Results tagged “driver”

Cab driver Medhat Mohamed has been given a bad rep for kicking a couple out of his cab, and now the NY Post's Andrea Peyser is standing up for him — giving him a lexical embrace, if you will.

It's already illegal for cab drivers to use cell phones while driving—even hands-free—but that law's even more scoffed at than the city's futile jaywalking prohibition! So now the Taxi and Limousine Commission is taking on the seemingly impossible task of separating hacks from their phones, by proposing heavy new punishments for gabby cabbies.

A Fox 5 cameraman happened to be shooting footage near the Ed Sullivan Theater yesterday for a segment on taxi medallions when an angry brawl exploded between a pedicab driver and a cabbie. It starts when the pedicab driver, fed up with the hack honking his horn behind him, tosses a cup of coffee at the cab's passenger-side window. You gonna take that cabbie? Not in New York! Check it out:

After studying four intersections for 38 hours, Transportation Alternatives, the bicycling, walking and public transit advocacy group, has released a report with suggestions for the NYPD on reducing "the most dangerous driving behaviors." Some of the findings: "Traffic law violations occur three times every minute (157 times an hour) per intersection" and "On average, each intersection had 24 Failure to Yield violations per hour. Failure to Yield is the second most frequent human factor in causing motor vehicle crashes."

Being behind the wheel of a New York City cab can likely supply you with plenty of fodder for a screenplay, especially when you're driving away from a job on Wall Street. Nearly a decade ago 45-year-old Mike Puerto quit his job trading derivatives and got his taxi license. He worked on a script for a Wall Street drama and, according to the NY Post, taped a sign behind his seat that read: "If you are a TV producer or executive, I have a pilot ready to go into production." Well, he's now got himself a producer, director of photography, agent and actors on the ready for his TV project, titled "M&A" (mergers and acquisitions). While networks expressed interest, a solid deal hasn't come through, however; so Puerto found advertisers and his plan is to buy time on Spike TV. The entourage he assembled all work for free (for now), and are convinced that Puerto is on his way to success. Paul Jarrett of Rosetta Films told the paper, "None of these people have been paid anything. It's just that Mike is such a captivating person that we keep coming back to see if he will pull all the pieces together and actually get this thing made." The sign in the cab now has this addendum: "will shortly go into production."

What's the point of a suspended license again? Because some drivers who shouldn't be driving still are—with some tragic results. In Suffolk County over the weekend, a woman with a suspended license driving a minivan fatally struck a young man on his bicycle. Newsday reports, "With his father going blind, Daniel Mauricio Cornejo Carranza, 16, took a weekend job at a fast-food restaurant to help his family make ends meet"—the 16-year-old was biking to his early Sunday morning shift. Driver Karen Omara-Swett inititally thought she hit a deer but saw the clothing on the side of the road and called 911. She faces "third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle" charges and a fine; the police say the glare from the sun at the time might have been a factor. And on the LIE, Bronx resident David Nieves was arrested for allegedly riding his motorcycle at 120 mph; he was "charged with reckless driving, aggravated unlicensed driving and unlawful fleeing" (because he didn't immediately pull over).

A 16-year-old with a learner's permit "struck and killed a 65-year-old pedestrian in Brooklyn" last night, 1010WINS reports. Stanislaw Zak had been waiting for a bus near Bay Ridge Parkway and 18th Avenue at 9:20 p.m. The teen, whose Mazda had struck another car before hitting Zak, will be "ticketed for driving with a learner's permit without a licensed driver"—it's unclear whether the teen will be charged with anything more.

Three pedestrians were killed by drivers in three separate accidents in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan yesterday, but there's one thing that ties the incidents together: As usual, none of the drivers were charged. In Harlem, 73-year-old great-grandmother Vivian Long, a retired teacher's aide, was crossing Amsterdam Avenue with her granddaughter when she was fatally struck by an Access-A-Ride vehicle. (For the record, Access-A-Ride drivers are the worst.) She died at St. Luke's Hospital. In Borough Park, 25-year-old Matvey Smolovich, who according to his relatives had mental problems, was run over by a mini school bus around 10 a.m. after stepping out from between parked cars 100 feet from the crosswalk. His father tells the Daily News, "He left the house without my permission... After this I don't care about anything. My life is ruined." The 55-year-old bus driver stayed at the scene, and the NYPD is investigating, but hasn't arrested anyone. Then in Flushing, Queens, the 19-year-old driver of a Nissan Altima killed a jogger who also stepped into the street from between parked cars. He was rushed to New York Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

If you're not going to invest your money with a reputable Ponzi schemer, than why not with a livery cab driver posing as a hedge fund owner? Alan Fishman, Brooklyn resident and "president" of AR Capital Group, and Daniel Ledven (an AR Capital manager) were arrested on fraud charges and a court document noted Ledven's testimony to the SEC, "The primary occupation of the president of ARC, was as a livery driver, and the president had very little investment experience prior to starting ARC." Between 2003 and 2006, they managed to raise $20 million—sending $18 million to bank accounts in the Ukraine and Lithuania. According to the Daily News, "One of the biggest victims likely was a 65-year-old unidentified retiree from Ohio who was hooked with a cold call. The man initially invested $10,000, then another $250,000. Phony positive return statements hoodwinked him into eventually boosting his investments to about $8 million." Fishman and Ledven are out on bail; a third man, Gary Gelman (Fishman's nephew), is on the lam.

A 19-year-old driver who only recently got his driver's license was charged with criminally negligent homicide after fatally crashing into a 47-year-old man who had been waiting at a bus stop on Staten Island. The Staten Island Advance reports that Joseph Catrama "allegedly sped his white 2008 Hyundai through a red light at Capodanno Boulevard and Seaview Avenue, causing his car to jump the curb and strike...Nathan Pakow."

A man who is a stock broker by day and cab driver by night is in a coma for the third consecutive day after being brutally beaten up at a Harlem gas station Saturday night. Bekoe Adigun-Bomani was punched in the head at the BP gas station on West 125th Street by an assailant who drove off in a silver Nissan. A surveillance tape has been unable to assist police in tracking down a suspect. Adigun-Bomani's mother told NY1, "I can't bear to see my son laying there with tubes all over, fighting for his life. So, that person, whoever you are, we are going to find you. We won't give up because we are a strong family." The last few days have been a tragically unlucky stretch for the taxi industry with the livery cab driver in Staten Island killed in a hit-and-run and a cab dispatcher in the Bronx shot dead outside his apartment.

Interesting: The Daily News reports that driver demand to use MTA bridges and tunnels has fallen 4.8% when comparing last month's figures (25 million) to October 2007 (when there were 26.3 million drivers). Another stat: Traffic on the Manhattan crossings was down 4% between September and October. One hypothesis is that recent layoffs mean there's less reason to head into Manhattan. However, average weekday subway ridership increased 4.3% "in the 12 months ending Sept. 30," according to the Post. Yeah, cutting subway service is just what we need.

Ooh Mama, State Senator Jeff Klein—in the news recently for calling out restaurants with health code violations—just got his ass handed to him by Colin Beavan, who many know as No Impact Man for his very public effort to reduce his environmental impact to zero. Beavan was riding his bike near City Hall yesterday when a black Mercedes started drifting into him. To avoid being pinned between the Mercedes and the parked cars to his left, Beaven knocked on the Mercedes's window to alert the driver to his presence. That driver, according to Beaven, was Senator Klein (pictured), and Beaven's written an open letter to the pol about the ensuing exchange:

At this point, you brought your vehicle to an abrupt halt, not to avoid hitting me, but because you apparently needed to communicate something to me. You rolled down your window and said, "Get your hands off my car, you fucking asshole."

Continue reading "State Senator Jeff Klein Curses the Wrong Cyclist"

Suffolk County on Long Island has become the first place in New York State where it's illegal to send text messages while operating a motor vehicle. Effective immediately, drivers spotted fiddling with their cell phones will face a $150 fine. Similar legislation has been passed in Nassau and Westchester counties but has not gone into effect, and a statewide law is still tied up in the legislature. In August, New York City Councilman David Weprin also introduced a bill that would make texting while driving illegal. The father of twin 16-year-old girls, Weprin said he was motivated by last summer’s fatal accident in the Finger Lakes, in which five girls in a sport utility vehicle died when the text-messaging teenage driver swerved into oncoming traffic.

The state law banning hand-held cell phone use while driving doesn’t extend to text messaging, something Councilman David Weprin, father of 16-year-old twin girls, would like to change fast. Motivated by last summer’s fatal accident in the Finger Lakes region, in which five girls in a sport utility vehicle died when the text-messaging teenage driver swerved into oncoming traffic, Weprin will introduce a measure today that would ban the sending or reading of text messages while driving within city limits, the Times reports. Alaska, Minnesota, New Jersey and Washington are the only states that currently ban text-messaging while driving.

Earlier this week Yuengling wasn't being very helpful in letting Brad Walsh, who was physically assaulted by a truck driver delivering their product, know who to contact to file a complaint. When we asked the company what company hired the driver so they could be contacted for a quote, they also refused to disclose any information. However, Walsh has let us know that he finally got a hold of the distributor, and the driver has been fired. He wrote on his blog last night: "After the distributor was notified of the incident (albeit nearly a week after the incident occurred and was reported to Yuengling, and merely a matter of hours after the story was reported by several news sources) they called the driver and his union in to discuss. I have been told that the driver was terminated."

A maximum $100 fine doesn't seem to be stemming the rising tide of self-absorbed assholes who drive cars while blathering on their cell phones. Though a state law prohibits the use of a hand-held mobile phone while operating a motor vehicle, the number of violations has jumped fivefold in New York City since 2002, according to amNY. Last year almost 200,000 violations were reported.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is looking for a new driver, and The Daily News reports that he's resorted to the classifieds to find the perfect person for the job.

Three female cab drivers were on a group cell phone call with a fourth female cab driver when they heard her being choked by a mugger on 28th St. and Ninth Ave. So they called 911 and raced to the scene, coming to their friend's aid and simultaneously forming what was probably the largest number of female cab drivers ever assembled in one place; over 99% of New York City cab drivers are men.

It seems that after months of threatening, chasing and punching passengers who insist on paying with plastic, some city cab drivers have come to love the new credit card devices, which will be in all taxis by the end of August. Their original objections were to the 5% transaction fee, but now drivers are reporting higher tips because of the way the machines display the tipping options.

"He put his face into the plexiglass separation, the section that is left open, and screamed 'You f------ b----!' and spit at me, which I could feel spray all over my face. I screamed the loudest I have ever screamed in my life: 'Let me out of this cab!'" So ended a ride home to the Upper West Side for 24-year-old Sarah Snedeker, who claims her driver became irate when she insisted on paying by credit card, locking her in the cab for five minutes while they argued.

An East Village woman says she was punched in the face by an unhinged cabbie when she insisted on using the taxi’s credit card machine to pay her fare. Tamara Perez had arrived outside her apartment when she realized she was out of cash, so she told the driver she’d be paying with plastic using the self-automated card reader installed in the back.

A 17-year-old who was given a 2007 Dodge Charger SRT8 as a starting-college gift was driving in Queens when the car hit a guard rail, "became airborne for 100 feet," and finally hit a concrete pillar. Two passengers, 18-year-olds Devindra Harilal and Christopher Karan, were killed.