No Charges For Cab Driver Who Drove Into Subway Station

The injured pedestrian photo (#4). Did they know each other or is this just another pick up?

Thankfully no one was seriously hurt.

Actually 2 people were seriously hurt:

According to initial reports, there are "two red tags" and "one yellow tag"—according to triage terminology, red tag is "immediate care / life-threatening" and yellow tag is "urgent care / can delay up to one hour."

It's not that complicated - we just need enforcement of the law and not this attitude that "aww, he's a driver like me, so it's all an accident." If someone is directing a 3,000 pound object at high speed through crowded places, we need a bit more of an assumption that that person screwed up if he/she hits something and not this "oh, it's just random. It's just an accident."

What we really need are "black box" data recorders on cabs like airliners have. Just recording their speed and the activity of things like brakes and lateral acceleration. That way, we would know for sure that a cabbie was going too fast, screaming around a corner and/or not using his brakes, all without having to depend on witnesses. As long as the data isn't downloaded unless there's an accident, then cabbies shouldn't object on privacy grounds.

Actually, that's a good point: All cabs are now tracked remotely with GPS, which can determine speed. Not as accurate as an onboard recorder, not sure if it would stand up in court.

Are we sure that a GPS can track speed as well as location?

Yes, they can. Been done for years, by noting the distance traveled between location updates. Remember your basic physics: velocity equals distance divided by time. Not extremely accurate, though, since GPS isn't extremely accurate, especially in concrete canyons, and location updates aren't continuous.

But the fact is that data recorders for cars are available. They're standard equipment on many current models. I just don't understand why they haven't been retrofitted to older taxicabs.

Judging by the damage, that cab was going way too fast.

Anyway, might just be a cultural thing. The driver is probably from some country where it's acceptable to drive like a homicidal maniac and run down pedestrians. Why are you people so intolerant and judgmental? Celebrate diversity dammit.

The speed limit in Manhattan is 30 mph. I'm no physist or front-end crash expert, but if that cab was going the speed limit, I'll eat his dashboard air-freshener.

Isn't the condition of the cab sufficient evedence of speeding and or wrecklessness, or do those laws not apply to cabs?

Maybe the police at the scene thought that issuing a summons to the driver would've been adding insult to injury.

I doubt the city is interested in hiring physicists and engineers to prove such a thing in an accident where no one was killed.

Thank you—that's my question too.

Are you implying he was from America?

Doubtful.

Indeed...lucky he's not from a country where its acceptable to drive drunk the wrong way down a parkway

If a broad and intense public show of outrage and disgust is how you define "acceptable" then I guess you'd be right.

Are there any moving violations on the driver's record? What is the driver's name? Are there any vowels in his name?

There used to be a red-light camera right next to the hot-dog place. Not sure if it is still there. Jen is right though. Cars race through that 'bow-tie', in both directions. When I'm in the Broadway median, I always make sure to stand way inside those thick concrete barriers.

Given the amount of cameras around the city there must be at least one that caught what happened on camera.

I didn't witness the accident, but that's my neighborhood and the way Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway criss-cross/intersect/join each other between 71st and 72nd Streets is scary. I wouldn't be surprised if a cabbie (or regular driver) in the far right lane was trying to make a left turn, drivers are insane around there.

no charges????? pathetic!!!! i'm sure in addition to speeding and running a red light he was probably yammering on his cellphone like all cabbies do! pathetic!!!

There's no evidence that he was speeding or that he ran a red light. That's one witness account, others give other stories.

Traffic violations can't be charged based on (always unreliable) eyewitness accounts.

I haven't seen any witness accounts saying that he didn't run a red light, that he didn't speed up as the light was changing, or that he didn't recklessly try to make a left turn from the right lane, have you? Cars don't just jump four-foot-tall iron fences when they're being operated normally; it's so obvious that the guy was driving recklessly that it's astonishing that anyone is even attempting to dispute it.

The first picture's caption made me laugh: "the cab was really wrecked."

Well, heck.

That'll buff right out.

cabbies are getting away with everything right now! like that cabbie that killed the little boy in harlem last week.

Of course no charges. It was an accident.

I think we need to redefine what it means to get in a car and drive it. Anything that happens when you are driving a motor vehicle should be legally considered intentional as long as you made a conscious decision to drive.

that right genius, everything IS intentional, except for when it is human error. those are called accidents. but a perfect being like yourself wouldn't know anything about human error...

In the rest of the country, committing a "human error" while driving will get you a traffic citation and possibly jail time.

But there are some "accidents" that people should be held accountable for. "Oops, I didn't mean to run you over! Gosh, so sorry!" There is legal culpability, or should be, you sarcastic people.

Why don't you just say what you REALLY want to say without sugarcoating it. Here, I'll do it for you:

"Cars are evil, bikes are the best"

what the hell do bikes have to do with this again?

Everything, obviously.

DUHHHHHHH.

Gee, that really makes sense. Were you waiting all this time for something like this to happen to share your awesomely great ideas with us?

Inquiring minds want to know -- like me.

Shocking.