Six people were injured after a yellow cab driver slammed into a cyclist, veered onto a sidewalk, and pinned down two pedestrians in a Manhattan crash Monday afternoon, according to the authorities.
The chaotic collisions happened just before 1 p.m. on Broadway near W. 29th Street, and three people suffered serious injuries while another three had non-life-threatening wounds, according to an FDNY spokesperson.
More than a dozen heroic bystanders tried to lift the vehicle off of the two women stuck underneath it, according to police officials.
“As this occurs, a remarkable scene took place, about 15-20 New Yorkers attempt to pick this cab off these women,” Deputy Chief John Chell told reporters during a press conference at the scene.
The first crash happened when the 60-year-old male cabbie was heading west on W. 29th Street and turned left onto Broadway, striking the 50-year-old man on a bike heading south on Broadway.
“Think of it as a T-bone collision,” Chell said.
The impact knocked the cyclist to the ground and the motorist dragged him for a short distance, before mounting the curb and speeding up into three women, pinning two of them underneath his vehicle, according to police.
Six people, including the driver, were brought to Bellevue Hospital.
The 32-year-old and 48-year-old pedestrians had severe leg injuries, while a third woman, also 32-years-old, had bruises on her body. The first two remain in critical condition while the third is in stable condition, cops said.
The cyclist suffered an arm injury but is also in stable condition, while the driver had pains in his back and neck.
Footage posted on Citizen shows the yellow cab on the sidewalk surrounded by what appear to be displaced planters or parts of outdoor dining structures.
The driver crashed into Black Seed Bagels, but an employee who answered the store’s phone declined to comment.
Chell said police investigators believe the crash was unintentional.
“Right now it appears to be an accident, but our highway investigation team is here and they’ll be running through this in the next couple of hours to figure out exactly what happened,” he said.
The cab’s license plate had 18 parking and camera violations since late 2019, mostly in Manhattan and some in Queens, including twice for failing to stop at red lights and eight times for speeding in school zones, according to a search of public records using the bot How’s My Driving NY.
Mayor Eric Adams released a statement Monday evening calling the carnage a “terrible tragedy” and saying he was committed to making New York’s street safe.
“This is a terrible tragedy, and those injured and in critical condition are in all of our prayers. We will continue to release as much information as possible when we receive it,” the mayor said. “But we should not have to accept, and I will not accept, a reality where New Yorkers die from traffic violence. Traffic safety is all of our concern, and I will continue working and taking action every day to keep New Yorkers and everyone else visiting our city safe on our streets.”
