TV presenter Lisa Snowdon is calling on festive revellers to make sure they get home safely this Christmas.
The model and TV presenter who most recently presented Britain’s Next Top Model, is supporting Taxiwise in its annual push to encourage passengers to check they are using a legitimate taxi before clambering in for a lift home.
Taxiwise has welcomed a decision by councillors in Peterborough not to relax strict rules on the type of vehicle that can be used as a cab.
Last week, members of Peterborough City Council voted to keep regulations which dictate that vehicles used as Hackney carriages – hailed on the street – must have certain safety features, be fully wheelchair-accessible, have a tight 25-foot turning circle for easy u-turns and be distinct from other vehicles on the roads.
Taxiwise is backing an initiative launched by Westminster City Council to help people get home safely from a night out.
The council is looking to counter the problems of bogus mini-cab drivers preying on men and women the worse for wear after enjoying a night’s drinking and partying.
After arguing with her boyfriend on a night out, Gemma Gregerson, 20, from Essex got into a violent pervert’s car. Here she tells how that decision changed her life.
“On a night out in May 2004, my boyfriend and I had an argument as we were walking home. I can’t even remember what it was about. He went for a taxi at the rank near the local army barracks and wanted me to go with him. But I was being stubborn and in the end he gave up arguing and walked away. I was about to go after him when a car pulled up. The driver asked if I wanted a lift.
The launch of the next generation London taxi, the TX4, has been welcomed by Taxiwise, the national campaign for the safe use of taxis.
The TX4 boasts a number of refinements, including a cleaner, Euro IV regulation-compliant engine, anti-lock brakes and improved driver and passenger comfort.
A mother whose daughter was murdered by a bogus taxi driver has spoken of her horror that young women are still getting into illegal cabs.
The body of Rachel Thacker, a 22-year-old Salford medical student, was found battered and burnt in a skip the day after a night out to celebrate her graduation in Manchester.
An 18-year-old girl was put through a terrifying ordeal when she was attacked by a bogus minicab driver.
The woman flagged down a silver or grey saloon car in Stoney Stanton Road, Coventry, and asked the driver to take her to the Cheylesmore area of the city, mistakenly believing he was a taxi driver.