Taxi driver's memory a blank after 'cowardly' battering

An Auckland taxi driver found lying unconscious on a road in Grey Lynn yesterday was so badly beaten he is unable to remember much of what happened to him.

Police say the 43-year-old driver collected three passengers - two men and a woman, all in their 20s - from the intersection of Queen and Durham Streets about 2am.

He was asked to drive to Quay St but when he got there the passengers asked to be taken to Ponsonby.

Detective Sergeant Brett Batty said the driver was then further directed to drive to Rose Rd in Grey Lynn.

Once there two of the three passengers got out of the taxi but one stayed inside and started attacking the driver.

"It was a prolonged and vicious assault," said Mr Batty. "As a result ... the taxi driver has been left unconscious on Rose Rd where he has been located by neighbours."

The driver was yesterday treated for serious, but not life-threatening, facial and head injuries.

Mr Batty said police were still trying to piece together what happened. "The assault has left the taxi driver with significant blank areas as to what he remembers."

Mr Batty, describing the attack as "extremely cowardly", urged anyone with information about the trio to contact him at the Auckland police station.

The attack is the fourth on a taxi driver in the past few weeks but Mr Batty said they did not appear to be linked at this stage.

The other cases have all been in South Auckland and two have since been solved - one due to the injured driver activating a panic button which brought police to the scene while the offenders were still there.

The other unsolved attack was on August 8 when a 56-year-old driver picked up three young men from a taxi stand in Otara.

One of them tried to strangle the driver with a piece of string while a second passenger punched him about the body, causing the taxivan to crash into a house.

The passengers, who were described as Polynesian, ran off. The driver suffered serious injuries and was expected to be off work for several weeks recovering.

Taxi Federation executive director Tim Reddish had not heard about yesterday's attack but said he was saddened by what appeared to be a growing trend.