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The government will review taxi safety and consider mandatory safety measures after a driver was killed on Sunday, Transport Minister Steven Joyce and Prime Minister John Key say.
Hiren Mohini, 39, a driver for Auckland Co-op taxis, was stabbed to death in Auckland in the early hours of Sunday morning after picking a man up in the central city about 1.20am.
Minutes later the taxi crashed into a tree in View Road in Mt Eden and witnesses arrived to find Mohini suffering horrific wounds to his chest and neck.
Police are continuing their search for a man , believed to be the taxi's passenger, who was seen running from the scene.
The incident has prompted renewed calls by the Taxi Federation for the government to make safety measures such as cameras installed in cabs, mandatory.
Joyce says taxi safety does need to be looked at again and has been reviewed in the past after earlier attacks.
"We're ending up in a situation where New Zealand isn't as safe for taxis late at night any more," he told Radio New Zealand on Monday.
One of the challenges was having the taxi industry agree on what mandatory measures needed to be taken, he said.
"The Taxi Federation feels very strongly that cameras would have a deterrent effect ... and there are taxi drivers who feel very strongly that the only safe option are screens."
Screens however could limit the number of passengers a taxi could hold and the cost about $1000 to $2000 to install, Joyce said.
There was also a responsibility by taxi owners and companies to provide a safe workplace, "and ultimately this will have to be borne by the taxi industry".
"It's part of the cost of doing business."
However, Prime Minister John Key did not rule out government funding and said all options would be considered. Joyce, transport and Labour Department officials would have a meeting within a fortnight.
"Obviously firstly tremendous sympathy goes out to the family. It's a tragic situation," Key told Breakfast.
"We've also had two taxi drivers now killed in 14 months so I don't think either government or industry can sit back and just ignore this. Any person is entitled to know that they are safe as they can be in their work environment."
Options to be considered ranged from mandatory screens and cameras to the status quo.
Implementation was not straight forward and there were also questions around whether the taxpayer should help or if taxi users should pay, Key said.
Police say the man seen fleeing the scene was slim, dark-skinned in his mid to late 20s, about 1.74m tall. He had long, greasy wavy or curly hair, which was swept back from his forehead.
He was wearing dark jeans, black shoes, a long-sleeved shirt and carrying a black bag with a strap.
Police were checking central Auckland security cameras for footage of the man.
One of the first people on the scene, Adam Couper, said he heard a loud thud and rushed across the road, where he saw the car rammed up against a fence.
Couper told The New Zealand Herald Mohini's injuries were horrific.
"He had a knife wound to his neck as well as a pretty good stab to his chest. He was bleeding pretty profusely and there was blood all over the door."
Other neighbours tried desperately to staunch Mohini's wounds with tea towels while they waited the five or six minutes for the ambulance to arrive, a period that felt like an "eternity", Couper said.
A post mortem on Sunday confirmed Mohini died from the stab wound to his chest.
Many taxi drivers rushed to the scene when Mohini hit a panic button, however when they arrived ambulance staff were already there performing CPR.
Mohini leaves a wife and two daughters, aged five and two.
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