Marketwatch reports that Honda and Toyota are warning against using their hybrid vehicles as taxi cabs, on safety concerns. Ford, GM and Nissan have also refused to certify the crashworthiness of their hybrid vehicles as hire cars. The story starts with an August 29 letter, sent from the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), asking automakers to certify that their hybrids or alternative fuel vehicles are manufacturer-approved to be used as taxicabs and safe when modified with partitions and other TLC requirements. This letter in turn came from a Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade (MTBT) legal challenge to TLC’s mandate that all new NY taxis be hybrids or other vehicles that achieve 25 miles-per-gallon. Citing a 2008 engineer’s report that finds hybrids to be unsafe and unfit as New York City taxicabs, the MTBT have held up TLC’s mandate in court, and now that automakers won’t certify their safety, the TLC mandate may be DOA. Issues over safety partitions and their interaction with side-curtain airbags and other safety equipment prevent automakers from certifying the safety of their hybrids when modified for taxi use. Since nobody crash-tests hybrids modified with safety partitions, nobody will take any legal responsibility for them, and thus they may well die on the vine. Meanwhile, in less hellishly violent corners of this great nation, cabbies are turning to hybrids with enthusiasm. As long as you don’t need several inches of bulletproof glass between you and your customers, hybrids are a safe, efficient choice for taxis.
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Umm, did the Crown Vic just get a stay of execution? AGAIN???
I thought you were already aware of that.
It’s like Jason Voorhees. Big, ugly, been around since the 80’s and will. not. die.
I guess that is one way to kill it.
On another note, in the early 2000’s when I was visiting Brazil, the newest thing going was “moto taxis”.
Yep, exactly what it sounds like. You do your grocery shopping, hop on the back of a 125-250cc bike…one arm holding the drivers shoulder the other holding your groceries. The driver always had a helmet to lend you.
Scary!
In Vancouver BC they now use the Prius, as a Taxi cab of choice, I have not heard any downside to there use either!
quasimondo: Well yeah, but that’s a little different than having one of your largest markets (Limos and Taxis in NYC) remain open for the foreseeable future.
Of course, putting the forthcoming diesel mill from the F150/Expedition (if the program hasn’t been cut yet) into the Panther might clear the 25mpg hurdle.
I’m sorry, is someone actually implying it’s possible to get a car going more than 15 MPH in New York City? I must’ve visited the wrong city, then, because the only vehicles travelling at more than a crawl were suicidal bike messengers.
So this is really more a side airbag issue, with which all the available Hondota hybrids are equipped. Less so than with the actual hybrid drivetrain. Misleading, I say.
On that note, I can’t wait for the “Yukon is less damaging than a Prius” crowd of idiots gets ahold of this.
The MFRs will not certify their hybrids for taxi use but they are ok for us regular people. Sounds alot like the old Pinto deal.
If they put a direct injection turbo diesel in those Crown Vics you would have a hell of cab. TLC says the cabs cannot have more than 300k on them, after 300k the cabs are sold to cabbies in Westchester and Nassau counties where they put another 200k on them.With the clean diesel technology you would have minimal pollution and 25mpg plus the cabs can keep the same motor for half a million miles.
In Vancouver BC they now use the Prius, as a Taxi cab of choice, I have not heard any downside to there use either!
In Vancouver, you don’t have a partition between the driver and passenger, or a lot of the more amusing features of New York.
New York City began a huge social experiment in September of 1968. They redesigned the interior of all NYC cabs to include a partition. A partition not in compliance with federal standards for safety. Why is the partition maker not held accountable for a design that has killed many cab passengers.
“Those partitions create a plastic surgeons’ dream.” Jack Lusk – NYC TLC Chairman 1988-1991
As emergency department physicians for two of the busiest emergency departments in New York City, Bellevue and NYU Langone Medical Center, NYU physicians witness many injuries caused by taxi accidents. The injuries range from severe facial fractures and lacerations to traumatic brain injury and neck and spinal injuries. Denise Hoyt-Connolly from NYU Langone Medical Center
Dr. Charles DiMaggio – associate professor of epidemiology and anesthesiology at Columbia University Medical Center, and research director for the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia University -“Partitions with protruding steel nuts and bolts, sharp edged credit card machines and change cups have all been about 16 inches from an adult passenger’s face for the past 20 years or so.” “Safety testing with partitions installed should further decrease the risk of passenger head and facial injuries…”
“It’s a significant safety hazard,” said Dr. Jesse Taylor, a Plastic Surgeon at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, who operated on Marc Summers, TV producer. He’s seeing a growing number of injuries, related to cab partitions.
Dr. Rahul Sharma, NYUMC – has worked in several city emergency rooms, is all too familiar with the damage the anti-crime partitions, required since 1994, can cause. “Ask any ER doc in Manhattan, and they will tell you they see it very frequently,” he said. “People have a false sense of security in the backseat of a cab.”
Dr. Gary Sbordone – Massachusetts Chiropracter – “Could cause complex spinal injuries.”
Dr. Geoffrey Doughlin – E.R. Director, Jamaica Hospital – ‘Since the partitions act as a second windshield, back seat passengers fall victim to the same type of injuries as people in the front passenger position, the “suicide seat,” ‘
Dr. Gregory Husk – Chairman of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center, “You can’t do this kind of work (Emergency Medicine) without being impressed that the taxicab partition breaks a lot of noses, a lot of lips, a lot of chins.”
Dr. John Sherman – Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery, New York Hospital, New York City – “The results are uniformly disastrous: patients with head wounds from dividers, fractured noses, lacerations and worse. Last month I saw two patients die from taxi-related injuries.”
“This is a New York City tragedy and public health issue that has not changed in almost two decades,” Dr. Lewis Goldfrank, chairman of emergency medicine at Bellevue Hospital and NYU Langone Medical Center told the Daily news. “We don’t have a good system to count them, but there isn’t a week that goes by that we don’t see at least two patients with these terrible injuries.”
Dr. Arnold Komisar, Dr. Stanley Blaugrund and Dr. Martin Camins – Lenox Hill Hospital, NYC – “Every emergency room in New York is seeing patients injured in taxicabs: three here, four there, six at another hospital, so it’s easy to underestimate the problem,”
Dr. Stephen Pearlman – Upper East Side facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon – “Gaping soft tissue injuries are also prevalent, since an edge of a partition’s sliding door or its metal track can tear the skin.” “In the most severe instances, this causes “almost an avulsion” of the nose.”
Dr. Paul Lorenc – NYC Plastic Surgeon “Crushed noses, fractured cheekbones and eye sockets, and “stellate,” or burst lacerations, are among the most common injuries suffered when a passenger is hurled into the clear partition.”
Dr. Kai Sturmann – Acting Chairman, Emergency Department, Beth Israel – “I would like to see back-seat air bags.”
Dr. Marc Melrose – Emergency Physician, Beth Israel Medical Center, Manhattan – “Cabs don’t have to get into an accident for people to be hurt. The cab stops short and you go flying into the screen with the handles and bolts and that metal change thing. It’s dangerous.”
Dr. Talmor, Dr. Barie, Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Hoffman, Department of Surgery, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, NY. In 1996 four surgeons from the Department of Surgery, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center released a report, this is a review of it.
“Craniofacial injuries resulting from taxicab accidents in New York City”
Taxicab accidents are a common occurrence in New York City. This review was undertaken to characterize the nature of craniofacial injuries that result from taxicab accidents
Data were collected on 16 patients who required admission to trauma or plastic and reconstructive surgery services, after sustaining craniofacial injury as a result of a taxicab accidents.
Front-end deceleration collisions were the most common mechanism of injury.
Fifty-six percent of the patients were thrown against the bulletproof, Plexiglas driver safety divider and sustained an injury most commonly to the anterior midface.
Both bony and soft tissue injuries were common in the entire group.
“Given the high incidence of craniofacial injury, appropriate safety standards for taxicabs must be initiated, including the reevaluation of the utility of the safety divider”
Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, ACSH (American Council on Science and Health) President, “The deaths and injuries attributed to taxicab accidents are highly preventable.
Dr. Ralph Upchurch, chief of emergency medicine at Somerville Hospital, said not wearing a seatbelt in the back seat of a cab can be especially dangerous because of the plastic divider between the front and back seats.
Dr. Seth Manoach, lead author of the report, said ‘The plexiglas partition that seperates the front and back of the cab, protruding change dish, and metal border can cause serious injury in an accident.’ He urged taxi passengers to buckle up “Sit in one of the seats with shoulder and lap belts. The middle seats don’t have them and during a front-end collision, your head is going to come forward and hit the barrier.”
From – 12/29/98 New York Times article about zero seat belt usage observed by N.Y. Univer. Research Team findings 4/97-8/97
Diane McGrath-McKechnie, Chairwoman of the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission – “The experience of New York City absolutely does not support the notion that partitions have increased the number of passenger injuries.” “We are well aware of the potential dangers of passengers not wearing their seat belts hitting partitions in short-stop circumstances.”
“As officer safety and wellness is of the utmost importance to the International Asssn. Of Chiefs of Police you can be sure that we will continue to study all aspects of this issue.” Erin Vermilye 2/25/2013
Frank Armstrong, Motor Vehicle Safety Compliance Enforcement Section Director, 6/22/84 “Dear Sir: It has come to the attention of this office that you may be in violation of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 by the manner in which you are installing partitions in taxicabs and/or police cruisers.“
Matthew Daus – TLC Chairman – “These cars and the partitions that are in them are 100 percent safe,”
1) Denise Hoyt-Connolly from NYU Langone Medical Center
2) Dr. Charles DiMaggio – associate professor of epidemiology and anesthesiology at Columbia University Medical Center, and research director for the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia University
3) Dr. Jesse Taylor, a Plastic Surgeon at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
4) Dr. Rahul Sharma, NYUMC
5) Dr. Gary Sbordone
6) Dr. Geoffrey Doughlin – E.R. Director, Jamaica Hospital
7) Dr. Gregory Husk – Chairman of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center
8) Dr. John Sherman – Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery, New York Hospital, New York City
9) Dr. Lewis Goldfrank, chairman of emergency medicine at Bellevue Hospital and NYU Langone Medical Center
10) Dr. Arnold Komisar
11) Dr. Stanley Blaugrund
12) Dr. Martin Camins – Lenox Hill Hospital, NYC
13) Dr. Stephen Pearlman – Upper East Side facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon
14) Dr. Paul Lorenc
15) Dr. Kai Sturmann – Acting Chairman, Emergency Department, Beth Israel
16) Dr. Marc Melrose – Emergency Physician, Beth Israel Medical Center, Manhattan
17) Dr. Talmor
18) Dr. Barie
19) Dr. Shapiro
20) Dr. Hoffman, Department of Surgery, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, NY. In 1996 four surgeons from the Department of Surgery, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center
21) Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, ACSH (American Council on Science and Health) President
22) Dr. Ralph Upchurch, chief of emergency medicine at Somerville Hospital
23) Dr. Seth Manoach
New York City began a huge social experiment in September of 1968. They redesigned the interior of all NYC cabs to include a partition. A partition not in compliance with federal standards for safety. Why is the partition maker not held accountable for a design that has killed many cab passengers.
“Those partitions create a plastic surgeons’ dream.” Jack Lusk – NYC TLC Chairman 1988-1991
As emergency department physicians for two of the busiest emergency departments in New York City, Bellevue and NYU Langone Medical Center, NYU physicians witness many injuries caused by taxi accidents. The injuries range from severe facial fractures and lacerations to traumatic brain injury and neck and spinal injuries. Denise Hoyt-Connolly from NYU Langone Medical Center
Dr. Charles DiMaggio – associate professor of epidemiology and anesthesiology at Columbia University Medical Center, and research director for the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia University -“Partitions with protruding steel nuts and bolts, sharp edged credit card machines and change cups have all been about 16 inches from an adult passenger’s face for the past 20 years or so.” “Safety testing with partitions installed should further decrease the risk of passenger head and facial injuries…”
“It’s a significant safety hazard,” said Dr. Jesse Taylor, a Plastic Surgeon at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, who operated on Marc Summers, TV producer. He’s seeing a growing number of injuries, related to cab partitions.
Dr. Rahul Sharma, NYUMC – has worked in several city emergency rooms, is all too familiar with the damage the anti-crime partitions, required since 1994, can cause. “Ask any ER doc in Manhattan, and they will tell you they see it very frequently,” he said. “People have a false sense of security in the backseat of a cab.”
Dr. Gary Sbordone – Massachusetts Chiropracter – “Could cause complex spinal injuries.”
Dr. Geoffrey Doughlin – E.R. Director, Jamaica Hospital – ‘Since the partitions act as a second windshield, back seat passengers fall victim to the same type of injuries as people in the front passenger position, the “suicide seat,” ‘
Dr. Gregory Husk – Chairman of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center, “You can’t do this kind of work (Emergency Medicine) without being impressed that the taxicab partition breaks a lot of noses, a lot of lips, a lot of chins.”
Dr. John Sherman – Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery, New York Hospital, New York City – “The results are uniformly disastrous: patients with head wounds from dividers, fractured noses, lacerations and worse. Last month I saw two patients die from taxi-related injuries.”
“This is a New York City tragedy and public health issue that has not changed in almost two decades,” Dr. Lewis Goldfrank, chairman of emergency medicine at Bellevue Hospital and NYU Langone Medical Center told the Daily news. “We don’t have a good system to count them, but there isn’t a week that goes by that we don’t see at least two patients with these terrible injuries.”
Dr. Arnold Komisar, Dr. Stanley Blaugrund and Dr. Martin Camins – Lenox Hill Hospital, NYC – “Every emergency room in New York is seeing patients injured in taxicabs: three here, four there, six at another hospital, so it’s easy to underestimate the problem,”
Dr. Stephen Pearlman – Upper East Side facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon – “Gaping soft tissue injuries are also prevalent, since an edge of a partition’s sliding door or its metal track can tear the skin.” “In the most severe instances, this causes “almost an avulsion” of the nose.”
Dr. Paul Lorenc – NYC Plastic Surgeon “Crushed noses, fractured cheekbones and eye sockets, and “stellate,” or burst lacerations, are among the most common injuries suffered when a passenger is hurled into the clear partition.”
Dr. Kai Sturmann – Acting Chairman, Emergency Department, Beth Israel – “I would like to see back-seat air bags.”
Dr. Marc Melrose – Emergency Physician, Beth Israel Medical Center, Manhattan – “Cabs don’t have to get into an accident for people to be hurt. The cab stops short and you go flying into the screen with the handles and bolts and that metal change thing. It’s dangerous.”
With the new small diesel and a good 5 or 6 speed automatic the Panther could continue its fleet queen reign for another decade plus.
I’d imagine the with higher gearing for freeway cruising it would also be popular with State Police. When you are putting 40-60k mi on the car per year a 20% bump in fuel economy is huge.
Perhaps some hearse conversion company would be interested in chopping & extending Prius cars into taxicabs with more leg room, and room enough for a safety barrier for the driver.
Doesn’t some company extend Chrysler 300’s right now, in an attempt to compete with the Lincoln Town Car for the black car market? (Or whatever it’s called in NYC).
As I write this I look out the window into the parking lot of a Taxi company here in Vancouver, BC:
9 Priuses taxis parked in the lot
1 Prius in the car wash
2 Prius the street, in front of the agency
I also see 2 Camry (can’t tell they are Hybridae) and a 2 Malibu.
There are 2 Chevy Luminas in the lot: One with no engine, hood and doors left, and the other seems to serve for a some sort of paint deterioration experiment.
I have never heard someone complain about a cab itself; most New Yorkers are too oblivious to even realize what kind of car they’re in. Maybe if they didn’t have psychopaths with a death wish drive the cabs, we wouldn’t need 8″ of plexi-glass to prevent us from flying into the front row.
Diesel Crown Victoria? Could a worse car possibly be made? People seriously underestimate waht a colossally godawful car it is to both drive and ride in. The rear seats are not roomy by any stretch of the imagination. I also doubt that anyone would be willing to fork over a hefy premium for any diesel engine Ford could fit in it and it still probably wouldn’t cover the cost of doing so.
And has anyone gotten a “safety certification” letter from Ford? What auto maker would open themselves up to the liability of signing off on a piece of paper declaring that their vehicles are “safe” after modification by a third party.
Safety is relative, not absolute.
menno_ : Doesn’t some company extend Chrysler 300’s right now, in an attempt to compete with the Lincoln Town Car for the black car market? (Or whatever it’s called in NYC).
Chrysler used to sell them, don’t know what became of it. Considering the 300’s small(ish) trunk, I wouldn’t be surprised if that idea didn’t fly with buyers.
sportsuburbangt :
The MFRs will not certify their hybrids for taxi use but they are ok for us regular people. Sounds alot like the old Pinto deal.
Now turn off the TV and read the article again. The MFRs will not certify their hybrids for taxi use after a 3rd party does Allah-knows-what to it, screwing a sheet of bulletproof glass directly in the path of two side airbags.
The alternative is basically saying “Sure, we have NO idea what will happen because we’re not the ones putting in the glass! But we’ll certify them…so if anything even remotely bad happens, just go ahead and sue the crap out of us!”
The decision sounds perfectly reasonable to me, but this is exactly what I worried would happen – already the cries of “Hybrids unsafe!” are ringing out from various semi-informed corners of the internet.
Will this cause environmentalists to want to get more tough on crime?
Just think about how much energy gets wasted because of the high incidents of crime. For one thing, the entire energy use of every lock company in the world could be eliminated if it were not for criminals. It goes on and on, all the way to no green taxicabs in NYC.
Do Crown Vics even have side air bags? Sounds like that’s the issue (installing bullet proof glass in the path of the side air bags), not the fact they are hybrids.
not the fact they are hybrids.…
Funny, but that’s what I got out of this, too. Next time I see Mike in the bullpen I’ll give him a copy of this!! LOL
Ended up riding in a Prius Cab while in Denver a few weeks ago. Nice back seat and the cabby was in love with the thing, over 50k on the odo and he wanted to keep driving it forever.
The Prius is a much better choice for a cab than the creaky old Crown Vic. I’ve spent some uncomfortable time in the back seat of a modern Grand Marquis and there is absolutely nothing special about it. Our Honda Accord has a more comfortable back seat than the Fordasaurus.
Stop and go driving is a hybrid’s forte. Sitting at the curb “idling” is also in a hybrid’s sweat spot.
I suspect that Emperor for Life Bloomberg (he is about to get NYC’s term limits law set aside!) will find a way to whip the NYTLC around to his way of thinking. All he has to do is to threaten to action off 5,000 more cab medallions and everyone will do what he wants.
New York City has the same number of authorized cabs today as it did 50 years ago and thousands fewer cabs then it did in 1931!
“The medallion system dates from a Depression-era city law designed to address an overabundance of taxis that depressed driver earnings and congested city streets. After rejecting the recommendations of a series of mayoral panels studying taxi problems, the city Board of Aldermen in 1937 adopted the Haas Act, which slapped a moratorium on the issuance of any more taxicab licenses. Over the next several years, the number of cabs, which had peaked at 21,000 in 1931, fell from 13,500 in 1937 to the present number of 11,787 because the licenses of taxi owners leaving the industry were not reissued.”
http://www.schallerconsult.com/taxi/taxi2.htm#introduction
I have to ask, because the post does not, what new cars ARE certified? I suspect none. Why would any care maker open themselves to such an open ended liability?
Geotpf : Do Crown Vics even have side air bags? Sounds like that’s the issue (installing bullet proof glass in the path of the side air bags), not the fact they are hybrids.
Yup. Well, at least the Town Car I reviewed had them. Head airbags come in MY 2009 (per the blog post quasimondo referenced) and that’s the issue with the bulletproof partition.
Apparently Ford made the head protectors shoot out of the seat just like the side airbags. Its not a curtain that protects the rear passengers, so taxi customers and bad guys might be SOL???
Havent checked how much the new chevy cruze gobbles, but if it’s fitted with a turbocharged 1.3 or 1.4, it should be enough to potter around NYC. with start stop technology, and special gearing, the NYC Cabbies can still use an american product and cut down humongously on their fuel bill and lessen emissions.
i say drop the inch thick partition and use bead curtains like in Asia, since it’s asian driving most of the cabs anyway. bead curtains have been studiyed by ADAC (only if) and were found to deal better with side impact curtain airbags as well as tickle you while the car is rolling over. as if that would happen in new york city traffic. the only roll over a cab should expeirience is when Godzilla lands in town.
well that was for laughs but there are a lot of cars running about with no rolover bag curtains.
manufactueres can incorporate the side airbags in the seats or put two curtains rather than 1 running the whole side of the car, this way the partition can still be there. i believe if a company designs a special taxi car to curtail most of the major cities’ of the world specification, they would make a hefty profit.
anyway, the photo shows the DUBAI RTA checking out their latest ultra dismally economical Tahoe Hybrid. what a laugh. and what’s up with the malibu. i’m sure you can scrap a few to indulge the cabbies with their so important conversions.
Most taxis here in Germany are Mercedes E200 diesels (136hp) or Passat diesels (105 or 140hp). These are adequately powered for their duty and last forever, most serviced by taxi maintenance workshops. Volkswagen and Mercedes make special taxi versions with everything in place. We don’t have partitions here though.
That running a heavy V8 sedan as a taxi still makes economical sense warps my (Euro) mind.
“Since nobody crash-tests hybrids modified with safety partitions, nobody will take any legal responsibility for them…” Edward Niedermeyer
‘Crash-testing’ is only mandatory for any model ‘entire vehicle’. Vehicle ‘equipment’ doesn’t undergo crash-tests… unless the USDOT makes a determination that such equipment testing is ‘called for’.
It is the obligation of the partition manufacturer to comply and to certify compliance in the form of a label or a tag on the product (ANY item of after-market motor vehicle equipment whose aspect of performance relates to safety standards in effect at the time of production). It is illegal to manufacture, offer for sale, sell or install substandard uncertified, non-complying after-market motor vehicle equipment. Partition makers received official USDOT letters of ‘warning’ from the Motor Vehicle Safety Compliance Enforcement Section Director, Frank Armstrong on June 22, 1984. I know this because I wrote the complaint that prompted this so-called ‘enforcement action’. SWC
“The MFRs will not certify their hybrids for taxi use but they are ok for us regular people. Sounds alot like the old Pinto deal.” sportsuburbangt
The MFR’s can and DO certify that their vehicles comply. What they don’t certify is the compliance of after-market modifications, performed by illegal ‘alterers, according to the specifications of the NYCT&LC, in violation of federal law which forbids states or political sub-divisions of states from setting inferior standards. SWC
“In Vancouver, you don’t have a partition between the driver and passenger, or a lot of the more amusing features of New York” psarhjinian
Vancouver (like several other cities – worldwide) heeded my suggestion to observe CMVSS’s IF they decided to require taxis to have partitions. I didn’t WANT to kill the prospects of regulators creating the existence of an unwilling consumer demand by discouraging the implementation of mandates for partitions in taxis. I’ve just done my best to teach them what a taxi partition CAN and CANNOT do. An automobile partition CAN afford the operator an enhanced ability to maintain control of the vehicle (in most circumstances). SWC
“Perhaps some hearse conversion company would be interested in chopping & extending Prius cars into taxicabs with more leg room, and room enough for a safety barrier for the driver.” menno_
There is no need to diminish rear seat legroom with a partition. It CAN be avoided. Just make the partition stay flush with the front seat, regardless of what position it is adjusted to. With the partition I designed and build… the rear seat legroom is identical to that of the same model vehicle WITHOUT a partition. SWC
“Maybe if they didn’t have psychopaths with a death wish drive the cabs, we wouldn’t need 8″ of plexi-glass to prevent us from flying into the front row.”
peoplewatching04 :
I once WAS one of those psychopaths. I was one day prompted by a one-in-a-million passenger to seek some understanding as to why I had such a hostile attitude towards the very people I hoped would ‘tip’ me.
I did much soul searching and concluded that the partition sets up an adversarial atmosphere. Idiotic customers would get in the cab, while their feet clamor across the hump, banging on the sheet metal, it would obscure the voice of the passenger sating their destination… and then say; “Boy, it must be BAD here in Boston, huh?” They were referring to the partition installation. Sometimes they would say “If driving is so dangerous that you need a partition, why do you DO IT? To this comment I would snap back “I DON’T WANT THIS THING HERE! It doesn’t stop crime. It just increases the likelihood that the robber will have a gun instead of a knife and gets in my way if I need to shoot some stupid SOB for threatening my life for a few bucks.”
There are three well concealed truths about the partitions currently in use. None are certified to comply (nor DO comply), collision fatality and traumatic brain injury ‘frequency of incident’ is radically stimulated and murder rates INCREASE with mandatory partition use. The murder rate increase is well concealed, but in there nonetheless, in the “STONE REPORT”. The “STONE REPORT” is the study conducted 29 years after Boston & NYC made taxi partition installation mandatory. They didn’t study Boston or NYC though. Dr. Stone studied Baltimore, with less than 365 days of partition installation mandates in place. Stone concluded more murders carried less weight than fewer non-fatal assaults. A 400% increase in the murder rate, compared with a 20% decline in non-fatal assault was viewed with a skeptical eye by Stone. He asserted that 16 fewer non-fatal assault incidents carried more weight than the murder rate increase from 3 in 12 months to 3 in three months.
The reason higher murder rates with allegedly bullet-proof/resistant partitions is… ‘played down’ by the authorities… is because it doesn’t matter to them. All that matters to taxi regulators is maintaining the illusion that partitions afford protection from fatal assailants. The alternative is too frightening for them. The alternative might be to advise cab drivers to exercise (if merited) the use of deadly force to repel assailants. Banning discretionary latitude, while requiring partitions, creates the impression that the taxi regulators have the authority to dictate to Independent Contractors where or when they will work. THAT, of course is BALONEY.
SWC
“Has anyone gotten a “safety certification” letter from Ford? What auto maker would open themselves up to the liability of signing off on a piece of paper declaring that their vehicles are “safe” after modification by a third party?”
John Horner
The answer is; NONE would. None do, nor ever will. But the car makers have exercised their legal, ethical and moral obligation to notify the mandating agency (The NYCT&LC) that modifications required by the NYCT&LC with the partition installation specified, installed and approved by the NYCT&LC. Of course the NYCT&LC, according to ‘Hybrid Mandate’ news reports, has ignored EVERY one of the 70-odd advisories issued by car makers about partition safety hazards. SWC
“Now, turn off the TV and read the article again. The MFRs will not certify their hybrids for taxi use after a 3rd party does Allah-knows-what to it, screwing a sheet of bulletproof glass directly in the path of two side airbags.”
“The alternative is basically saying “Sure, we have NO idea what will happen because we’re not the ones putting in the glass! But we’ll certify them…so if anything even remotely bad happens, just go ahead and sue the crap out of us.” “
JuniorMint
Car makers have no culpability here. The violators are… the sanctioning agency (the NYCT&LC, the partition maker, the NY state MV inspection agencies… and the USDOT. All have ignored the injury and death losses attributable to illegal hazards of substandard, uncertified, non-complying partitions… installed EXACTLY the way the NYCTL&C demands that it be done. SWC
“Do Crown Vics even have side air bags? Sounds like that’s the issue (installing bullet proof glass in the path of the side air bags), not the fact they are hybrids.”
Geotpf
Side-curtain airbags are not mandatory. It IS permitted to disable them, as with the front impact airbags. The airbag/partition conflict is not a problem since side curtain airbags are optional. There is nothing bullet-proof OR bullet-resistant about partitions. Even a partition capable of a level three ballistic resistance rating… will never, ever keep an assailant from shooting the driver through another window.
SWC
“I have to ask, because the post does not, what new cars ARE certified? I suspect none. Why would any car maker open themselves to such an open ended liability?”
yankinwaoz
Take this to the bank… if you find a new car on a ‘new car’ sales lot… it IS certified to comply with federal motor vehicle safety standards. Look on the door jamb for the certification of compliance label.
It is the NYCT&LC insisting that the padding on the back of the front seat be covered with steel. It is the NYCT&LC insisting that the plastic glazing portion be constructed of sub-standard glazing. It is the NYCT&LC insisting that the plastic section include hazardous, illegal, edges and protrusions. It is the NYCT&LC insisting that the partition be exactly the way they specify (illegal) IF… the taxi is to ‘pass’ their inspection. SWC
Steven W Crowell
SWC,
Thanks for all the info. I don’t know a lot about taxi issues because where I live, it’s cheaper to rent a car for a week than to take a couple trips by taxi.
However, I have to note this gem of yours:
“The reason higher murder rates with allegedly bullet-proof/resistant partitions is… ‘played down’ by the authorities… is because it doesn’t matter to them. All that matters to taxi regulators is maintaining the illusion that partitions afford protection from fatal assailants.”
Your ability to understand and explain this is awesome. So many things in the auto industry, and the country, are screwed up due to almost identical circumstances. Until more of us get it, progress will be elusive.