Taxi Industry Demands Ford, Nissan, GM and Other Automakers Prove Crashworthiness of Hybrid Taxis Danger to Public Safety Cited in Lawsuit Against City
NEW YORK, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report by a well-known automotive
engineer, who previously consulted for the City of New York and several major
automakers, exposes the risks and dangers of riding in New York City's hybrid
yellow taxicabs. The report is the result of several months of analysis and
concludes that hybrid taxis are unsafe and incompatible with the rigorous
demands of New York City taxicabs that operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Hybrids will start to replace the stretch Ford Crown Victoria, a purpose-built
taxi, and other taxis on October 1, 2008 if a City mandate requiring that all
new taxis have a minimum city rating of 25 mpg is not halted. Citing public
endangerment, the city's largest taxi advocacy group urged a federal court on
Monday to intervene.
According to the report's author, C. Bruce Gambardella, P.E., "from an
engineering standpoint, vehicles have to be designed for the duty cycle they
are likely to encounter and cannot feature modifications that will compromise
their safety systems." Hybrids strike out on both counts, over and over again
in virtually every category analyzed in the 43-page report.
The report concludes that hybrids are not designed to hold partitions,
which are mandated by the Taxi and Limousine Commission ("TLC") to prevent
drivers from being assaulted, robbed or killed. Partitions in hybrid taxis
were found to compromise their safety systems by blocking side-curtain airbags
from deploying; become easily dislodged in accidents; restrict drivers from
safely distancing themselves from front airbags; and diminish backseat legroom
so severely -- as much as 10 inches less than in a stretch Ford Crown Victoria
-- that even belted passengers will hit their faces on the hard unyielding
surface of the partitions in an accident. Mr. Gambardella took particular
issue with the "L-shaped" partition, which features sharp edges, presents a
dangerously confined driver space and places passengers at great risk for
injury.
Mr. Gambardella, who is the first engineer in the country to analyze and
compare safety in both hybrid and conventional taxicabs in New York City,
argues that "due to the mandatory vehicle modifications, the TLC has, in
effect, created its own vehicle design" and "as such, the TLC has an
obligation to crash-test the modified vehicles or require that the automakers
crash-test the vehicles as modified." He writes, "it is completely unknown
whether these modified cars would pass federal crash tests." He also opined:
"No automaker would put such an inadequately tested vehicle on the road, nor
should the public or any federal regulatory agency stand for it."
Furthermore, the report asserts that the TLC either failed to read, or
blatantly ignored, explicit warnings in all hybrid vehicle owners' manuals
that expressly forbid modifications like partitions that could interfere with
airbag deployment and other aspects of the safety systems. The report cites
more than 75 separate manufacturers' warnings in 5 different hybrids
authorized for taxi use by the TLC.
Mr. Gambardella calls the Crown Victoria the safest taxicab on the road.
He cites its 25 years of experience as a taxi (6 years as a stretch model) and
stresses that they are purpose-built for the police and taxi markets,
anticipate partition installations and are built for heavy-duty 24/7 usage.
(Fleet taxis average 85,000 - 100,000 miles per year.) In contrast, hybrids
are designed for non-commercial, private use where the average driver clocks
well under 20,000 miles per year. Hybrid taxis have little experience as 24/7
taxis.
The Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade ("MTBOT"), the fleet trade
association that commissioned the report out of concern for passenger and
driver safety, instructed its attorneys at Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff and
Abady LLP to send the report's key findings to several hybrid automakers. In
a letter, the firm requests explicit automaker certification and supporting
documentation demonstrating that hybrid taxis, outfitted with partitions, are
safe for commercial taxi use in New York City. The TLC was also provided with
the letter and key findings. MTBOT has received no responses to date.
Ron Sherman, President of MTBOT, stated, "The City's dangerously
aggressive hybrid taxi mandate presents a public danger to our 240 million
annual passengers and tens of thousands of taxi drivers, as this report makes
clear. MTBOT has desperately tried to work with the TLC and the Bloomberg
Administration on a taxi policy that improves the environment without
compromising public safety, but to no avail. We were left with no choice but
to seek the court's intervention to prevent the City from making a tragic
mistake."
On Monday, September 8, 2008, MTBOT and other parties concerned that
passenger and driver safety was being compromised, filed a complaint in the
United States District Court, Southern District of New York, urging an
immediate halt to the mandate. The lawsuit, which maintains that the City's
mandate will cause irreparable harm to taxi passengers and drivers, argues,
that the City's decision to mandate that all new taxis, as of October 1, 2008,
have a city rating of 25 mpg or more is arbitrary and capricious because the
City failed to follow its own long-standing procedures requiring safety
testing and a pilot program prior to the mandate of new vehicles. The lawsuit
also argues that the City's mandate is preempted by the federal Energy Policy
and Conservation Act as well as the federal Clean Air Act. The suit asks for
the October 1st mandate to be annulled. Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff and Abady,
LLP represents the plaintiffs.
MTBOT and the report's author C. Bruce Gambardella, P.E. plan to testify
at the New York City Council Transportation Committee's oversight hearing,
"Green Taxis: Are They Safe" on Wednesday, September 10th at 1 pm in City
Hall. This is the Committee's second oversight hearing. The TLC refused to
testify at the Council's June 3 2008 hearing, leaving many safety questions
unanswered.
MTBOT is the country's largest taxi fleet association. It represents 27
yellow medallion taxi fleets in New York City and over 3,500 medallion
taxicabs - approximately 25% of the taxi industry. MTBOT members have
operated more than 30 different vehicles over several decades including
minivans, Compressed Natural Gas vehicles and hybrids. MTBOT advocates on
behalf of its members, its 14,000 drivers and the riding public.
C. Bruce Gambardella is a licensed Professional Engineer in New York,
Michigan and Connecticut and has worked as an accident reconstruction expert
full time since 1982. Clients have included the City of New York, Ford Motor
Company, General Motors, NYC Transit Authority, the New York Attorney
General's Office and numerous major insurance companies and private attorneys.
He has inspected more than 3,000 vehicles and performed more than 1,300
detailed accident reconstructions.
SOURCE Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade
