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March 6, 2011
According to ABC Channel 7, a taxi driver who refused to take a group of males from Manhattan to the Bronx drove instead to the Midtown North NYPD precinct. The group explained the situation and the police instructed the driver to take the men to the Bronx. The driver refused, locked the doors, and ran over the group, fracturing the skull of Anthony Loreto who remains in critical condition. All of this transpired in front of the NYPD precinct.
Brazen violent crime of this nature committed by NYC taxi drivers has been on the rise since the economic downturn in 2008 (see below). The TLC is refusing to handle many cases (see previous story below) and the word has gotten out amongst the drivers that they not be fined or punished.
August 11, 2010
BatteryPark.TV previously reported on the rising rate of violent behavior among New York City taxi drivers. A TLC official had confirmed in April, 2010, that TLC internal databases had an increase in passenger complaints and that budget cutbacks had caused slower responses by the TLC to complaints. The taxi driver community is now aware that misconduct is being prosecuted less swiftly, according to one driver interviewed.
A case example of this problem involved a violent yellow cab driver that assaulted a passenger in Battery Park City back in July of 2009 (see video below). The incident involved a person related to BatteryPark.TV. A complaint letter was sent to the TLC and received no reply. Two more letters were sent with no reply. A telephone call to TLC administrators finally elicited a response and a hearing was scheduled approximately one year after the incident.
Last month, during the TLC hearing, the administrative lawyer dismissed the case based on a technicality without commenting on the merits of the complaint against the driver. An appeal was sent to the Deputy Commissioner of the TLC, Pansy Mullings. Ms. Mullings informed BatteryPark.TV that the TLC refused to open the case on appeal. The taxi driver is now currently still operating a vehicle and has no reprimand on his record despite video evidence of the assault and numerous other infractions made by the driver.
If you have had any similar problems with taxi drivers and have received slow or no response from the TLC, you can contact:
Pansy Mullings
Deputy Commissioner
Taxi and Limousine Commission
2455 BQE West
Woodside, NY 113377
April 23, 2010
If you seem to have noticed more whackjob taxi drivers in NYC behaving outright violently toward you, you are correct. BP.TV spoke with a representative of the TLC who confirmed that the statistics from their complaint database support the notion that violent behavior is on the rise since the TLC instituted the credit card payment option.
Cab drivers have to give a small percentage of fairs paid by credit cards to the credit card company. Offsetting this is the fact that many more business travelers will be inclined to take a yellow cab and use their company card rather than take a town car. Nevertheless, to this day, many cab drivers try to play games with customers at the end of a trip, such as not triggering the meter to stop, asking for cash, or by pretending that their meter is broken and cannot accept credit cars. Many of these drivers then become hostile or physically violent with the passengers.
BP.TV has obtained this video of a cab driver becoming violent to a passenger.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlRPILJCfhU