Quiet. Drunk maybe. Or stoned.

But there was nothing that triggered the veteran cabbie's instincts -- to tell him, this guy's trouble.

When the stocky young man piled into the back of the taxi and muttered "South end" driver Kelly Needham put the car in drive and headed down Ritson Road. Along the way the guy didn't talk much, only clarifying his destination to be Cedar and Wentworth. But as they approached that intersection he told Mr. Needham instead to swing around Malaga Road, a winding two-lane street lined by apartment blocks and rows of townhouses.

It was just after midnight on Oct. 27, 2007, when Mr. Needham pulled the cab up to the curb and turned to announce the passenger's fare.

That's when he saw the knife.

The assailant struck without so much as a word.

The first thrust hit Mr. Needham by the jaw, tearing his face open. He threw his hands up to defend himself and the assailant struck again -- and again and again and again -- ripping into flesh and bone, tendons and cartilage, veins and ligaments.

Mr. Needham, trapped inside the car, thought he was going to die -- knew he was going to die and there was nothing he could do about it -- and then the knife stopped its vicious arc toward his helpless, flailing arms.

The ferocious assault took just a few seconds. Then the stranger was gone, tossing aside a black-handled kitchen knife. And he turned his back on the cabbie, leaving him bleeding and in shock. Leaving him for dead.

To this day Mr. Needham, 44, puzzles over what triggered the frenzied attempt on his life by a man half his age.

"He didn't even try to rob me," Mr. Needham said. "I just turned around and got a f--ing knife in my face. â?¨ "You think to yourself, why would someone do that? You can't come up with an answer."

More than 10 years behind the wheel, patrolling Oshawa's mean streets and ferrying its citizens from one spot to another, Mr. Needham figured he'd seen about everything. He's been assaulted before, had a knife pulled on him, but had never been seriously hurt.

But over that decade he said he's detected an increasing menace out there, a fuming portent of violence that leaves cab drivers vulnerable.

"It's getting vicious out there," he said, months after the attack. "You're dealing with drunks. You're dealing with people who are all cracked out."

He's now lobbying Oshawa City council to mandate in-car shields to protect drivers from the kind of assaults that nearly killed him. He's angry with what he sees as a slow and insufficient response to the dangers faced by drivers.

"Are you gonna wait for somebody to die before you do something?" he asked during an interview.

Kelly Needham is not exaggerating when he says taxi drivers are frequent targets of violence. Consider these examples:

- On Jan. 19, a driver was pulled from his cab, punched in the face and had a gun held to his head after he refused a fare at a midtown Oshawa bar.

- On March 18, a Sikh driver was spat on, showered with racial taunts and finally bashed over the head with a liquor bottle outside a Gibb Street apartment building after picking up two people.

- Last August a cab driver taking a break near the Pickering Town Centre was shocked to find a young man holding a gun to his face and demanding money. He sped off in his car.

- A Pickering cabbie was choked, beaten with a bottle and threatened with a knife after he picked up four young people who robbed him of his cellphone and cash in February of this year. Responding officers arrested four youths ranging in age from 15 to 17.

- In a shocking assault, a 55-year-old woman was beaten with a club by a young man when she responded to a call for a fare in downtown Oshawa in January 2005. The attack stopped only when the woman "played dead," a prosecutor said in court. The accused, a 19-year-old drifter, was sent to prison for two years.

"It's gotten worse the last little while," said Mr. Needham, who no longer drives but works as a dispatcher for a cab company. "You hear drivers talking about it.

"There are a lot of drivers getting hurt lately."

City councillors recognize the perils faced by drivers and are moving to protect them, said Robert Lutczyk, chairman of Oshawa's finance and administration committee. And he said the committee, which has already mandated safety features such as global positioning systems and bumper-mounted alarm lights drivers can activate when they're in trouble, agrees there's a compelling case that Plexiglas shields should be installed in all cabs licensed by the City.

A report prepared by City staff recommends looking at various safety options, including in-car cameras, and outlines pros and cons for safety shields -- one disadvantage being the possibility they may convince visitors Oshawa is an unsafe place.

Coun. Lutczyk questions that logic, however. And he said driver safety ought to be the top priority for the City.

"They (shields) may not be pretty," he said. "Hard hats aren't pretty either -- but people have to wear them."

Also backing the shields is committee member Maryanne Sholdra.

"The biggest issue I see for the taxi companies is how much it will cost and how soon it can be installed," the councillor said.

"I feel strongly cab drivers are facing a danger. They have a right to look after their own health and welfare."

As with any issue, what seems at first blush a simple and all-encompassing solution to a problem may not in fact be the panacea it appears. Roy Williams, senior manager with Blue Line Taxi in Oshawa, said that while shields may provide security, they infringe on customer space and comfort, and can create an uneasy separation between driver and fare.

He's taken the alternate -- and much more expensive -- step of outfitting his company's fleet with video cameras that provide split-screen views of the interior of the car and the view through the windshield. Any sudden application of brakes or a swerving of the automobile triggers the camera to save video, which can be reviewed and used as evidence after an incident.

"It is a high priority to get this done," Mr. Williams said. "It's good for us and it's good for the drivers."

Passengers getting into the camera-equipped cars will be alerted to the fact they're being filmed, which will serve as a deterrent to anyone contemplating a robbery or assault, Mr. Williams said. Cameras won't stop all incidents, he admitted. But he said taxi companies must strive for the highest level of security they can while taking into account the comfort of the passenger.

"A barrier is fine as long as my customer doesn't feel entrapped or claustrophobic," Mr. Williams said. "If your customer isn't happy or is uncomfortable, you have a problem."

But Mr. Needham, who after months of physical therapy has not yet regained full use of his hands, insisted nothing short of an enclosure protecting drivers will fully remove the threat of injury or death they face.

He'll move on eventually from the taxi industry and await the outcome of the court case against the 22-year-old man accused of stabbing him -- the Courtice man is charged with attempted murder -- but he's vowed to continue lobbying for increased driver safety.

"I almost got killed," he said.

"I'm going to keep pressing them even though I'm not driving anymore. I still want to see it done."