Murder of Montreal taxi driver, severe beating of Vancouver cabbie highlight profession’s danger

Here's a fact that might surprise you: Driving a taxi in Canada is statistically a more dangerous profession than being a police officer.

As Montreal police investigate the shotgun death this week of cabbie Ziad Bouzil, police in Vancouver have laid assault charges against a man who beat up a taxi driver over a $5.40 fare.

According to data compiled by Statistics Canada, the homicide rate for hack drivers from 1997 to 2011 was 3.2 per 100,000 population working in that occupation. By comparison the rate for cops was 2.6 per cent. In that period, 23 taxi drivers were killed on the job, compared with 26 police officers, but there are many more police than cabbies.

The web site Taxi-Library.org lists 172 cabbie homicides between 1917 and 2007, more than half in the last three decades. The 1990s were particularly deadly, with 33 drivers killed, along with 32 in the '80s and 31 in the '70s.

It's even worse south of the border, where the homicide rate for cab drivers was 7.4 per 100,000 in 2010. The number of publicly reported U.S. taxi and livery drivers killed between 1980 and 2009 totalled 1,126, averaging about 38 a year, according to data collected by Taxi-Library.org. The killings spiked in the early 1990s, peaking at 76 in 1991.

[ Related: Montreal taxi driver killed in Côte-des-Neiges ]

There's no comparable data on non-fatal assaults, but news reports suggest cabbies are often targeted.

In the latest Vancouver attack, police say a taxi picked up three women and a man on the city's Granville St. nightclub strip just before 1 a.m. on Nov. 17 and took to an apartment building just a few blocks away. An argument erupted over the $5.40 fare.

"The verbal argument quickly ended when the man allegedly punched the victim, before kicking and stomping on his face as he lay seemingly unconscious on the ground," police said in a news release.

After interviewing several witnesses, police made an arrest last Thursday. Lloyd Peter Robinson is charged with aggravated assault.

In Toronto, where there have been a number of assaults recently, a taxicab industry review is recommending drivers be allowed to request advance fare payment if they think circumstances warrant it.

"The ability to ask for an assurance of payment before the meter starts running, either through a cash deposit, credit card pre‐authorization, or pre‐payment by debit, helps drivers manage their risk of robbery and fare jumping," says the review, published last June.

The iTaxi Workers Association, which speaks for Ontario cabbies, also pushed for tougher penalties for crimes against cabbies after two Toronto drivers suffered stab wounds and one attempted strangling in one week alone last March.

"Driving a taxi is one of the most dangerous professions in society, according to Statistics Canada," the association said.

"Drivers are extremely vulnerable, as they work alone, they carry money and they are fully exposed to the public.

"In a recent survey of iTaxiworkers members, 70 per cent reported having felt in physical danger while working, 85 per cent reported being verbally assaulted while working and over 50 per cent of drivers reported being physically assaulted or attacked while working."

The advent of mandatory rear-facing in-car cameras in almost all taxi fleets has cut the crime rate dramatically.

The Toronto Star reported crimes against cabbies in Ontario's capital dropped by 75 per cent since cameras became mandatory in 2005.

Many drivers also have the option of installing partitions between themselves and their passengers. But some operators balk at the idea, worried customers will opt to use limousines instead.

Some cabbies say that while cameras might help in catching their attacker — or killer — a partition can actually help prevent an assault.

[ Related: 5 accused of robbing Dartmouth cabbie at knifepoint ]

But a U.S. study published last June determined that while cities where cameras were mandated saw a threefold reduction in the cabbie homicide rate, there was surprisingly no change in the rate of killings in cities where partitions were used.

Neither cameras nor partitions appear to be mandatory in Montreal, where Ziad Bouzil was gunned down just after midnight Wednesday after picking up a man and woman at a Tim Hortons restaurant.

Police responded to what at first looked like a traffic accident and found the 10-year veteran cabbie slumped over, but his injuries didn't correspond to those of a car crash.

Police zeroed in quickly on a suspect and by Thursday evening had arrested Michel Duchaussoy on a suburban Montreal street. He now faces a charge of second-degree murder, CBC News reported.

Police are still looking for the woman who was in the cab.