New city law aims to protect cab drivers from assault

Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a law Wednesday that will require New York City taxi and livery cabs to display signs in their cars on the punishment for assaulting drivers.

The local law, called the “Taxi and Livery Driver Protection Act,” requires cabs and other for-hire vehicles to display a sign that reads: “ATTENTION: Assaulting A Driver Is Punishable By Up to Twenty-Five Years in Prison.”

Limousines and black cars are not required to display the sign, and the law goes into effect in 180 days.

The mayor’s office said two drivers were killed on the job this summer.

“This bill aims to curb such assaults and protect drivers’ safety behind the wheel,” the office said.

Council member Ydanis Rodriguez, who chairs the transportation committee, said “our taxi and livery drivers need to feel safer behind the wheel in order to drive safer on our roadways. We have seen great results by posting the penalty for assault in buses, and we know those results will translate.”