The driver said during one incident, an offender threw a 30kg mountain bike at another person on the street. Image / Supplied.
The driver said during one incident, an offender threw a 30kg mountain bike at another person on the street. Image / Supplied.
An Uber driver has spoken out over safety for shared passenger services operating in metro cities, after witnessing four fights in one week whilst doing his rounds.
The driver said during one incident, an offender threw a 30kg mountain bike at another person on the street.
Gus Cowan has been professionally driving people across Christchurch for 15 years, 12 of them as a taxi driver.
While the Cantabrian has seen violence and drinking across the city since he first started working, Cowan said the levels of abuse he witnesses across the area have never been so bad.
This past week alone, Cowan has seen four fights break out in the inner-city around Hereford St and Colombo St.
“I’ve seen one-on-ones with fists and kicking, the last one was three people on one side and one person who picked up a push-bike and threw it at them,” he said.
The push-bike appeared to be a mountain bike, which Cowan estimated weighed around 30kg.
This past week alone, Cowan has seen four fights break out in the inner-city around Hereford St and Colombo St. Photo / NZME
Cowan said shopkeepers would typically call police swiftly - as non-uniformed officers wearing stab vests would appear within minutes to break the incidents up.
However, Cowan worries his car is going to end up in the thick of things if things don’t fall his way.
“I’m a big guy, ex-army and know how to handle myself, but I worry about the car because it falls on me,” he said.
“I have to pay the costs which are substantial, the excess is $1000 and if somebody puts a bad dent in the car, that’s on me to pay.”
As it turns out, the passenger industry has been concerned about the safety of its drivers for a number of years, with escalating violence in metro cities putting drivers at risk.
The Small Passenger Service Association highlighted concerns at an industry conference back in October.
Following amendments to the Land Transport Act back in 2017, taxis and other passenger services are no longer required to have cameras in them.
Executive director Warren Quirke said the association has been highlighting their concerns to NZTA about the safety of their drivers after this change was made.
“There absolutely is a safety problem across the whole industry,” he told the Herald.
“Unfortunately you deal with people who when under the influence of alcohol the situation worsens. Our drivers don’t have the training and right procedures to deal with this.”
Quirke would like to see cameras once again become mandatory in all passenger service cars, which happened in the early 2010s when two taxi drivers were murdered on the job.
“There’s a few types of services out there connected to companies with rules in place, but now we have lots of independent taxi operators who don’t have any support network behind them, and the majority don’t use cameras.
“It absolutely would improve their safety, no doubt.”
