Illegal taxis a worry
AS A regular visitor to your lovely country and specifically to Hout Bay, I would like to comment on the rise in unauthorised taxis that seems to have sprouted up unchecked over the past five years.
I have visited Hout Bay for at least three months every year for the past nine years. It has always been a safe and beautiful location for myself and my family. Driving in the area has never, until the last five years, been a problem.
With the roads in the area becoming increasingly busy and congested, I have noticed in that time a proliferation in what I can only believe to be unauthorised taxis, mainly small Nissan cars.
These vehicles are a danger to other road users in the way they slowly cruise along the streets sounding their hooters, stopping without warning to pick up passengers, and failing to give any kind of signal or warning of what they are about to do. Also, many of the vehicles used are in what any normal individual would regard as an unroadworthy condition.
As a retired London police officer I have to say that many, if not all, of these vehicles would be taken off the road in the UK for safety reasons.
The second question I wish to raise is the insurance issue. Do the police regularly stop and request to see the insurance cover the drivers of these vehicles have?
If they are insured, does their policy cover them for public liability in the event of one or more of their passenger being injured in the event of a collision?
What checks do the police run on these drivers who are visible for not only the police to see but for everyone else too.
My final point is addressed specifically to the police in Hout Bay – why do you not keep a check on these vehicles?
Surely it would not be difficult to do this and take the unroadworthy and uninsured ones off the road?
I have to say I am baffled by the lack of resolve of the police to do something about this growing problem.
Suffice to say, I shall continue to come to this lovely country irrespective of my irritation regarding this matter. Terry A Hymans Hout Bay