Cara Loverock
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 9, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - The NWT Supreme Court has denied a taxi driver's appeal of two tickets he received for not wearing his seatbelt last fall.

Yellowknife's Vaughn Del Valle, a driver for Diamond Cabs, was fined $200 when he was caught driving twice without a seatbelt.

The tickets were issued within a few weeks of each other.

In one instance there were two paying customers in the car and the second time he was alone in the vehicle.

Del Valle has been a taxi driver for roughly three years and said the main issue of his case is one of safety.

"Part of the problem is that with a seatbelt on, a taxi cab driver cannot escape an assault," he said.

"(Taxi drivers are) putting our lives at risk, and the municipality, to some degree. The government is putting our lives at risk by not recognizing our special needs. In many cases we don't have Plexiglas barriers between us and the people in the back seat or those sitting beside us."

In court last Tuesday, Justice J. Edward Richard said he did not agree with Del Valle's argument that as a taxi driver he is exempt from the bylaw requiring him to wear his seatbelt.

"I'm not satisfied that there is merit on legal grounds," said Richard.

Del Valle was appealing two summary convictions from a justice of the peace court under the city's seatbelt bylaw.

He claimed that the justice of the peace in his original case made a "faulty finding."

He argued the city's seatbelt bylaw did not apply to him as a taxi driver under two statutes: the Motor Vehicles Act and the Cities, Towns and Villages Act.

"Essentially there are two statutes involved and one bylaw and it was my contention that the statute did not empower the city to make a bylaw about the regulation of seatbelts," said Del Valle.

He said the Motor Vehicles Act has a set of regulations for seatbelts that specifically states taxi cab drivers are exempt from wearing seatbelts under specific conditions.

The regulation associated with the Motor Vehicles Act, the Seat Belt Assembly and Child Restraint System Regulations, states under section 8 that, "The operator of a taxicab is exempt from subsections 146(5) and (6) of the Act where a passenger is being transported for compensation."

But Richard said under territorial legislation, it's only paying customers who are exempt from having to wear a seatbelt, not taxi drivers.

He said enacting a bylaw to make people wear seatbelts "is a legitimate exercise granted to city council."

Del Valle said although he has the right to appeal the case to the Supreme Court of Canada, it is costly and time consuming.

"Really justice is for the rich and for the publicly supported ... I'm probably just going to have to swallow the reality here and just let things go the way they are," said Del Valle.

Noting that Yellowknife has had instances of assaults on taxi cab drivers, he said the city has the right to pass bylaws that concern the general health and welfare of citizens.

"In this particular case obviously taxi drivers' health and welfare are being ignored," said Del Valle.

"Everyone who gets in a cab everyday takes their life in their hands. It's as simple as that. And of course that puts their family at risk and everything else. So that was the reality I was trying to deal with and unfortunately the court didn't address that issue and kind of said 'tough luck.'"

He said he wants the territorial government to recognize taxi drivers' need to be exempt from wearing a seatbelt for safety reasons.

He also argues not wearing a seatbelt is a personal decision the city should not be involved in.

"If I don't wear a seatbelt that's a matter between me and my insurance agent. What that has to do with the city is beyond me," he said.

"Seatbelts only protect you from head-on collisions. You know you got air bags in all these vehicles and in many cases they protect you from the side and the front.

"(Seatbelts are) a technology that's 25 or 30 years old. It was fine for its day but it's really an redundant issue right now."