Results tagged “taxicab”

Aha! After a rocky start with accepting credit card payments (the striking... the threatening... the chasing... the punching), taxi drivers had conceded last year that plastic payments were helping them out. Now, two years after the program was launched, the NY Times further confirms that the credit (and debit) card payment system is mostly a success.

After a taxi cab apparently got hit by another cab, it jumped a curb and hit six people in Times Square this morning. According to WABC 7, "Police say the cab hit another taxi at 47th Street and Broadway around 9:30 a.m. One of the cabs veered onto the sidewalk and hit bystanders in front of the Times Square military recruiting station, which sits on a traffic island in the middle of the bustling area." While charges are pending against the cab driver, it's unclear which cab he was in (the cab that first hit the cab or the cab that hit the pedestrians). The driver said he was cut off by a bus. Four people were injured and taken to hospitals, the other two were treated at the scene.

The 19-year-old woman arrested for allegedly shooting a taxi cab driver in the face last week has pleaded not guilty to charging including attempted murder and attempted robbery. April Pierce, being held on $150,000 bail, claims her two other companions shot Enois Malbranche; one of them, Erica Belgrave, surrendered to police on Monday while the cops are still looking for the third suspect. Malbranche, who told the NY Times that the women robbed him before shooting him in Brooklyn, is reportedly blind in his right eye and will need glasses to correct his left eye. The Daily News says it's "a disability that will likely end his 10-year career as a cab driver."

Enois Malbranche, a 62-year-old cab driver, who was shot in the face yesterday morning, is in stable condition at Kings County Hospital. His son told the Daily News his father will probably lose his right eye. Malbranche was shot in Brooklyn when he got out of his cab to confront three women who refused to pay a $9.80 fare. The Post says he was attacked one of the women, while the News says police are also looking into whether he was ambushed by someone else. The New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers is offering a $5,000 reward while a company that provides taxi GPS is adding a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

     

Last month, there were a string of accidents that left over twenty people injured and one person dead after vehicles jumped the curb and hit pedestrians, seemingly making sidewalk the most dangerous place for pedestrians. Yesterday, an accident at Broadway and West 63rd Street, a taxi cab and car crashed into each other, sending one vehicle spinning into a Starbucks and hitting a pedestrian.

One of the biggest complains had been taxi drivers refusing to accept credit cards from driver. Even though driers with credit card payment systems are required to accept credit card payment, many are unhappy they have to pay a 5% handling fee per credit card transaction (that cost is not passed onto the rider).