NEW YORK — A yellow taxi driver in an SUV ran over a cyclist and pinned two pedestrians against a building at a busy intersection in Midtown Manhattan on Monday afternoon — and a crowd of passersby attempted to lift the cab off the victims, police said.
The crash left six people injured, including the driver, with three of them taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition.
The driver turned left onto Broadway from West 29th Street about 12:55 p.m. and T-boned the cyclist who was heading downtown in the bike lane, according to cops.
The cabbie slowed down after hitting the cyclist but then sped up after jumping the curb, pinning two women on the sidewalk against a wall, video reviewed by police shows.
“About 15 to 20 New Yorkers attempted to pick this cab off these women,” NYPD Deputy Chief John Chell said during a news conference after the incident.
Mamadou Barry, 40, witnessed the crash and said he was one of the people who tried to lift the cab off the women.
“(The driver) turned real fast and there were people sitting there and he hit them too and then the wall stopped the car,” said Barry. “It just happened real fast. He hit (the bicyclist) and we were screaming, ‘What the hell is going on?’”
Barry said he went to help the cyclist, whose arm appeared to be twisted from the crash.
“At first I thought he was going to die,” Barry said of the cyclist.
The crowd pried the cab off at least one of the women pinned against the wall, according to Barry, who said he couldn’t bear to look and see the victim’s injuries.
The cab driver told Barry and other bystanders he lost control of his car and that his brake may have not been working.
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