April 27 last year and was dropping them off locally when the man suddenly gasped for breath.
The taxi driver decided his front seat passenger was in urgent need of medical help, swung his car around, and headed for the nearest GP clinic.
He ran inside shouting for a doctor, going from door to door insisting someone attend to the scene urgently.
Mr Heagney was among a host of drivers nominated as deserving this unique award by both taxi drivers and members of the public.
The runner-up prize went to Bernard Clarke who found €10,000 and two American passports in the back of his cab and tracked down the owners in the US to organise their safe return.
The ceremony was staged by Taxi Times, the official magazine of the National Taxi Drivers’ Union, at Dublin’s Crowne Plaza hotel.
“It is clear from sifting through the nominations that there are many unsung heroes out there who are held in very high esteem by the majority of the general public,” added Mr O’Neill.
So its not all doom and gloom there are still a lot of honest decent taxi drivers out there.
Well done Declan!
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