Editorial: Put cameras in taxicabs

Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2004 | 9:16 a.m.

On Friday evening Pairoj Chitprasart, a Nellis Cab Co. driver, picked up a passenger at a strip club in Las Vegas. A short time later the passenger demanded that Chitprasart hand over his money. When Chitprasart refused to do so, Metro Police said that the passenger doused the driver with a flammable liquid and then set him on fire. A passerby helped extinguish the flames but not before they burned more than 70 percent of Chitprasart's body. Chitprasart died today at University Medical Center.

Despite this horrific crime, and a growing number of armed robberies and other murders committed against cabdrivers during the past year, the Nevada Taxicab Authority doesn't plan on expediting its current study to improve the safety of cabs. Over the weekend Taxicab Authority President Richard Land said the University of Nevada, Las Vegas study isn't expected to be done until September. Land said it will take until November before the Taxicab Authority acts on the study's findings.

Back in February we criticized the Taxicab Authority for rejecting a regulation that would have required the use of security cameras in the 2,500 cabs that operate in Southern Nevada. We said then that there was no need for a study to review the effectiveness of cameras, a study the Taxicab Authority approved to appease the cab companies that opposed the cameras. Everybody knows just how dangerous it is to be a cab driver, making a study needless. But for those needing a further validation based on statistics, Keith Schwer, director of UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research that is carrying out the study, told a Sun reporter last weekend that cabdrivers are three times as likely to die on the job as police officers or firefighters. "It's clear to me we will be increasing security for local taxi drivers," Schwer said. Regarding the use of cameras, and some companies' concern that customers will be frightened away by them, these security devices aren't going to scare a! way people -- unless they're crooks. Security cameras are ever-present in Las Vegas, including at banks, convenience stores and hotel-casinos.

The latest attack demonstrates yet again why it's unconscionable that cabdrivers should have to wait any longer before cameras are installed in cabs. The Taxicab Authority should act immediately to require their use.