ASA Adjudication on Licensed Taxi Drivers Association Ltd

Ad

A regional press ad, for the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, was similar in style to a James Bond film poster. The ad was headed "LICENSED TO KILL Coming to a street near you ...". Below, text stated "The Transport Research Laboratory warned that pedicabs "Provide little or no protection in the event of almost any accident" and passengers may be "dragged along in direct contact with the road". Transport for London intends to license pedicabs to ply for hire on the streets of the Capital!". The ad included a picture of a pedicab with a woman and two children as passengers and a skull and crossbones on the front and on the wheel cover.

Issue

London Pedicabs believed that the ad:

1. misleadingly implied that pedicabs were unsafe;  

2. denigrated pedicabs by implying they were unsafe and  

3. could cause undue fear and distress by claiming that pedicabs could kill or injure.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1., 2., & 3. The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) explained that the claims in the ad were based on two safety evaluation reports carried out by the Transport Research Laboratory.  They said the first report, carried out in 2004, found that pedicabs appeared to have been designed and manufactured with no crash protection and therefore deformation or intrusion into the passenger compartment was likely in the event of an impact with a moving motor vehicle.  They said the report also found that an impact with a motor vehicle was likely to result in serious injury to both passengers and rider and there was nothing to protect passengers from being partially ejected and dragged along the road surface.  

LDTA said the second report, conducted in 2006, used a numerical simulation methodology.  They said this report concluded that, in simulated car-to-pedicab impacts, the rider and passengers hit the vehicle front, the ground or both, with the likelihood of serious head injury. They said in each of the simulated driving manoeuvres the pedicab tipped over and there was a predicted risk of the pedicab rider and passengers striking the ground with their head.  LDTA said, at present, pedicabs were legally defined as bicycles and therefore did not need to conform to any passenger safety requirements or standards.  They said they used a picture of two children with an adult because there was a greater danger to children riding in a pedicab, who might not be adequately restrained by a seatbelt.  LTDA supplied us with a list they had compiled of accidents involving pedicabs.  They believed the ad highlighted to the public the risks of riding in a pedicab which, because of their structural design, they believed were higher than other forms of public transport. They believed the ad was not misleading.

Assessment

1.,2. & 3. Upheld

The ASA understood that pedicabs were classified as stage carriages and as such were not subject to licensing regulations, other than regulations for construction and use and the need to comply with the Highway Code.  We noted there had been concern about the safety of pedicabs and understood that Transport for London was currently consulting on whether to license pedicabs in London, which would involve a standardised level for safety features.  

We noted a number of pedicabs had seatbelts and wheel covers to prevent passengers' clothing becoming caught in the wheels, but acknowledged that, being similar to bicycles, those features were unlikely to give much protection if involved in a collision with a motor vehicle.   However, we understood that, contrary to the impression given by the ad, no formal statistics for death or injury to pedicab passengers were available because such incidents were included in the statistics for pedal cycle accidents.  We noted the two research reports used simulated and computer generated tests to determine the effect on passengers if a pedicab were to be involved in an accident.   Although we acknowledged that the tests had shown passengers could be injured in an accident that involved collision with a moving vehicle, we noted the hypothetical scenarios were not backed by actual accident statistics.  We noted the reports did not compare pedicabs with other forms of transport and considered that the risk of injury caused by collision with a motor vehicle was not unique to passengers in a pedicab.  We also noted LTDA's log of pedicab accidents reported to them but we did not consider the figures justified the impression given by the ad.  

We considered that the claim "LICENSED TO KILL", the skull and crossbones on the pedicab and the quotes from the reports misleadingly exaggerated the likelihood of death or injury as a result of travelling in a pedicab.  We concluded that the LDTA's approach used an unjustified appeal to fear to denigrate an alternative form of transport.   

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 9.1 (Fear and distress), 18.1 (Comparison) and 20.1 (Denigration).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.  

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)