Drunk young men in Novi Sad hit taxi driver's head with bottles and beat him "like beasts"

Photo: Private archive

One hit me in the head with a bottle full of brandy and the other then swung a bottle of beer. As they slammed the bottles against my head, a third approached the window and started beating me on the arm with a stick.

Recommended

This is how taxi driver Milan Smiljanic remembers a horrific attack that happened on Saturday in Novi Sad, about an hour after midnight. Five drunken hooligans, only 21 years old, attacked him viciously because he could not take all of them in the car.

Milan was taken to the Emergency Center with severe head injuries, where he received five stitches. The attack, he says, happened in a flash. In just a few minutes, the car was full of glass and blood.

"That night, I got the address through the call center, and when I arrived, I first saw the four of them sitting in a car, intoxicated, and saying: 'This fifth one goes into the trunk'. I said, 'No way, I can't drive five people', and one of them threatened me: 'If I tell you to drive 10 people, then you will drive 10 of us'. I answered that I didn't want to take any of them, and then they attacked me like beasts," says the injured taxi driver.

Photo: Private archive

He added that he did not see that they had brought two bottles full of alcohol into the car.

"One hit me in the head with a bottle full of brandy and the other then swung a bottle of beer. As they slammed the bottles against my head, a third approached the window and started beating me on the arm with a stick... My head was all covered in blood, and the car was full of glass," Milan recalls in his statement for Telegraf.

He barely managed to start the car and seek help at a police station, which is only a hundred meters away from the place of the attack. He expected a faster reaction from the police, he added.

"While they ID'd me and were taking a statement, I begged them to catch the attackers first, because they would run away. Fortunately, nearby cameras filmed the attack, and I immediately recognized the guy who was hitting me with a bottle of brandy. He was covered in tattoos and that's how I immediately identified him," says the taxi driver.

The police identified other participants in the attack and they will also be prosecuted soon. Criminal charges will be filed against the 21-year-olds in regular procedure for inflicting light bodily injuries, NS Uzivo writes.

"Young people are getting more violent, they think the whole world belongs to them"

Photo: Private archive

This is the worst, but not the first attack that Smiljanic experienced as a taxi driver. Every day when he goes to work, he risks his health. Insults are, he says, an everyday occurrence, but no one cares about that anymore. He only hopes that knives and sticks don't come out.

"Life is as life is, here today, gone tomorrow. This is especially true when you are a taxi driver. In Novi Sad, taxis are cheap and all sorts can afford a fare. It often happens that they come in with a bottle, so we argue with them. One customer attacked a colleague with a knife and cut up his fingers. Sometimes they attack us just because they don't like the music in the car. 'Turn it up, down, this, that', and then they curse us, and so on...," says Smiljanic.

According to his experience, young people are becoming more and more aggressive.

"They think that the whole world is theirs and that, if they paid for the ride, they can do whatever they want. I will continue doing this job, what else can I do... I worked as an excavator driver for the waterworks company. But, my kid drowned... And only three days after the accident, they asked me to go back to work. I said no and quit. And I've been driving a taxi for five years now," says Milan.

He adds that it's lucky for having a "hard head" so he survived this as well. And he will definitely file a private lawsuit. For his own sake, for the sake of his colleagues. And then, maybe, he says, someone might pay more attention to protecting taxi drivers, which now amounts to - nothing.

(Telegraf.rs)