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Tauranga Perspex designer Karl Cochrane is still hopeful the innovative taxi security shield he created over a year ago will grow in popularity, despite being unable to sell a single unit.
From the middle of this year it will be compulsory for taxi companies in New Zealand’s main centres and some larger towns to have security cameras installed.
Taxi driver Sukwinder Singh demonstrates the shield a year ago.
Karl’s design was inspected in Tauranga by NZ Transport Agency officials shortly after he finished it.
They gave the green light for the shield to be installed in taxis, but no taxi companies have purchased it.
“There’s no interest in spending money on shields when they know they have to spend the money on cameras,” says Karl.
He believes the design will be a better deterrent in stopping Tauranga taxi drivers being attacked.
Early last year there was a spate of attacks against Tauranga taxi drivers.
Many of those drivers already had security cameras installed when they were attacked.
“The cameras are not going to stop attacks – people still get attacked when the cameras are around.”
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Posted on 06-05-2011 04:09 | By stevenwcrowell@comcast.net
After building partitions for police cars and taxi cabs, starting in 1981, I can only conclude that taxi partitions are counter-productive. They create an adversarial atmosphere for all the honest patrons and will never prevent an assault. There is always the possibility that an assailant will poise a threat through a side window. With a partition the weapon is most likely to be a gun and not a knife. Murder rates rise with partition use mandates, leave them optional.