New York taxi drivers to wear bulletproof vests in pilot scheme

Safety: The scheme for New York cabbies to wear bulletproof vests has been started following a fatal shooting in June

New York taxi drivers are notable for their unique yellow cabs.

But soon they could have something else to distinguish them: bulletproof vests.

A dozen Big Apple cab drivers, who have to work in suburbs with high crime-rates, have been selected to pilot the scheme.

The president of the New York Federation of Taxi Drivers, Fernando Mateo, believes the vests will provide another - potentially vital - layer of protection for drivers in high-crime areas.

Mr Mateo said there are some 300 robberies and assaults against New York taxi drivers every month.

'One shooting is a lot and whatever we can do to help improve the safety of our drivers is something that we will do,' he said.

Bulletproof: To begin with about a dozen taxi drivers will use the vests - but if the NYPD hand over their old vests, the numbers could increase soon enough

The pilot program is being launched in honor of cab driver Cesar Santo, who was fatally shot in June. And the vests are being donated by Security USA.

The NYFTD also is asking retired New York Police Department officers to donate their old vests.

Initially, the dozen police-issue flak jackets - which fit under a shirt or coat- will be given to drivers of cabs in tough areas of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.

However, the New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, says he doesn't think it's necessary. But he says they have the right to wear the vests if they choose.

'I do not think they need to do that,' Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quoted by Examiner.com as saying.

Mr Mateo responded that drivers knew best and said: 'Neither the mayor nor the commissioner drive a cab.'

Reflecting tensions over driver safety in New York, Mr Mateo caused a stir in December when he urged drivers to think twice before picking up African American or Hispanic passengers.

'You know sometimes it's good that we are racially profiled because the God's-honest truth is that 99 per cent of the people that are robbing, stealing, killing these drivers are blacks and Hispanics,' he had said.

Mr Mateo was accused by some commentators of racism, but others in the city supported him, while he claimed he could not be racist since he was part Hispanic and part African American himself.