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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To expect taxi drivers to wear seatbelts??

16 replies

ErikaMaye · 12/10/2009 22:35

Am incredably hormonal tonight so please tell me to shut up if I'm talking crap!

I'm disabled, so tend to take taxis to the bus stop as I can't walk that far. Today I got one from the bus stop to my ante natal class, and once again the taxi driver wasn't wearing a belt. There are signs all over the taxi declaring "By law you are required to wear your seatbelt" etc, and this must be the sixth time in two weeks I've got in a taxi and the driver doesn't belt up.

It really annoys me!! I know that if there was an accident or whatever it would be their own selves they would be putting in danger, but surely it isn't unreasonable to think they should practice what their car preeches..?

OP posts:

supersalstrawberry · 12/10/2009 22:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

wonderingwondering · 12/10/2009 22:38

I recall taxi drivers are legally entitled not to wear seatbelts, I think it is based on the fact they are picking up strangers and being strapped to their seat makes them more vulnerable to attack.

It is a legal requirement to wear a seatbelt as a passenger, the taxi insurers probably require them to display the reminder. And in the back seat, you could injure the driver if you were thrown forward (remember those awful adverts?).

PfftTheMagicDragon · 12/10/2009 22:40

[http://www.lawontheweb.co.uk/seatbelts.htm here]]

part g, exemptions of seatbelt wearing.

beaniesinthebucketagain · 12/10/2009 22:40

taxi drivers are exempt, for the reasons wondering stated, a good friend is a taxi driver and theres many a time not wearing a belts possibly saved him from harm!

PfftTheMagicDragon · 12/10/2009 22:40

oops! here even!

Original poster

ErikaMaye · 12/10/2009 22:50

Thanks for that

Still seems bloody illogical to me though

OP posts:

PrettyCandles · 12/10/2009 22:51

IMO seatbelt-wearing should be voluntary in the front seat. Obligatory in the back, definitely, because (a) a passenger thrown forward in a crash could kill the person in the front seat, and (b) the driver is to an extent responsible for the person in the back. But in the front, while I'm quite happy for your insurance to require you to belt up, I think it should be up to the individual to decide - to take responsibility for themselves.

So IMO YABU. I have no issues with taxi drivers (or any other drivers ) not belting up.

madlentileater · 12/10/2009 22:52

I reminded a taxi driver once, he was most put out (like I was about to attack him, on my way to work in the morning)

PixiNanny · 12/10/2009 22:54

I was thinking about it yesterday when a cabbie wasn't wearing ne whilst I was in the back. Seemed a bit silly to me but I can understand the idea behind their safety being at risk in other ways too.

Original poster

ErikaMaye · 12/10/2009 22:58

Yeah I guess it does make sense. Will have to try very hard not to be irrationally annoyed next time this happens

Surely you could argue in responce that the passenger being straped in when the driver isn't puts the passenger in a vunerable position, though?

OP posts:

PrettyCandles · 12/10/2009 23:15

Why? You don't need to be strapped in to drive. It doesn't improve your driving, only prvents you being flung around in the event of an accident.

Fibilou · 13/10/2009 08:30

Taxi drivers are just as obliged to wear seatbelts as anyone else. The only people exempt from wearing them are delivery drivers where they are getting in adn out of their vehicle every few minutes.

Prettycandles,I have never heard such a pile of the proverbial in my life. Maybe you'd like to come out wiht one of my traffic colleagues one day and see the results of not wearing a belt in a fatal RTC ?

girlsyearapart · 13/10/2009 08:35

DH is a black cab driver and is exempt from wearing seatbelt whilst carrying passengers.
Have a feeling it may be one of the Public Carriage Office rules as I questioned it too.

If he picks up a parcel instead of a passenger he has to wear his belt though..

Think it has something to do with getting your passengers out in an emergency.

I'd prefer him to wear it as it makes him forget to when he's driving our car too
. He does if he's doing a motorway job though.
Do you mean black cab or minicab as think this only applies to black cabs?

mamadivasawnaker · 13/10/2009 08:47

My local taxi company don't wear seatbelts and always have them fastened behind the seat because one of their drivers was restrained by the passenger pulling on it befre stabbing and robbing him, this was a long time ago I think but it makes sense I guess.

girlsyearapart · 13/10/2009 08:49

Yes that does make sense in a minicab but not in a black cabn as they are behind a screen...

PrettyCandles · 13/10/2009 14:47

Fibilou, as it happens some years ago I spent a day patrolling a stretch of motorway with the police, during the course of which we attended an accident. I, too, have been in an accident where my seatbelt probably saved my face and chest. I have had to make emergency stops where my dcs' seatbelts and carseats undoubtedly protected them. I have seen an accident where the two women in the car were flung, not just out of the car, but several metres up the embankment against which they had crashed.

I do not argue against using seatbelts. I argue for people to take responsibility for their own well-being. I do not like the nanny-state. I resent its intervention in my own autonomy when my decisions do not threaten the well-being of others.

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