“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
“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,”
