TLC Cracking Down On Unsafe Taxi Drivers

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission is cracking down on unsafe taxi drivers.

The TLC issued 5,000 safety-related summonses so far this year. That's a 95 percent increase from last year.

More than 950 tickets were written in June alone.

The tickets are for such infractions as speeding, tailgating and unsafe lane changes.

"Instead of the classic get in the taxi and 'get me there as fast as you can,' really it should be 'get me there as safely as you can, and I tip for safety,'" TLC Commissioner Meera Joshi told WCBS 880's Ginny Kosola. "And I think that's an important message that we're trying to send out."

The New York Post reported that the jump in infractions came even as the number of issued summonses fell in the first three months of this year.

The number rose sharply in April when the TLC increased enforcement as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's "Vision Zero" campaign to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities.

"When you focus on traffic safety violations, there probably is sort of a curve -- a beginning where there is a high frequency of summonsing -- and then hopefully that summonsing is effective and you see the patterns change," Joshi said.

The numbers do not include tickets issued by the NYPD.

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