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'Black Box' in Bob Simon's Cab Was Not Working During Fatal Crash: Sources

By Murray Weiss | February 25, 2015 12:27pm
 Bob Simon, left, was killed when the livery cab he was in, driven by Abdul Reshad Fedahi, right, crashed, officials said.
Bob Simon, left, was killed when the livery cab he was in, driven by Abdul Reshad Fedahi, right, crashed, officials said.
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Getty Images/Rob Kim, RLJR News and Taxi Limousine Commission

MANHATTAN — The black box in the cab CBS News legend Bob Simon was riding in when he was killed was not working and has not provided any new clues into the fatal crash, DNAinfo New York has learned.

NYPD Collision Investigation Unit investigators expected the 2010 Lincoln Town Car’s black box to provide vital data about the cab's speed and braking system moments before the car plowed into a median on 12th Avenue near West 30th Street two weeks ago, killing Simon, 73, sources said.

Frustrated investigators have sent the black box to its Ford Motor Corp. manufacturer for further tests.

Eyewitnesses said the vehicle, driven by Abdul Reshad Fedahi, 44, appeared to accelerate after it brushed a 2003 Mercedes-Benz sedan on its right.

Sources explained that the black box should have captured the final seconds of the car's data and operation systems just as the vehicle's air bags were being deployed.

Vehicle black boxes have been used in other fatal crash cases. For example, black box data was used to determine that Hernan Vega was traveling at 107 mph when he allegedly struck and killed Pamela Pimentel in The Bronx, sources said.

Simon, who was not wearing a seatbelt, suffered a broken neck and other injuries, according to the city medical examiner's office. 

Fedahi, who had a severely disabled right arm prior to the crash, suffered two broken legs and a broken arm. He told detectives he recalls only hitting “a bump” and little else about the accident, sources said.

Fedahi, who is still hospitalized, was only recently licensed by the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission despite having limited right arm mobility and strength. He was still in his initial six-month probation period at the time of the crash.

Investigators suspect that when he banged into the Mercedes and turned the wheel to the left, he may have also accidentally hit the gas rather than the brake and was unable to correct the swerve because of his damaged right arm, sources said.

State records show his driver's license had nine violations since November 2011. He had two moving violations, one for speeding in Sullivan Country, the other for running a red light here.

Fedahi, an Afghan immigrant living in a city shelter, had his license suspended after the recent crash, but no criminal charges have been filed against him, officials said.

Simon, a fabled television war correspondent who was taken hostage in Iraq for 40 days in 1991, was eulogized on last Sunday’s CBS “60 Minutes” program, where he worked as a reporter for 19 years.