“This is it. This is the end. I’m gone.”
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That’s how 41-year-old Abermain taxi driver Raphael Zaslona, who had been in the job for only a month, summed up his feelings after a passenger pulled a knife on him on Saturday.
Mr Zaslona was beaten, robbed, kidnapped and carjacked during a terrifying four-hour ordeal that began at Kurri Kurri about 5am and ended at Johns River, near Taree.
It was to be Mr Zaslona’s final fare for the shift, but it soon turned sour.
“The call came in and I went to help somebody get home,” a distraught Mr Zaslona told NBN news last night.
Mr Zaslona picked up the man in Wormald Street, Kurri Kurri, and was asked to take him to Newcastle.
The passenger then asked to be driven to a caravan park in Maitland to collect money for the fare.
Police allege both men went inside the park and entered a cabin where the passenger pulled out a knife, kicked Mr Zaslona in the head and stole his wallet.
The passenger then forced Mr Zaslona into the passenger seat, cut the wires to the taxi meter, radio and CCTV system.
The car headed north and onto the Pacific Highway.
Officers from Taree Highway Patrol detected a taxi travelling at 185km/h on the Pacific Highway at Mooreland and began a chase about 7.30am.
Police used road spikes to stop the vehicle, which came to halt on the highway at Johns River.
The 28-year-old driver was arrested and taken to Taree police station, where a breath analysis returned a reading of 0.106.
The man was refused bail at Port Macquarie Local Court on Sunday.
Mr Zaslona was taken to Manning Base Hospital for treatment of swelling, abrasions and bleeding to his face and a broken nose.
