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Cabbie Who Struck Tourist Hit the Gas in Road-Rage Spat, Report Says

By Leslie Albrecht | August 22, 2013 10:14am | Updated on August 22, 2013 2:56pm
 The cab driver who plowed into a British tourist and severed her foot could have had his taxi license suspended months ago, reports say.
Cabbie in Midtown Crash Floored Gas Pedal Amid Road-Rage Feud, Report Says
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MIDTOWN — The cabbie who plowed into a British tourist and severed her foot at Rockefeller Center admitted in a New York Post interview that he hit the gas amid a road-rage battle with a cyclist.

Mohammed F. Himon, 24, who hasn't been charged criminally, said he was fighting with cyclist Kenneth Olivo at Sixth Avenue near Rockefeller Center Tuesday morning while trying to make a left turn onto 49th Street.

"He was in my way and I got upset, so I gave him notice that I wanted to pass through," Himon told the Post, adding that he started honking at Olivo. "He started pounding on my car with his hands ... I had to get out of there. So I accelerated to get in front of him."

Olivo, who told reporters at the scene he was flipped onto the hood and sent flying, has his own history of run-ins with the law, the Post reported. He's been arrested 22 times, most recently for "threatening to decapitate a man and kill his family," the Post said.

He also reportedly punched his roommate in the face after a fight over a phone, according to the Post.

Himon's cab hurtled directly into Sian Green, 23, a British tourist on her first day vacationing in New York. She was sitting with a friend on a stone planter when she was hit.

A slew of good Samaritans — including celebrity surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, a food vendor and a plumber who stopped Green's bleeding with a homemade belt tourniquet — rushed to help Green in the wake of the accident. Bystanders packed Green's severed foot on ice, but doctors were unable to reattach it.

Surgeons at Bellevue Hospital had to amputate her left leg below the knee Wednesday, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Her family was expected to fly in from England to be with her.

A Taxi & Limousine Commission spokesman said they are in the process of suspending Himon's hack license, but officials admitted that they could have stripped him of his taxi permit months ago. Himon had four violations on his hack license, TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg said.

In October 2011, he failed to tell a passenger the proper fare to Newark Liberty International Airport and did not turn on the meter during the trip, a possible $100 fine.

In July 2012, he was caught smoking in his cab and parking his cab in an unauthorized spot, a possible $250 fine, according to the commission.

And in May of this year he tried to butt in line at the JFK taxi line, a possible $150 fine, a TLC spokesman said.

He also racked up nine points on his driver's license — enough to have his hack license reviewed — in a series of four incidents that included speeding and running a red light and go back as far as February 2011, according to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.

Two of the points were later taken away through a defensive driving course.

The cabbie received one of his violations for an improper turn in June 2011, but he was not convicted until April 2013 — and then it was overlooked, Fromberg said.

"The TLC could not take action until that conviction in 2013," he said. "There was that long lag in which we couldn’t do anything. 

"There was an inordinately long period of time from when the violation occurred and when he was actually found guilty."