Taxicab drivers, road safety, and workplace violence: Occupational fatalities from 2003-2010

Background Two of the leading causes of death for American workers are notably relevant to taxicab drivers: highway-related fatalities and homicides. The objective of this analysis was to evaluate the contribution of both leading types of work-related fatalities to taxicab driver deaths. Methods Annual taxicab driver fatality rates from 2003-2010 in the United States were calculated using the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (numerator) and the Current Population Survey (denominator) provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Statistical analyses were calculated using SAS v9.2. Results From 2003 through 2010 the fatality rate for taxicab drivers experienced a significant decline of 7% per year (p<0.001), from a high of 25 fatalities per 100,000 (2004) to a low of 15 fatalities per 100,000 taxicab drivers (2010). The taxicab driver homicide rate experienced a significant decline of 11% per year (p<0.001), but ranged from 16-34 times higher (p<0.05) than homicide rates for US workers overall. The decline in transportation-related fatalities among taxicab drivers of 3% per year was not found to be statistically significant (p=0.35), however transportation-related fatality rates for taxicab drivers were consistently 4-7 times higher (p<0.05) than the transportation-related fatality rates for US workers overall. Conclusions While workplace violence against taxicab drivers has garnered a lot of focus on the deadly injuries taxicab drivers face, transportation-related events also result in a troubling proportion of taxicab driver fatalities. With many cities around the world now mandating safety measures to reduce injuries from both causes to taxicab drivers, evaluating their effectiveness is crucial.