Ginés always has around a hundred euros in cash with him “for whatever happens”. It’s your little survival kit. He knows that, in the sector, no one is safe from theft. During these two years when he worked as a taxi driver – without spending the night, because prevention is better than cure – “Thank God” he was not obliged to get rid of these bills taken out of the glove compartment. But he knows colleagues who have had scares. “For example, a button,” he says sadly of Isidro, the 62-year-old taxi driver murdered in the town of Alcalá de Henares a few weeks ago. It cost him his life between 30 and 40 euros. . A 16-year-old minor stabbed him several times late in the afternoon on October 15. I didn’t agree with the price of the ride. The security camera installed inside the vehicle recorded the entire scene. Isidro’s assassination occurred five years after that of José Luis Espada, a 59-year-old taxi driver, who died after being stabbed ten times in the Antezana neighborhood, also in the municipality of Alcalá. Related news standard No Experts will clarify if the murderous minor of Isidro, the taxi driver from Alcalá, suffers from any disorders. Carlos Hidalgo Car camera footage shows how the minor, 16, stabbed him upon arrival 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 stealing from workers who barely have cash on them, nothing more than what is essential for change. Especially in the Community of. Madrid, which requires, since December 2016, that all autotaxi vehicles be equipped with a card payment reader,” Alberto Andrés de la Fuente, president of the Madrid Autotaxi Association, told the newspaper. As mentioned above, Isidro’s vehicle was equipped with a surveillance camera, which made it easier to track down his killer. But not all taxi drivers benefit from this type of guarantee. “The security measures suck. They don’t exist,” says Concha, who has worked in the business for 24 years. He 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 companion Aníbal, a 45-year-old Argentinian, was murdered in 2007, in the Hortaleza neighborhood, “for only 50 euros”, the mayor of Madrid City Council He promised the security measures of the sector But “the only thing. that the representative associations received from the council was a map where they marked the points of conflict, to avoid appearing there These areas were Valdemingómez, La Celsa, Las Barranquillas, San Jaime street, in Vallecas…”. They even guaranteed us self-defense courses in Colmenar. They were never carried out either,” he emphasizes. “There is a wide range of possibilities and devices that could be installed in taxis: microphones, security cameras, immediate alarm activation button, screens… The taxi driver, depending on the type of vehicle you own, you could be entitled to one or the other,” explains de la Fuente. “Where is the difficulty in terms of costs, quite high? The taxi driver is a worker with an economy. “Many do not have sufficient financial resources to afford the equipment they consider appropriate. The maintenance of these, as well as the payment of the alarm center, is expensive,” he continues. A significant economic investment. Ginés’ vehicle, for example, is equipped with a microphone and a 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 believes. The president of Gremial underlines that public administrations have the responsibility to ensure the security of all citizens and, in ‘occurrence, taxi drivers For this reason, the association requests that any safety device that the worker considers appropriate to install in his vehicle be paid for by the corresponding administration “The taxi driver himself knows this. who could protect it. It’s not about forcing you to install a screen, but about letting everyone choose the system that suits their way of working. “A person who devotes himself exclusively to a certain high-ranking client. is not the same as someone who works in areas of social exclusion”, he emphasizes. “Any device that the worker considers appropriate to install must be paid for by the correspondent. public administration.” Concha explains that it was the workers themselves who organized themselves, through communication channels, to protect each other. “In this way, we avoided certain thefts. We have our codes to indicate that we have problems or that we simply do not trust those we have behind us,” he explains. Meanwhile, view the app 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, in shock, stopped for twelve hours, from midnight to noon. Four years later, in March 1998, during an attempted robbery, Amador Suárez was stabbed in his taxi. And in 1999, Rafael Martínez lost his life due to a gunshot wound. madrid_dia_0703Following 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 taxi drivers’ need for greater security in their vehicles. The project, which included assistance and location of vehicles with connection to 112 in case of emergency, integrated the geolocation of taxis via GPRS. A technology that, over time, has become obsolete. “This system began to disappear in 2005. Since then, Madrid has not offered other alternatives,” says Jesús Fernández, vice-president of the Professional Taxi Federation. Fernández expresses that the neighborhood does not indicate greater or lesser danger: “The biggest scare I had was ten years ago, in Castellana, when two drug addicts stabbed me. Since 2006, according to the regulations, it is obligatory to do so.” 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 possibility of deactivating them, that they fall within the scope of the regulations.” A task in progress. The most recent data on the number of taxis that exist in the city of Madrid is 15,974. This represents approximately 23 percent of the entire taxi fleet in Spain. There is no official data on the number of attacks against taxi drivers across the country. The figures are also not managed by the Community of Madrid. “It’s now a pending task,” says Fernández. Opinions differ on whether or not Madrid is a safe city for taxi drivers. “Ultimately, 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 so. Or at least, more than in other cities. De la Fuente expresses that “nothing is certain.” And Concha, although he says that the city, as such, is safe, “it is true that we are a fairly unprotected group.” Everyone agrees on that. “We’re not asking for anything crazy. “Just use whatever resources you can and need to feel safe.”
