The yellow cabbie who rammed into two women on a city sidewalk had her taxi license suspended Tuesday, officials said — as one of her passengers described his own ride from hell just hours before the harrowing crash.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission said it pulled 25-year-old Mahamuda Akter’s license as an investigation into Saturday afternoon’s caught-on-video chaos continues.
Chilling footage captured the runaway cab barreling into pedestrians — sending both of them to the hospital — and then smashing through a Lower East Side bodega at around 2:45 p.m., authorities said.
“I was putting lipstick on the sidewalk and suddenly a taxi rammed into us out of nowhere,” graphic designer Millicent Faber, 24, who was hurled onto the sidewalk, told The Post on Sunday.
Faber said the crash fractured both of her legs, while her 25-year-old friend, who was launched down the basement stairs outside the corner deli, suffered a broken back and a concussion.
“I never thought something like this would happen to me, but I’m happy to be alive,” she said.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation and Akter has not been charged.
A passenger who was in the same taxi hours before the crash told The Post that the cabbie was driving erratically even then, turning his morning ride from Battery Park to the East Village into a 30 minute rollercoaster.
“I’ve never been that unsafe in a taxi, it was crazy,” said Tom, a 29-year-old Manhattan resident, who asked not to be identified using his full name.
He provided photos he took that showing his cab’s medallion and license plate number, which matched with the yellow taxi that crashed later that day. He also said he recognized his driver as the one captured in video of the aftermath of the collision.
Akter was approved for a TLC license in October and had no violations leading up to the crash, a spokesman for the commission told The Post. A DMV official also said that there were no infractions tied to the driver.
“We take the safety of pedestrians, the riding public, and drivers extremely seriously, and we are grateful that everyone involved in Saturday’s crash suffered only minor injuries and hope they make a full recovery,” said TLC Press Secretary Jason Kersten in a statement Tuesday.
“We have suspended the driver after coordinating with the NYPD, which is still investigating.”
Tom, the cabbie’s passenger from earlier on Saturday, said his own ride started going off the rails at around 9 a.m., when he claimed the driver took a wrong turn as she made her into the Hugh Carey Tunnel.
“I look up and she’s driving into the tunnel that goes over to Brooklyn and I’m like ‘oh whoa, you’ve taken the wrong turn,’” he said. “And she’s stopped just before the tunnel and I’m like you can’t stop here, you just got to go through now, you’ve committed, it’s one way.”
As she drove in the tunnel, Tom claimed the driver looked down at her phone and brushed against the cones that separate traffic on the roadway — before cutting across three lanes as they exited, despite not having her side mirror out.
Once they reached the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Tom said he asked to get off at exits along the way to find a different ride, but the cabbie kept going, driving onto the Manhattan Bridge while again looking down at her phone for directions and “almost hitting the barrier,” he claimed.
When he finally got to his destination, Tom said he refused to pay the $30 fare, telling the cabbie “you almost killed us” — but “she locked the doors and wouldn’t let me out.”
The pair settled on a $20 fare, Tom said, adding that he called 911 to report the alleged reckless driver, and then phoned 311 on Sunday after he found out about the downtown crash.
The TLC spokesperson said the agency was looking into a 311 report filed Sunday. Tom said he spoke a TLC staffer on Tuesday about the report.
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