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Sunday, December 16, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Turtle or scorpion? The lesson of cab drivers and Newtown CT
Many are apparently oblivious of the fact that urban cab driving in the US is deadlier than combat. 5 to 10 times deadlier than being a cop. Do cab drivers have nothing to fear? Wrong, they have the most risk of murder. Yet in Boston and NYC they say use a bulletproof partition and don't carry a gun. Murders are hardly abated. Now it's like shooting a fish in a barrel. It is like the turtle versus the scorpion approach. I prefer to be a scorpion, not a turtle.
That school banned guns on the premises, the law banned that 20 year old from owning a handgun, the law required Mom to properly lock them. None of that prevented him. An armed custodian or kitchen worker, an armed Gym teacher or vice principal... that would help. If not... why the rush to the scene with heavily armed police? Remember, when seconds count, the police are minutes away.
That school banned guns on the premises, the law banned that 20 year old from owning a handgun, the law required Mom to properly lock them. None of that prevented him. An armed custodian or kitchen worker, an armed Gym teacher or vice principal... that would help. If not... why the rush to the scene with heavily armed police? Remember, when seconds count, the police are minutes away.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Tom Glavin speaks about his partition impact injury in a taxi
"I guess it's a hard lesson to learn. I know probably every one of us are guilty at some point of time of getting in a cab in particular and not putting on a seat belt, but I will say I'm always diligent about it when I'm driving my own car, or in my own car, but probably neglectful like everybody else when I get in a cab."
The driver of the taxi, George Kovalonoks, 54, of Brooklyn, and the other vehicle, John Struble, 40, of West Milford, N.J., were both uninjured, police said.
Glavine's wife called him back immediately after the crash, and he called the Mets to tell them what happened. He was taken by ambulance to NYU Medical Center in Manhattan. He hopes to be fitted for temporary front teeth Friday and have the stitches removed Monday or Tuesday. It will be at least eight months before his mouth heals enough for him to get permanent replacement teeth.
"I actually kept the one that had fallen in my hand," he said. "The other one was halfway back in my mouth, I left it in there until I got to the hospital. They looked at it, tried to assess whether or not I could keep them. All the bone and whatnot I guess up there was battered and broken, so that's why they didn't keep the teeth."
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1857827
Tom Glavin and Marc Summers, both rear seat occupants, have had a lot of pressure put on them to concede that the injury might have been prevented or less severe if seat belts had been worn. This argument, which is valid... ignores the very important fact that front seat occupants are clearly at risk of injury from contact with the partition... even with a belt on. Not all travel has rear seat occupants. All travel does involve at least one front seat occupant - the driver. Front seat occupants injuries and deaths, from partition impact, are devastating.
The driver of the taxi, George Kovalonoks, 54, of Brooklyn, and the other vehicle, John Struble, 40, of West Milford, N.J., were both uninjured, police said.
Glavine's wife called him back immediately after the crash, and he called the Mets to tell them what happened. He was taken by ambulance to NYU Medical Center in Manhattan. He hopes to be fitted for temporary front teeth Friday and have the stitches removed Monday or Tuesday. It will be at least eight months before his mouth heals enough for him to get permanent replacement teeth.
"I actually kept the one that had fallen in my hand," he said. "The other one was halfway back in my mouth, I left it in there until I got to the hospital. They looked at it, tried to assess whether or not I could keep them. All the bone and whatnot I guess up there was battered and broken, so that's why they didn't keep the teeth."
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1857827
Tom Glavin and Marc Summers, both rear seat occupants, have had a lot of pressure put on them to concede that the injury might have been prevented or less severe if seat belts had been worn. This argument, which is valid... ignores the very important fact that front seat occupants are clearly at risk of injury from contact with the partition... even with a belt on. Not all travel has rear seat occupants. All travel does involve at least one front seat occupant - the driver. Front seat occupants injuries and deaths, from partition impact, are devastating.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Automobile Interior Partition Use Objective
Automobile Interior
Partition Use Objective
It
is critical that it be established; just what is the objective of using a
partition in a taxicab or a police cruiser?
We know that using a partition in a police cruiser has
the objective of ‘keeping prisoners from access to the front seat area’. There
is no concern about robbery and little concern that a frisked, disarmed, seat-belted
prisoner might try to assault an armed police officer. The partition prevents prisoners
from attacking the officer while seated in cruiser.
The original objective of using a partition in a taxicab
was to keep drunk passengers from grabbing the steering wheel. “Those early rules also decreed there had
to be a partition separating driver and passengers, to stop drunks from
grabbing the wheel.”, according to Robert Hardman, a London, England
reporter in a 2012 news story. http://www.iol.co.za/travel/world/europe/save-the-london-taxi-please-1.1438442
Partitions have served well to protect operators
from rear seat interference in cruisers - if the prisoner has been properly restrained
with seat belts after being disarmed and hand-cuffed. There are, however, about 300 incidents over ten years where a cruiser partition has
failed to keep a prisoner from driving away with the cruiser. So, there are
failures with the current cruiser partition design.
The objective was quietly
changed, in 1968, when partitions
were offered for taxi use in the US . Passengers were provided a
switch that could prevent the driver from opening the window It is stated by Checker
Motors in their patent application; “feature… offered in New
York and Washington – “ lock with which the passenger can keep the movable
panel closed,if he is apprehensive of being robbed or attacked by the driver.”
The New York
Times, Saturday, August 17, 1968 - Page 37
I do not recall any rash
of attacks by drivers against passengers.
The objective was changed, again, when in
1968, NYC started requiring cab owners to install partitions in their cabs. This time the stated objective was to
protect the driver from bullets, hence the bullet-resistant panels.
The New York Times, Thursday
January 30th, 1969
Of course the likelihood of
a rear seat occupant pointing a gun at the driver, either through the partition window, or around the partition, aiming at
the side window to the front - is high. The partition disinclines assailants
from using the less deadly weapon “the knife”. Partitions do NOTHING to
preclude an attacker from using a gun to shoot the driver. Murder rates
actually increase with partition use.
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.
…one
feature… offered in New York and Washington - a lock with
which the passenger can keep the movable panel closed if he is apprehensive of
being robbed or attacked by the driver.
New York Times
Thursday
January 30th, 1969
Cab
Robberies Drop
A factor, owners believe, was the installation of
partitions between the driver and passenger of all fleet owned taxicabs last
September.
The 4,600 cabs owned by individuals were not required to
install partitions because 60% of assaults and robberies occur between 9 P.M.
and 6 A.M. and most owner/drivers tend to work during the day.
The
fleet owners are hopeful that the decline will continue and that more drivers
will be attracted to the industry, particularly for work at night
Monday, December 10, 2012
Taxi Partition Injury Victim - Roseanne Davalle
In this episode a woman is treated for a facial lacerationj from hitting a partition in a NYC taxicab.
http://abc.go.com/watch/ny-med/SH55214626/VD55221851/episode-3
http://abc.go.com/watch/ny-med/SH55214626/VD55221851/episode-3
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