Ginés always carries around one hundred euros in cash with him “for whatever might happen.” It’s your little survival kit. He knows that, in the sector, no one is exempt from robbery. In these two years that he has been working as a taxi driver – without staying overnight, because prevention is better than cure –, “thank God”, he has not been forced to get rid of those bills taken from the glove compartment. But he knows colleagues who have had the odd scare. “For example, a button,” he says, sadly, when mentioning Isidro, the 62-year-old taxi driver murdered in the town of Alcalá de Henares just a couple of weeks ago. It cost Isidro his life about 30 or 40 euros. A 16-year-old minor stabbed him several times late in the afternoon on October 15. I did not agree with the price of the race. The security camera installed inside the vehicle recorded the entire scene. Isidro’s murder occurred five years after the crime of José Luis Espada, a 59-year-old taxi driver who died after receiving ten stab wounds in the Antezana neighborhood, also in the municipality of Alcalá. Related News standard No The experts will clarify whether the minor murderer of Isidro, the taxi driver from Alcalá, suffers from any disorder Carlos Hidalgo The images from the car camera show how the minor, 16 years old, stabbed him when he arrived at his last destination after those who had to pay for his trip left him stranded. “These are crimes against completely defenseless people. Unintelligent criminals who rob workers who barely carry cash, nothing more than what is essential for change. 90 percent of charges are made by card. Especially in the Community of Madrid, which has required, since December 2016, that all autotaxi vehicles have a card payment reader,” Alberto Andrés de la Fuente, president of the Auto Taxi Guild Association of Madrid, told this newspaper. Madrid. As mentioned above, Isidro’s vehicle had a surveillance camera installed, which made it easier to find his killer. But not all taxi drivers have this type of guarantee. «The security measures are null. They don’t exist,” says Concha, who has been in the business for 24 years. It is parked on Avenida de América. David, in front of his taxi parked on Avenida de América Isabel Permuy tells this newspaper that when his partner Aníbal, a 45-year-old Argentine, was murdered in 2007, in the Hortaleza district, “for only 50 euros,” the Madrid City Council He promised the sector security measures. But “the only thing that the representative associations received from the council was a map where they marked the conflict points, to avoid appearing there. These areas were Valdemingómez, La Celsa, Las Barranquillas, San Jaime street, in Vallecas…». «They even guaranteed us self-defense classes in Colmenar. They were never carried out either,” he points out. “There is a wide range of possibilities and devices that could be installed in taxis: microphones, security cameras, button with immediate alarm activation, screens… The taxi driver, depending on the type of vehicle you own, you could qualify for one or the other,” says de la Fuente. «Where is the difficulty? In terms of costs, quite high. The taxi driver is a worker with a humble economy. Many do not have sufficient financial resources to afford the equipment they consider appropriate. The maintenance of these, as well as the payment for the alarm receiving center, is expensive,” he continues. Large economic investment Ginés’ vehicle, for example, is equipped with a microphone and security camera. But not that of his son, also a taxi driver. “Because? Because it is true that it requires a large financial investment,” he says. The president of Gremial points out that public administrations are responsible for ensuring the safety of all citizens and, in this case, taxi drivers. For this reason, the association requests that any safety device that the worker considers appropriate to install in their vehicle must be paid for by the corresponding administration. «The taxi driver himself knows what would protect him. It is not about forcing you to put up a screen, but about each person choosing the system that corresponds to their way of working. “A person who dedicates himself exclusively to a certain high-status client is not the same as someone who works in areas of social exclusion,” he points out. “Any device that the worker deems appropriate to install must be paid for by the corresponding public administration.” Concha explains that it is the workers themselves who have organized themselves, through communication channels, to protect each other. «In this way, we have avoided some robberies. We have our codes to indicate that we have problems or that we simply do not trust who we have behind us,” he details. Meanwhile, show the application on your mobile phone. And she expresses that, as a woman, she feels just as threatened as a man. In the early morning of November 21, 1994, Federico García and Felipe García, both taxi drivers, were murdered, barely an hour apart, in the heart of Madrid. That night, the bus, shocked, stopped for twelve hours, from midnight to noon. Four years later, in March 1998, in an attempted robbery, Amador Suárez was stabbed in his taxi. And in 1999, Rafael Martínez lost his life from a gunshot wound. madrid_dia_0703As a result of these crimes, Alcalá de Henares developed a security system in 2000 that represented a revolution for taxis in the Community of Madrid and in Spain: IdGalileo. It was launched in response to the need of taxi drivers to have greater security in their vehicles. The project, which included assistance and vehicle location with connection to 112 in case of emergency, incorporated taxi geolocation via GPRS. Technology that, with the passing of time, became obsolete. “That system began to disappear in 2005. Since then, Madrid has not proposed other alternatives,” says Jesús Fernández, vice president of the Professional Taxi Federation. Fernández expresses that the neighborhood is not indicative of greater or lesser danger: “The biggest scare I have had was ten years ago, in Castellana, when two drug addicts pulled a knife on me.” Since 2006, by regulations, it is mandatory to use of side airbags in all new vehicles. This law caused the disappearance of safety screens in taxis due to their incompatibility with airbags. “Only police and emergency vehicles can deactivate them,” explains Fernández. “From the federation we ask that taxi drivers also have the option of deactivating them, that they fall within the exception of the regulations.” A pending task The most recent data on the number of taxis that exist in the city of Madrid is 15,974. This represents around 23 percent of the entire taxi fleet within Spain. There are no official data on the number of attacks committed on taxi drivers nationwide. Nor are figures managed by the Community of Madrid. “This is a pending task from now on,” says Fernández. There are different opinions about whether or not Madrid is a safe city for taxi drivers. “In the end, perception is subjective,” says Fernández. “Of course not,” David categorically denies, in front of his vehicle, also parked on Avenida de América. His partner, however, thinks yes. Or, at least, more than other cities. De la Fuente expresses that “nothing is certain.” And Concha, although he affirms that the city, as such, is safe, “it is true that we are a fairly unprotected group.” Everyone agrees on that. «We are not asking for anything crazy. “Just use all possible and necessary resources to feel safe.”
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