One can imagine that taxi driving can be a frustrating job at times, having to deal with drunk and belligerent people –cleaning up their mess.
In fact, a survey of 100 taxi drivers in Adelaide found that 84 of them had a drunk person throw-up inside their taxis.
However, it may also be one of the most dangerous jobs around.
Taxi drivers can encounter violent situations, especially late at night – and are 15 times more likely to be the victim of workplace violence than the average worker.
The latest in a long line of attacks involved a vicious assault in Dubbo, NSW.
On January 24 this year, a taxi driver in Dubbo was stabbed in the throat with a large kitchen knife after his passenger refused to pay for the trip.
If this wasn’t shocking enough, the culprit was a 13 year-old-girl.
It was just after 2am on Saturday, when the 66-year-old taxi driver was driving along Macquarie Street, one of the main roads in Dubbo.
The 13-year-old passenger got in and asked to go to O’Donnell Street. When she told the driver she could not pay the fare, the driver started heading to the police station instead.
This was when she allegedly stabbed him in the throat. While the injury was not life-threatening, it left a 5cm wound on the driver’s neck.
The girl then jumped out of the vehicle and ran away.
She has been charged with wounding with intent and has been refused bail.
Unfortunately, taxi drivers are popular targets for attacks because they work alone, late at night and carry cash.
Drivers face the threat of being robbed, assaulted, or even murdered.
In fact, one 1993 murder of a taxi-driver in Melbourne has still not been solved. That driver was robbed and shot with a sawn-off gun in a paddock.
And even cameras and duress alarms in taxis do not prevent all attacks.
The survey mentioned earlier found that over one third of participants had been attacked by a passenger, and over 80 per cent have been racially abused.
The Adelaide survey found that 92% of the participants had experienced a passenger attempting to run away without paying the fare.
Legislative amendments made around a decade ago recognised that drivers are often victims of attack, and attempted to protect taxi drivers by amping up the penalties that offenders could face.
The amendments were intended to give taxi-drivers extra protection; specifically naming them in legislation as being vulnerable because of their occupation.
Attacking a vulnerable person like a taxi driver is an aggravating factor and can lead to a harsher penalty.
But attacks continue, and it does not appear that the legislation has had the desired effect.
Contrary to public opinion, studies have shown that harsher penalties are rarely effective in deterring crime.
During the Second Reading for the legislative changes, the speaker noted the frustration of one taxi driver who said: ‘a person who gouged out the eye of a taxi driver could be given a penalty of 150 hours community service’.
It was argued that such as lenient penalty was hardly a deterrent.
But the reality is that many of those who assault taxi drivers are either drunk or on drugs, and are unlikely to consider the increased penalties before acting.
As the attacks continue, other preventative methods have been suggested, such as driver protection screens, which are already mandatory in some areas of Australia.
Another suggestion is the broad use of a pre-paid fare system.
Perhaps the thoughtful implementation of such measures might reduce the incidence of assaults against taxi drivers in the future.
