Ms.Barb
Kabrick's speech @ N.I.O.S.H.'s Workplace Violence Conferance
According to NIOSH, taxi drivers are 60 times more likely to be murdered on the
job than workers in any other profession. Also, according to NIOSH, taxi
drivers have the third highest rate of assaults. The accuracy of this figure is
greatly compromised , however, by the fact that approximately 75% of attacks
against taxi drivers go unreported. Taxi drivers face by far the biggest risk
of violence in the workplace, yet their plight is largely ignored. The names
flashing on the screen, by the way, are names of cabdrivers who were murdered
at work. They are ALL real people. People who had friends and families and
hopes and dreams and each one of them was just trying to earn a living. Just
doing his job. Sadly, I have not had time to add the latest names. Four more
drivers have been murdered in the last four days. Friday, two children on their
way to school found a driver’s body in his taxicab in Stockton, California. On
Saturday, Andrew B Kamara was murdered in Washington, DC. Also on Saturday,
Ralph Moreau was murdered in Norwalk, Connecticut. He was only 28 years old.
And another driver, whose name has not yet been released, was murdered in
Baldwin Park, California just yesterday.
Taxi drivers work with the public, carry cash, work alone, work at night, and
work in high crime areas. They don’t carry much money, but other than that,
they are almost the perfect victims. Let’s suppose YOU are the potential
criminal. The cab driver is at your beck and call. Just pick up the phone and
he’ll come right to your door - or street corner - and transport you to
wherever you feel you will be most likely to get away with robbing, assaulting,
or even murdering him!! Charles Rathbone, researcher and statistician for the
International Taxi Drivers Safety Council and currently a San Francisco cab
driver, wrote a paper entitled “Why Do They Kill Cabdrivers? His research has
revealed that easily half the taxi driver homicides were motivated by something
other than robbery. That theory is supported by the often excessive violence
associated with taxi driver homicides along with confessions of accused
murderers. For example, one of the young men who killed cabdriver, Duane
(Dusty) Hutsell in Spokane, Washington stated that he and his friends had
called the cab with the intent to murder the driver.
Despite the dangers of the job, current regulations governing the industry are
geared toward the comfort and protection of the passenger with little, if any,
regard for the protection of the cabdriver! There are regulations that require
the driver to pick you up just because you asked - refusing to transport
someone requesting a cab is punishable by fines and revocation of the hack
license even BEFORE the driver is granted a hearing! There are regulations that
require the driver to take you wherever you want to go via whatever route you
choose. Some cities even have regulations requiring the cabdriver to play your
favorite music and make sure the temperature inside the cab is as warm or cool
as you would like it and stay off his cellphone for the duration of your
journey. And let’s not forget the regulations that prohibit the driver from
carrying anything that he might use to protect himself. Even pepper spray is
prohibited! It’s little wonder that so many cabdrivers are assaulted, robbed
and murdered!! Where else is a criminal going to find such a cooperative and
helpful victim??
Often after a cabdriver is murdered, the regulating district is approached by
the drivers with requests for safety equipment such as in-cab cameras or
partitions. Then the “investigation” into requiring safety equipment in the
cabs might be set into motion. The city may commission a “study”. Never mind the
fact that this same study has already been undertaken in various cities around
the world! “OUR city is different.” Generally, each new study has similar
conclusions to the previous studies done over the last 30 or so years. Safety
equipment WILL make the job safer. And not “just a little bit” safer. Manitoba
reports that since shields were installed in their cabs, crime against cabbies
has dropped 80%. Boston reported a 70% drop, “. New York City went from 40 or
more homicides a year to NONE in medallion cabs outfitted with safety shields.
Shields DO work! And according to the cost benefit ratio found in The Effectiveness of Taxi
Partitions: The Baltimore Case , published in June, 1999, the
benefits of shields are greater than the costs associated with shield
installation by a ratio of 17 to 1. But the regulators still seem unable to
take action. With cameras, they become concerned with the passenger’s “reasonable
expectation of privacy” and with shields, they are afraid the airflow to the
backseat might be obstructed, making the passenger a bit uncomfortable during
his 10 minute cab ride or they are afraid a passenger neglecting to follow the
seatbelt laws and buckle up might get hurt in the event of a sudden stop.
Another objection is that the shield may give the visitors the impression that
the city is “not safe”. And then there’s the cost. Shields and cameras cost
money. Who’s going to pay? Should the regulating authority put such a burden on
the cab owners? How will they afford it? Regulators barely think twice before
requiring cab companies to spend thousand of extra dollars to purchase only
newer model cars as taxis, but they spend months - even YEARS - studying
whether they should require the companies to spend another $200 or so to
install safety shields to protect the drivers’ lives! Regulators, it seems, are
more concerned with image and appearance than they are with human life!!! In
addition to being shallow and irrational, I find this way of thinking morally
outrageous! Too bad the taxi industry is structured in such a way that driver
safety will only be accomplished through regulation.
Taxi companies that only use Independent Contractors are not subject to OSH Act
coverage. And 90% of the cabdrivers in this country are called independent
contractors. Companies using only so-called independent contractor workers are
not required to provide a safe workplace. Nor are they required to withhold taxes,
pay social security, provide benefits of any kind, or provide workers’
compensation. These companies have neither the obligation nor the incentive to
protect their workers. An injured driver has no effect on them. Even a dead
driver does not affect them. As any taxi company owner or manager will tell
you, there are plenty more drivers where that one came from. Because the
majority of cab drivers in this country are immigrants, the company has little
fear of lawsuits being instigated by the surviving family when a driver is
murdered. And some companies, have covered even that remote possibility by
requiring new drivers to sign a waiver stating that they know the job is
dangerous and they don’t want safety equipment and they absolve the company of
any responsibility should the driver get injured or killed on the job. Now, how
could a brand new cab driver in the course of a 20 minute interview come to
understand the dangers of the job when it takes professionals who’ve studied
the industry statistics months - and sometimes YEARS - to figure that out? The
job is certainly not going to get any safer if we choose to wait for the
COMPANIES to voluntarily safeguard their drivers.
In addition to safety equipment such as cameras, safety shields, GPS, silent
alarms, panoramic mirrors, automatic trunk releases and voice radios, companies
can develop cooperation with the police department and train drivers and
dispatchers in safety procedures and danger signs and how to diffuse potential
problems. Deaths and assaults of cabdrivers could easily be greatly reduced.
And making the job safer will encourage a higher caliber of cabdriver, which
will, in turn, increase the level of service and the professionalism of cab
drivers. Wouldn’t THAT help a city’s “image”? The means and the methods for
making the job safer are readily available. Seems only the desire is missing.
The cab driver who brought me to the hotel a couple of days ago got right to
the crux of the problem when he said, “They need to realize that cab drivers are
real human beings - NOT JUST DIRT!!!“
JAMES L. SZEKELY SR.
Dir. Inter. Taxi Drivers Safety Council.
1050 10th Ave.
Huntington, WV 25701
(304(525-0902
jim4safety@aol.com ( Please visit our website directly below)
http://hometown.aol.com/jonihansen/myhomepage/business.html
** ALSO - Please see: http://www.Taxi-L.org/murdrate.htm
(Murder Rate of Drivers).