THE SAFE CARRIAGE OF
Recently the National Private Hire and Taxi Association fielded yet another enquiry about the carriage of pushchairs in taxis, where the child stays in the pushchair and they are wheeled into the cab. Obviously this pertains to purpose built, wheelchair accessible taxis or PHVs, as saloon passengers would have to travel with the pushchair folded in the boot. However, the issue is still shrouded in confusion; we ran a feature nearly three years ago about Basingstoke and Deane Council having taken the stance that pushchairs cannot travel with the child in situ in taxis, and they were one of very few councils that enforced that position.
Donna Short
National Private Hire and Taxi Association 0161 280 2800
www.npha.org.uk
donnadale.npha@
btconnect.com
To say the least, confusion over safety advice has led to taxi drivers and customers not knowing the correct procedure when taking a child in a pushchair in their vehicle. For a more current update we researched the matter high and low, and still we could find no concrete edict, rule or piece of legislation that covers the issue, or either allows or forbids the carriage of occupied pushchairs in a legislative sense.
On the one hand, there are countless websites such as Mumsnet that actually advocate using purpose built taxis because the drivers all allow pushchairs to be wheeled into the taxi, especially in London. Here’s an excerpt from the website Baby Routes: “Pushchair friendly taxi: If you really can’t face the bus or the tube with a pushchair and the boat doesn’t go there, then hop in a London Black Cab. The hackney cabs can carry a pushchair with baby strapped in – just wheel it in, put the brake on and hop in yourself to take the stress out of travelling in London with a pushchair…”
And here’s what it says on the TfL’s website: “Getting around with your Buggy: In taxis. All taxis have an intermediate step and a ramp to make it easier for you to get in and out with a buggy. Please ask your driver if you need this.”
Parents reading this sort of advice/guidance would quite understandably think it was an OK procedure. However, putting on our Health and Safety hats for a moment, patently it is not OK at all – it is dangerous. This advice came to Basingstoke and Deane Council following crash tests showing that prams which are attached in the wheelchair fixing points in taxis will collapse in an accident, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).
RoSPA also advises that children over the age of three should wear a seat belt and that a seat belt should never be used for more than one person. We’ll go over the child seat belt rules in a bit. However, we contacted RoSPA in connection with this feature, and we got the following response from their Acting Head of Road Safety: “We don’t really mention the issue of prams in taxis [on our current website] as both current practices of either leaving the baby in the pram or having them on the parent’s lap is inherently dangerous – RoSPA recommends the use of an appropriate child seat which is not mandated in law.”
So what do the police make of the practice of wheeling pushchairs into taxis with the child in them? Three years ago when we wrote the initial feature about this, police confirmed that having children in pushchairs during transportation is an offence. But which offence –
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under which legislation? We contacted a highly experienced police officer in taxi/PHV matters, who told us:
“Drivers must make sure parents secure their children in a safe manner so as to not cause injury. Travelling with prams in an insecure manner is dangerous and should a driver move away without making sure [the child is travelling in a secure manner], this could result in prosecution.”
So it is the driver who would commit the offence as - similarly under the child seat belt laws – it is the driver, not the parent, who is responsible for the safety of any child under 14 travelling in his/her taxi or PHV.
Then we enter the realm of the insurance position in all this. Unite the Union took a strong stance on the matter, publishing the following notice:-
Carrying Pushchairs In WAVs: “All wheelchair accessible hackney carriages please note and remember:
If you carry a pushchair in its upright position with a child in carriage you may not be covered by your insurance in the event of an accident and the child sustaining injuries thereof.
“The Transport Research Laboratory, which tests crash result on many types of injuries inside the passenger compartments of many types of vehicles, including wheelchair accessible taxis, found that even wheelchair passengers could be susceptible to injury in certain vehicles. In all, due to the restraining system used and movement of chair or pushchair in the event of an accident.
“So remember, if you have a passenger approach with a pushchair because you can load them straight in, it's you and your insurance/premium that will suffer if you carry them while in the upright position, with child inside and not restrained.”
Source: Unite 320 Taxi Branch
We contacted one of the industry’s most prominent insurance brokers for their views. We were advised: “We work with several insurance companies to supply their insurance to taxi drivers. So these are not rules or conditions set by us.
“Now, from looking through all of their policy wordings (all of which can be found on our website and their own) here is what a few of them say about carrying passengers or things which are excluded from the policy/cover:
Any accident occurring whilst the Insured Vehicle is being driven or used in an unroadworthy or unsafe condition or while it is carrying passengers or goods of such a number or such a weight or size or in such a way as is likely to impair the safe driving or control of the Insured Vehicle.
JANUARY 2019
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