Calls for airbags in taxis get louder

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http://news.insing.com/tabloid/calls-for-airbags-in-taxis-get-louder/id-914b3f00

Following a fatal accident involving a taxi and a sports car two weeks ago, calls to install airbags in cabs have been growing louder.

Netizens and newspaper readers have – in cyberspace and letter pages of newspapers – asked why are the 26,000 taxis here not fitted with airbags.

When contacted by The Straits Times newspaper, a spokesman for the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said: “We will have to carefully study and evaluate the requirement for airbags in vehicles.”

He added that there is now a mandatory seatbelt rule for vehicles, including taxis.

Airbags could have been excluded from cabs to save cost. A taxi operator told the newspaper that a company can save a few thousand dollars per taxi if airbags are not installed.

Gerard Ee, Chairman of the Public Transport Council, and Ang Hin Kee, adviser to the National Taxi Association and MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, have indicated their support for taxis to be fitted with airbags.

Mr Ee was appalled that new taxis were unequipped with the airbags.

“It is logical to add airbags. The longer drivers spend on the road, the higher their risk of getting into an accident,” he told The Straits Times.

Mr Ang suggested that taxi companies fit older vehicles with airbags before they are phased out in two years.

“It is part of making the taxi drivers’ work tool and environment safer,” he said.