Driver complaints prompts city to instruct Yellow to remove certain shields

from the Chicago Dispatcher
September 2009

According to taxi driver Arnie Kast, the leadership of the Taxi Brotherhood, including Mr. Kast, Johnny O. Holmes and Cliff Holliday complained to the city six months ago that some Yellow Cabs had safety shields which had a partition separating the front left driver's side from the front right side of the cab. The drivers argued that in the event of an accident in which the driver's side door wasn't able to be opened, the driver would be trapped.

Efrat Stein, spokesperson for the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection informed us on Monday, August 31st, “We received complaints from concerned drivers that the shields were not safe. As far as we know, it was only Yellow. They were using a shield between the passenger and the driver that did not meet the specifications for safety shields. They said they were from New York, and were testing them out here.“

Mr. Kast said, “If the drivers in New York want to drive around in a death trap, so be it. But this is Chicago.”

According to Ms. Stein, “We contacted Yellow Cab and asked they remove the vehicles with those shields from the road. Last week we received another complaint, so we again contacted them and instructed them to immediately remove all of them. It affected 11 cabs. Last week when we called, they said they only had three left that were out on the road.”

On Monday, August 31st, Yellow's CEO, Dan DeLeo confirmed that all the shields had been removed and were replaced with security cameras and that the vehicle were going to inspection that morning.