CAB drivers in Daventry are being given personal safety alarms after some were victims of attacks.
The alarms are being handed out to hackney carriage drivers after the scheme received £300 of funding from agencies including Northamptonshire Police and Daventry District Council, working as the Daventry District and South Northamptonshire Safer Str
onger Partnership.
Licensing constable Tam Dunn said: “There have been a few attacks on taxi drivers in the town in recent months.
“So one of the things the partners have decided to do is to issue these devices to all hackney carriage drivers in the town, especially because at this time more people will be using taxis to get home from pubs and clubs in the town.
“Hopefully, these alarms will make drivers feel safer.”
Recent attacks on taxis drivers in the area include one female cabbie being hit on the head and robbed after being forced to drive from Weedon to the county border.
Driver Justine Harper said: “I have one already but when I tested it nobody came, nobody paid any attention – it’s like car alarms.
“I don’t work nights and I’ve never felt threatened by passengers.
“I don’t know if they will work against robbers – if you’re out in the middle of nowhere and get attacked, there’s not a lot that can help.
“Even a direct line to the police would take time to get a response.”
Cabbie M-Razzaq said: “I work in the town but I’ve not been given an alarm.
“I know some drivers have been attacked and I work nights.
“But I don’t know if they will definitely work – they might, but they might not.”
The alarms emit 140 decibels – approximately equivalent to a low-flying jet or rifle shot.
Representatives of the partnership have been visiting taxi ranks to hand out the devices, and some are available from Daventry Police Station and Daventry District Council’s Lodge Road offices by showing a hackney carriage licence.
The full article contains 339 words and appears in Daventry Express newspaper.
