Unions demand more protection for taxi drivers
Taxi unions yesterday demanded better protection for drivers after three cabbies were injured in two separate attacks on Sunday.
The financial crisis may drive more passengers to rob taxi drivers for quick cash, the unions said.
The tight economy is spreading agitation and anger, and it is easy for people to take out their frustrations on taxi drivers, Kwok Chi-piu, chairman of the Urban Taxi Drivers' Association Joint Committee, said.
On Sunday night, a taxi driver was hit on the head with a hammer in a failed robbery attempt about 100 metres from the Yau Ma Tei police station.
The 50-year-old cabbie had picked up his passenger - a South Asian man - in Battery Street, opposite the police station, at 11.45pm.
After going about 50 metres, the man ordered the driver to stop, attacked him with a hammer and tried to rob him. After a scuffle, the culprit jumped from the cab and fled empty-handed, leaving the hammer behind.
The driver, surnamed Tam, was discharged from Queen Elizabeth Hospital after treatment, and a police search failed to find the suspect.
Shortly after 9pm on Sunday, a 47-year-old driver surnamed Ng was assaulted after picking up a drunk man in North Point, who told him to go to Tsim Sha Tsui.
'He ordered me to cross the double lines and speed through a red light. I refused, and then he beat me,' Mr Ng told Cable TV.
The driver stopped in Chatham Road South, Tsim Sha Tsui, and fled from the taxi; the passenger, who had claimed to be a triad member, took the wheel and drove off - going against the traffic in Granville Road.
He drove to Minden Avenue, ran into a pub and hurled a glass - injuring two employees - before fleeing in the cab, police said.
At about 9.30pm, he rammed into another taxi in Gascoigne Road, and the culprit assaulted the other taxi driver before officers arrived and arrested him. The taxi drivers, two pub employees and the suspect in this case were treated for injuries in hospital.
Mr Kwok said the two incidents had prompted him to ask Transport Department officials to meet police and Security Bureau officers to discuss better protection for drivers, calling for more police street patrols.
Lai Ming-hung, chairman of the Taxi and Public Light Bus Concern Group, said installing global positioning systems that recorded taxis' positions might help deter attacks.
'Drivers would just press a panic button in case of a robbery or emergency. The recording function starts, the control centre is alerted and will call police,' he said.
Mr Lai said the group would gather opinions from other taxi unions and drivers before talking to the government.
