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NEW YORK
NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission will delay
crash-test mandate for yellow cabs
By DAN RIVOLI
| NEW YORK DAILY
NEWS TRANSIT REPORTER |
DEC 16, 2015 | 12:27 AM
The Nissan NV200
(pictured) is one of two yellow taxi models approved for the road. (AP)
Taxi riders are
cruisin' for a bruisin' — or worse.
The Taxi and Limousine
Commission will delay a requirement that yellow cabs must undergo a crash test
with the hard, sharp-edged plastic partition in place — a rule approved in 2013
after doctors told the agency that passengers in an accident face a greater
risk of head injury.
Only two out of 15
yellow taxi models approved for the road — including the Taxi of Tomorrow, also
known as the Nissan NV200 — have gone through a crash test with the partitions
installed. Eco-friendly hybrid models, meanwhile, are exempt.
The rule was supposed
to go into effect this December, but low compliance got the TLC to push it off
until the end of 2016 to make changes.
Doctors told the Daily
News it's common for hospitals to see taxi passengers with lacerations and
broken noses, though there are instaances of riders suffering from more severe
head trauma.
"The vast
majority of the injuries are not lethal, but they're disfiguring and they put
people at risk," said Dr. John Sherman, chief of plastic surgery at St.
Barnabas Hospital.
Sherman — one of the
doctors who backed the rule in 2013 — slammed Mayor de Blasio's taxi agency for
pushing off the crash-test rule, which he likened to consumer advocate Ralph
Nader's crusade for reforms to dangerously designed vehicles.
The delay, he said,
"would be contrary to public safety."
"The forehead and
the mid-face hit these change trays and sharp edges and get serious
injuries," he said, noting that the Taxi of Tomorrow partition is padded
and designed to minimize chance of a rider smacking their head into it.
But taxi passengers
risk more than a busted nose. Crash testing shows whether the partition would
interfere with an airbag or affect how well the cab can handle a side-impact
crash, according to Dr. Charles DiMaggio, professor of surgery and population health
at NYU School of Medicine.
"The only way you
can evaluate that is by crash test," he said.
He disagreed with the
TLC's decision to delay the requirement.
"The message I
take from that — I will be using my seat belt in the back seat of a taxi much
more frequently, absolutely," DiMaggio said.
Cab Riders United
director Michael O'Loughlin said the rule delay is a blind spot in the city's
Vision Zero safety agenda.
"Instead of
delaying implementation of this important safety standard for yellow taxi
passengers by yet another year, TLC should act urgently to expand this important
safety standard to protect passengers in all partitioned for-hire vehicles in
all boroughs," O'Loughlin said. "Every passenger in every borough
must have an equal right to safety in a TLC licensed vehicle."
Taxi officials have
tried to get cab passengers to buckle up in the back seat with public service
announcements and supporting a law requiring riders to buckle up in the front
seat.
But much of the riding
public likes to live dangerously, as just 38% of taxi passengers said they
buckle up, according to a 2014 survey from the TLC.
TLC spokesman Allan
Fromberg defended the delay in the partition crash test rule.
"Safety is not an
issue, whatsoever," Fromberg said.
The Taxi of Tomorrow —
crash tested with the partition already installed — will be the car of choice
to replace cabs that retire starting next year, along with hybrid models. And
any car maker that wants their vehicles to join the city's taxi fleet must meet
the same specifications.
"Our goal...is to
make sure cars with partitions are crash-tested," TLC Commissioner Meera
Joshi said in a statement. "And we encourage car manufactures by creating
a market."
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