Bronx-Refusing Taxi Driver Held On $100,000 Bail

Via NY Post

The cab driver who refused to take customers to the Bronx and then got arrested after allegedly driving his cab into them was arraigned on assault charges yesterday. And it turns out that Mohammed Azam has a history of being a bad taxi driver— and he was just trying to avoid paying a $30 fee.

Early Sunday morning, a group hailed a cab in Midtown Manhattan. After arguing with Azam and saying that he had to take them to the Bronx (per the Taxi Rider's Bill of Rights), Azam suggested they settle it by going to a local police precinct. After cops backed up the customers, that's when things got crazy: Azam allegedly locked the men out of the taxi and then drove into the four friends. Two jumped onto the hood, and one was thrown off when Azam made a sharp turn—Anthony Loreto Jr. had a fractured skull and is currently in a medically induced coma.

According to the Daily News, "Mohammed Azam, 27, was hit with a $500 fine and suspended for a month by the Taxi & Limousine Commission for a March 2010 dust-up with a passenger." The Post offers this tidbit: "Azam feared that the trip to the outer borough would make him late getting back to his cab depot for his shift change and that he'd have to pay a $30 fine, authorities said."

Azam is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail. His lawyer claimed, "He did everything by the book," and the News says the Azam is a "part-time medical student in the Caribbean." Last fall, a man says he was dragged by a cab who refused to take him to Brooklyn.

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By Jen Chung in News on March 8, 2011 6:23 PM

Comments [rss]

soxinthecity

Give the cabbie a break. Any sane person would react that way if told that they have to go to the Bronx.

Steven Harris

How is he 27? Anybody noticed that?

tom9d

...would that book happen to be a Stephen King novel?

shocktheday

Goes to show the level of internal medicine doctors we are getting now in the U.S.. American students avoid this field like the plague.

FU Boy

It's avoided because the benefit (salary and security) of a GP is completely outweighed by the cost of getting there (US school costs and insurance requirements for practicing doctors).

Google Santorum

Send him back to his homeland. Its not the USA.

Guest

"It's not where ya from, it's where ya at..."

Stiff01

Crazy cabbies of NYC . Sounds like a show MTV should be developing .

Vinny

His lawyer should be left in front of Azam's cab and told "good luck!" Let's see how good the "book" is then.

whitecastlerock

He did everything by the book-except murder these people. Fuck him and his lawyer...

FU Boy

Uh, why couldn't he have just said "I'm off in 15 would you mind catching another?" when they said "Bronx"?

Oh, right. His story's horseshit, that's why.