NEW YORK - New York City taxi drivers want the city to let them use their cell phones on the job.

Their campaign is coming after a cell phone helped several cabbies come to the aid of a female colleague who said she was attacked by a passenger. She was on her cell phone with other drivers at the time of the attack Tuesday, and they called police and rushed to help her.

The city Taxi & Limousine Commission doesn't let cabbies use phones while on duty. New York Taxi Workers Alliance executive director Bhairavi Desai says the professional drivers should be allowed to use handsfree phones _ just as state law lets other motorists do.

But the TLC says some cabbies' cell phone "abuse" has made passengers feel unattended-to and unsafe.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–chattycabbies0320mar20,0,460074.story