An armed attack in daylight on a Wellington taxi driver has renewed calls for cameras in cabs, despite industry claims that the Government is reluctant to support the move.
The latest call comes after two women held a gun to a Wellington taxi driver’s head and demanded his earnings, before stealing the taxi from Te Aro about 4.30pm on Saturday. The taxi was later found in Island Bay.
Wellington police said they had arrested two women over the attack. They would both face a charge of aggravated robbery. An imitation pistol believed to have been used in the robbery had also been recovered.
Wellington Combined Taxi general manager Kevin Braid said violence from passengers was becoming more prevalent, and the incident was the latest in a spate of attacks on taxi drivers.
The Taxi Federation had approached Transport Minister Steven Joyce last year about installing mandatory cameras in cabs, but was “fobbed off”, Mr Braid said.
“We weren’t after a handout. I believe they’ve fobbed us off . . . they said that it should be included under our own OSH guidelines.”
Several of the bigger taxi companies were now looking at buying a bulk order of cameras so that it would cost less for drivers to fit out their cabs.
In most cases, taxis were owner-operated and many drivers owned the systems within their cars as well, he said.
“Realistically the industry would prefer not to have them [cameras] – but for safety, that’s not an option.”
The cost of installing a decent camera that would produce “credible evidence” would range between $800 and $1000 per car.
In May this year, Mr Joyce ordered a report on safety measures that could be taken by taxi companies but said there was little appetite outside the Taxi Federation for compulsory cameras.
2 Comments
August 26, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Even the cab drivers aren’t safe now. I think it should be better to have a camera on each cabs for security measures.
September 10, 2009 at 3:04 am
It sure can be scary at times to be a Cabby. Feel free to share your stories on my Blog as well. Cameras aren’t aloud here in Canada yet. But it may come.