Reported by Kimberly Conner

City Council Hears Testimony on Legislation to Curb Taxi Driver Assaults

Taxi Drivers Ask, When Will It End?

NEW YORK CITY, NY (NYCity News Service) The City Councils Transportation
Committee held a public hearing Wednesday to discuss a legislative proposal that would require
taxi and livery drivers to prominently display signs to publicize the legal consequences for
assaulting drivers. Also on the table for discussion was legislation that would create harsher civil
penalties for hit-and-run accidents.

The hearing comes just weeks after two cab drivers were fatally shot in the Bronx. Data collected
by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics between 1998 and 2007 showed that taxi drivers are over
20 times more likely to be murdered while on the job than other types of workers.

According to Meera Joshi, chairwoman and chief executive of the NYC Taxi and Limousine
Commission who testified at the hearing, there have been a total of five felony assaults and 38
misdemeanor assaults on yellow cab and livery drivers in 2014 alone.

Driving a taxi is a very, very dangerous job, says City Council Member Rory I. Lancman.
This legislation would recognize the important role that these drivers play in serving the city.

If passed, the legislation would require all taxi and livery drivers to place stickers on their
vehicles with the message, Attention: Assaulting A Taxi or Livery Driver is Punishable By Up
to 25 Years in Prison. Similar legislation was already approved by the NY State Legislature in
2010, but was vetoed by former New York Governor David Paterson. The proposed signage is
similar to what is already widely used by the MTA to warn people of the consequences of
assaulting an MTA worker.

During the hearing, members of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance held a sign bearing the
names of recent victims of assault along with the injuries they sustained, ranging from punched
repeatedly to shot and robbed. Written in large, red letters along the bottom of the sign were
the words, When will it end?

We do an important service to this city and we should be appreciated, says Beresford
Simmons, a taxi driver and member of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance who has logged 40
years behind the wheel. Simmons said he has numerous friends and colleagues who have been
assaulted on the job. Retired taxi driver Bill Lindauer put it more bluntly, Fear is a constant.

City council members also discussed proposed legislation that would increase civil penalties
incurred in hit-and-run accidents. Council Member James G. Van Bramer emphasized that
drivers have not only a legal but also, a moral obligation to try to save the lives of those they
may have hit.

City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, a former taxi driver himself, says that he doesnt have
a specific timeline for when this legislation will be finalized but the proposal has his
tremendous support.