Two Latest Taxi Driver Assault Victims Speak Out
Call on Drivers to Motorcade to Albany on May 25th to Urge Taxi Driver Protection Act

Two more taxi drivers reported assaults on the job, just weeks after another hack miraculously survived being slashed across the neck. Abubakar Abdallah, 46, was left bleeding from cuts to the face and shoulder and a fractured nose, before five assailants car jacked his taxi and collided into a private car. Jangbir Singh, 45, was spat at, called racial slurs, told to “go back to your fu*&^ng country” and assaulted in the arm with a metal pipe, all while his passenger, a tourist returning to Canada, sat in the back screaming. Thirty-year veteran Beresford Simmons said, “(w)e need an anti-violence bill to stop yellow cabs from being turned into moving targets. These assaults leave us drivers and even our riders and others on the street vulnerable and injured.”

Drivers added that they have been made more vulnerable of late when the former TLC Chairman branded the workforce as petty thieves, before backtracking ten days later. “The allegation was front page, the backtracking page twenty-something. This political attack and subsequent attacks by the media on drivers trickle down to harassment and violence on the streets,” said New York Taxi Workers Alliance Executive Director Bhairavi Desai. Mr. Abdallah and Mr. Singh joined the NYTWA in calling for a “Day of Enough is Enough: Respect our Labor. Protect our Lives.” when all taxis will be adorned with symbolic red ribbons and mobilize for a motorcade to Albany on May 25th to urge the passage of the Taxi Driver Protection Act. The Act would make assaults against drivers a felony and mandate warning signs inside taxis, same as ones already in buses and subways. Introduced by Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Q) and State Senator Eric Adams (D-B), the bill has also been endorsed by newly appointed Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairman David Yassky. The most recent Department of Labor cited taxi drivers as being thirty times more likely to be killed on the job and once again ranked the profession in the top ten most dangerous. NYTWA says this is despite most assaults going unreported by drivers to the police and even to the union.

On Friday night April 23rd, 2010 at approximately 11:00pm, Mr. Abadallah was returning from a dinner break to his taxi parked at 104th Street and Second Avenue when three teenagers held his door from closing, while two others got into the taxi from the front passenger’s side. All repeatedly punched and kicked Mr. Abdallah, then dragged him out of the front seat, robbing him of his wallet and cell phone. They then car jacked the taxi, taking it for a joy ride a few blocks before colliding into a private car. Several restaurants on the block cater to taxi drivers. The NYPD has put out a Crime Stoppers alert with images of some of the assailants captured on local surveillance video.

Mr. Singh was followed two blocks by the assailant in a private van until both were stuck in traffic at 40th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues at about 3:30pm on Thursday, April 29, 2010. The assailant had been honking and screaming at Mr. Singh when the two were stopped on 39th Street and a female rider ran to get inside the cab. Two blocks later, the rage turned violent as the van operator smashed the taxi’s driver’s side window with a metal pipe and then struck Mr. Singh. Despite the visible injury and damage, the first two officers on the scene refused to make an arrest. “It was humiliating to explain myself when I was the one bleeding,” said Mr. Singh. “Many rights we don’t have. But safety?” The assailant was eventually arrested and charged with assault in the second degree.

Both Mr. Abdallah and Mr. Singh said they will join the taxi caravan to the state capital on May 25th, hoping their suffering will not be in vain. “I want the blood that I shed to have meaning and not be ignored,” said Mr. Abdallah.