A New York City taxicab jumped a curb on Christmas Day afternoon, injuring six. File Photo by Simaah/PixabayPixabay
Bystanders pulled a 9-year-old boy and his mother from under a taxi near Macy’s in New York City on Christmas Day after the vehicle jumped a curb and hit numerous civilians, police said.
Authorities are investigating if the taxi driver suffered a medical episode when his taxi collided with pedestrians in busy Herald Square on 34th Street and Sixth Avenue about 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Advertisement
Emergency personnel took a child and one woman, 41, to Weill Cornell Medical Center and first responders took another victim, 49, to Bellevue Hospital. Three other victims declined medical attention.
Witnesses told the New York Post that one Good Samaritan turned off the taxi’s engine after the crash while others ripped off the fender and lifted the back end of the vehicle to free the child and mother.
“His [the driver’s foot] was still on the gas,” Ryan Tucker, one of the Good Samaritans, told AM NY. “The tires were still spinning. That’s when we kind of ripped the fender off, got the car pushed back and there was a little boy.
“I grabbed him and sat just over in the corner. His dad came running over eventually, and then I kind of sat with him and talked with him for three or four minutes just to make sure he was OK.” Advertisement
Police said all the injuries were non-life-threatening, but the three hospitalized victims were listed in stable condition. The driver, 58, was under medical evaluation and hospitalized.
“My prayers to the victims,” Charlton D’Silva of public transportation advocacy group Passengers United, told CBS News. “Hopefully the cab driver will do it as well.”
