Richard Cartwright was tougher than I would have been in the same situation. Of course, I’ve discovered over the years that most cabdrivers are, indeed, a tough breed. A robber slashed Cartwright’s throat with a serrated steak knife during a struggle, leaving a large scar.

I was able to track down and speak with Cartwright after the incident. The result was this piece:

Cabdriver recovering from stab wounds / Throat slashed during struggle with robber
Thursday, March 28, 2002

Driving a cab can be dangerous, and Richard Cartwright has the wounds to prove it.

Cartwright, 40, was robbed and slashed across the throat with a serrated steak knife about 4:30 a.m. last Thursday.

The veteran cabdriver now has numerous stitches on the left side of his neck and on his right hand. Though he has returned to work, he finds himself coping with a new wariness of the people to whom he gives rides each night.

“It’s scary. I get real edgy,” said Cartwright, who works for Lincoln Yellow Cab, often pulling a 12-hour shift from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. “I’m just real shook up. It’s going to take a while to get over it.”

The ordeal began when Cartwright was dispatched to Denny’s, 2599 Wabash Ave., to pick up a man who allegedly could not speak English. A woman who works at the restaurant called the cab company on the man’s behalf, saying he needed to go to Glenwood and South Grand avenues.

The man got into Cartwright’s cab and directed him to various destinations. Cartwright said the man couldn’t seem to make up his mind and eventually had Cartwright drive him to the 3000 block of South State Street.

There, the man reached up around Cartwright and cut his throat with the steak knife. Authorities said the man probably got the knife at Denny’s. The cut went from Cartwright’s left ear to beneath his jaw, narrowly missing his jugular vein.

Cartwright struggled with the assailant and somehow wound up being pulled into the backseat, he said. He grabbed for the knife and was cut on the right hand.

The man reached into Cartwright’s jacket pocket and stole his money, as well as the keys from the ignition.

The robbery didn’t bother Cartwright so much as the coldness of the attacker, who wouldn’t even leave the cab keys behind so the bleeding man could drive himself to the hospital.

“He got out and just stood there for some reason. I don’t know if he was trying to terrify me or what,” Cartwright said. “I begged him for the keys. He just casually walked away.”

The whole thing took less than three minutes. After the attacker left, Cartwright was able to contact the cab dispatcher, who then called 911.

The cut on his neck is about six inches long, and the stitches already have been removed. His right hand has several wounds, including a gash that runs approximately across the middle knuckle of all four of his fingers and a deep cut on his palm.

“I was afraid he was going to cut my throat. That’s why I grabbed the knife,” he said. “I knew it was a robbery, but he couldn’t speak English. He couldn’t even say give me your money. He was pretty strong, but somehow I got away from him.”

There is a chance that damage was done to the nerves in Cartwright’s hand and neck. If that is the case, he will require further surgery. Cartwright, who is divorced and has five children under the age of 14, does not have health insurance.

Sangamon County chief deputy Tony Sacco said the department’s investigation of the incident continues. The suspect was described as Hispanic, about 5 feet 10 inches tall, 145 to 150 pounds, with short black hair. He was wearing jeans and a short-sleeve blue shirt.

The attack has angered other local cabdrivers, who refer to Cartwright as family, and the owner of Lincoln Yellow Cab is trying to come up with new ways to protect them, particularly since the robber apparently rode in two other cabs that night prior to the attack.

“Anything I can do to protect the drivers, I’m going to do it,” said Vick Antonacci, who’s been in the cab business for 45 years. “It worries me very much. I’m very concerned about the drivers’ welfare out there.”

Antonacci said he is working to design a wire mesh cage that would fit around the driver’s seat in cabs and protect them from knife attacks. Most of the Lincoln Yellow cabs have been fitted with bullet-proof, Plexiglass shields that separate the front and back seats.

A few of the cabs do not have the shield, Antonacci said, because they prevent the driver’s seat from being reclined or pushed back, causing discomfort for larger drivers.

The cab Cartwright was driving the night of the attack was a van and it did not have a shield.