Taxi drivers call for lighted distress signs

Edmonton taxi drivers want the Alberta government to support a plan to equip city cabs with lit signs seeking help in cases of emergency.

Leon Lubin, vice-chair of Edmonton's Vehicle for Hire Commission, said the signs would reduce violence against cab drivers by signalling when they are in danger from passengers.

"It would have advertising on the sides and have a help sign on the back end of it activated by a foot pedal, so it wouldn't be noticed by the passengers if they were causing a problem," Lubin said.

"Something the public could see or other drivers could see and they could come to the aid by calling the police."

Lubin said the sign would flash "Call 911".

He presented the idea to the city's community services committee Monday.

December and January were particularly dangerous months for taxi drivers, according to Balraj Manhas, president of the United Cab Drivers Association of Edmonton.

On Dec. 23,  five teenage boys were charged with robbing a taxi driver of his cash and his cab.

Crimes against taxi drivers in the city, however, aren't new.

Driver Hassan Yussuf, a former Ottawa resident working in Edmonton, was stabbed to death in his cab in April 2005.

Driver Kelly Richards was beaten into a vegetative state in January 1999.

Mayor to write justice minister

The committee raised some questions at its Monday meeting about the legalities of the type of lit sign because it may contravene Alberta's Highways Act.

Lubin said he would work with the committee and the province to clarify the legislation.

The committee also recommended Monday that Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel write a letter to the federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson asking that sentences for people who are violent against taxi drivers are as stringent as possible.

Councillor Amarjeet Sohi, who supports the installation of the signs,  also recommended that decals be put inside taxis informing passengers there is a zero tolerance policy on violence against drivers.

Sohi said that would help reduce crime.

"What I hear from people that someone is being assaulted or attacked, at that time sometimes they don't have the opportunity to call police on their own," Sohi said.

"So, if members of the public know that then they can call the police."