Angelo Conti
Ten taxi drivers have been at work on the streets of Turin since April 30 carrying a defibrillator donated by Specchio dei Tempi. They are ready to rush to someone’s aid in the event of cardiac arrest. The Taxicardia project, developed together with the Turin Taxi Cooperative, thus becomes fully operational, to help all Turin residents.
50 volunteer taxi drivers have already followed a course organized by AICR (Italian Association of Heart and Reanimation “Lorenzo Greco”) to learn how to use a defibrillator. This is a fundamental device for the first aid of citizens, considering that a person in cardiac arrest aided with defibrillation within 3-5 minutes has three times the chance of survival. In the coming months we will try to equip all the other taxi drivers who have passed this course with a defibrillator.
Taxicardia was born from an initiative of Ermanno (Paris26) and Stefania (Como25), two taxi drivers already active in the Taxi Social Service group. The cars participating in the project will be marked with special plates. Of course, in addition to increasing the number of defibrillators and their availability in the area, it is also important to know how to use them. Hence, the taxi drivers volunteering for first aid training. No sirens or violations: the possibility of moving defibrillators (georeferencing them), combined with knowledge of the city and traffic will increase the protection of citizens from the risk of heart attack.
