Taxicabs of New York City - History - Taxi Security

Taxi Security

One in four new Checkers bought were "partition equipped." Taxi partitions were still optional until September 1968. According to the New York Times (Saturday, August 17, 1968, page 37): "Taxi Partitions – The Checker Motors Corporation, Kalamazoo, Mich., received a patent this week for its Safe-Guard Cab, which has a robbery preventing partition between the front and back seats. According to Checker – the partition makes Checkers which are equipped with the 'Life Guard' partition, the 'second generation' of 'crime stopping' taxis." Partitions made knives less viable and made guns more viable. The Taxi & Limousine Commission in NYC has been accused of altering and fudging statistics and facts concerning taxi partition-mandate viability since its inception.

The fleet owners weren't sure of the cause for the decline (in cab driver assaults). One possible reason cited was the increase during the year of the number of policemen who drove taxis during their off hours to supplement their income.

As many as 4,000 cops had been authorized and licensed as taxi drivers starting in September 1967.

The installation of partitions in some taxis has been mandatory since September 1968. Taxis owned by individuals, about 4,600 cabs, were not required to install partitions. That number grew through the 70s and 80s as fleet owners divided large fleets into mini-fleets for two reasons: to avoid the partition mandate, and to limit corporate liability.

Fleet owners felt that, without partitions, drivers would be less inclined to rent cabs at night.

The NYC T&LC enjoys how the partition mandate abates media pressure on their agency about slain cab drivers. Many cab regulators worldwide have considered partition installation mandates for their cities' cabs. Most often the idea is postponed or dropped. Some have adopted the rule and abandoned it later.

Some, like NYC, have enlarged the mandatory market to include more and more taxis, and then all livery cars (or Town Cars), while at the same time, begrudgingly, shrunk the market for partition purchases for use in the "medallion" taxis, because newer vehicle models have side-impact airbags which cannot deploy properly with a partition installed.

Since side curtain airbags became mandatory in all US sold cars, a conflict has arisen. Since all side curtain airbags are contiguous from the "A" pillar to the "C" pillar, there is a deployment zone intrusion conflict when there is a partition installed. This deployment zone conflict has been addressed by the TLC with a requirement for a six inch gap where the partition would ordinarily extend to the "B" pillar – to make space for the airbag deployment. It has been suggested that the partition should incorporate an integral airbag of its own, in the padding, to take the place of side curtain airbags, where partitions are used. This would require the end user to find a way to properly disable the side curtain airbag.

There have been several trauma surgeons who have raised the alarm about occupants slamming into partition metal covering the padding on the back of the front seat, coin trays and window edges. All of the major motor vehicle manufacturers have notified the TLC that mandated modifications such as meter placement and partition installation might, or does, void the car makers' claim of "compliance" with federal standards.

20 NYC doctors have expressed their abhorrence about taxi partition risks in numerous newspaper articles over the last 44 years. The federal USDOT has issued mild letters of warning. They "recommended" that a taxi regulator might "consider compliance".

Jack Lusk – TLC Chairman 1988-1991 “Those partitions create a plastic surgeons’ dream.”

Dr. Rahul Sharma, – has worked in several city emergency rooms, is all too familiar with the damage the partitions 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 Chiropractor “Could cause complex spinal injuries.” Dr. Geoffrey Doughlin – E.R. Director, Jamaica Hospital, Queens, NY 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.” 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," Camins wrote; “Partitions can be lethal causing skull neck fractures if taxi stops short and passenger is not wearing a seat belt.” 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.’s Talmor, Barie, Shapiro and 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. Rahul Sharma, – 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. Elizabeth M. Whelan, ACSH (American Counsel on Science and Health) President, “The deaths and injuries attributed to taxicab accidents are highly preventable.” Dr. Mark Pearlmutter This first hour after your crash is what Dr. R. Adams Cowley of the University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore coined "the golden hour." There are three distinct parts to this hour: The first part is 20 minutes long, the time it should take to pry you free of the wreck. The second 20-minute-long segment is the journey to the ER.

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 separates 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. 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,”