Thursday, March 15

Dangerous Job

What with the recent attacks on taxi drivers locally let's hope things don't get as bad as they are in Yorkshire.
Father-of-five Younis Khan is the third taxi driver to be murdered in Yorkshire in the past year.

Mahmood Ahmed, 36, was stabbed to death in Keighley in April 2006, while Mohammed Parvaiz was murdered by a gang in Huddersfield in July.
Editor of trade magazine Taxi-Today, Tony Mite, said he believed the profession had become the "most dangerous" in the country.
He said attacks happened at any time during the day and night.
One driver who survived a vicious attack was Bill Simpson who was attacked in Leeds while at work three months ago.
Mr Simpson was stabbed in the back of the head by the hooded man who tried to rob him of his takings.
He said: "I was so scared. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."
Police in Sheffield have said they will increase patrols following the murder of Mr Khan, who was shot in his cab as he drove along Scott Road, early on Wednesday.
Mr Mite said more needed to be done to protect taxi drivers.
"Drivers are being abused on the school run right up until kicking out times of the pubs.
"They are asking for cameras and also asking for anything else that can be done to bring down the numbers of incidents."
Installing CCTV cameras into taxis was crucial to reducing attacks on drivers, he said.
"The biggest problem is the funding of the CCTV, but it is going to give them a lot of security.
"If there is an issue within the vehicle it picks up the speech, it picks up the pictures and can be used later in any court case.
"It is a big issue, I believe it is the most dangerous job now going - that includes the police and firemen - where more people are injured and verbally abused and even killed."

3 comments:

John said...

At least 2 a week are beaten up in Dublin. There was a female driver killed a few years ago in Galway,no one caught!
The cameras now are getting cheaper by the day.
In Holland the cabs are monitored from the base and the coppers take it in turn to watch out for felons and with GPS and a tip off to the driver many outstanding warrants are executed.
At least you can lock them in the back of your black cab.
Stay safe Happy StPatricks day.

bigbikerbob said...

Hi Bob,We have all known that this situation would arise eventually, Black cabs are the most effective answer we have at the present time.Security cameras are certain to open up a whole new can of worms,with loads of people screaming invasion of privacy etc,and as any cab driver knows that could well be a problem with a few fares. Bob.

bob mullen said...

Cheers both some of our drivers do have cctv and they do get problems with folk who don't want to be filmed.