Taxi Driver Online

My thread title here takes the opposite approach to the headline below - apart from the three suspsensions, there's not much else to suggest any major safety issues, or at least not in the way that it's portrayed below, and as per the comments from members of the public in the article, which make it look like every car stopped was a death trap. Or something like that.


Only six out of 20 taxis stopped by police in Buckinghamshire had 'no concerns'

https://www.buckinghamshirelive.com/new ... is-7962458

Police and council officers stopped 20 taxis and found that most of them were breaking the rules. Issues ranged from having major defects with their cars to drivers not wearing their driver badges.

Police checks carried out in Buckinghamshire found that 14 out of 20 taxis stopped were not up to scratch - with some suffering from dangerous defects to their vehicles. The checks were carried out across Aylesbury, Wendover, Stoke Mandeville, High Wycombe and Princes Risborough but only a taxis passed the inspection.

The officers from Amersham police station worked with staff from Buckinghamshire Council's taxi licensing team to carry out the checks. The worst failures led to three vehicles being taken off the road because they had "major defects".

Two of the cars had unsafe tyres while a third vehicle had defects to its door and windows. The drivers' taxi licences were suspended by the council.

A further 11 vehicles were found to have minor defects, including missing first aid kits, fire extinguishers and incorrect council livery displayed. A spokesperson for the Thames Valley Police's roads policing team said: "The council enforcement team will carry out further investigations to determine some driver's fitness to continue to hold a licence, keeping you safe as a result."

On top of this, the police said they found a number of traffic offences while examining the vehicles. These were:

• 1 x defective brake light
• 3 x drivers not wearing seatbelts
• 2 x Incorrect typeface on number plate
• 1 x number plate not readable as dirty
• 1 x tyre with a damaged tyre wall

Of the 20 cars stopped by the police and council team, only six were found to have "no concerns".

Members of the public were quick to show their anger at the poor state of the taxis and took to Facebook to comment. Gary King said: "Out of 20 vehicles checked, ONLY 6 were found to have no concerns! That's ONLY 30% of vehicles/drivers that were ok. SHOCKING! Surely this highlights a major concern and that many more taxis should be checked."

Adam Woodgate agreed. He said: "30% with no issues... Kinda worrying."

Naomi Nae White praised the police and council team for their hard work. She said: "Thanks for doing this. Shows there is very much still a need to keep doing these checks for safely reasons."

So nothing to do with the cars.

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IDFIMH