KIPS BAY — An out-of-control yellow cab driver hit a pedestrian and a biker before careening into the side of a building on Thursday morning, according to witnesses and the fire department.
The driver was headed north on First Avenue at about 8:45 a.m. when he barreled into a bicyclist riding in the bike lane, according to Chris Collins, an employee of NYU Langone Medical Center who witnessed the crash.
After running into the biker, the cab driver swerved back into traffic and struck a woman who was crossing First Avenue in the crosswalk. He then swung left, across East 33rd Street, and slammed into a building on the corner of East 33rd Street and First Avenue, shattering a plate-glass window, Collins said.
“He hit them clean and he hit them hard,” said Collins, who was walking in the crosswalk when the crash happened. “He just came flying down First Ave.”
After the dust and broken glass settled, the driver was slumped over the steering wheel, apparently in shock, according to Collins. A worker at a coffee cart on East 33rd Street said the bicyclist did not have any visible injuries but that the cab driver was bloody and appeared to have injured his face.
Medical personnel took the driver, the pedestrian, and the biker to Langone, and all three were in stable condition with minor injuries, according to a police spokesman.
Collins, who said he narrowly missed being hit, said it was a miracle that the driver didn’t injure more people.
“We’re just lucky there weren’t 10 or 15 people hit,” he said.
The ground-floor office space where the window and part of the facade were damaged is currently unoccupied. A representative of the owner of the building, which also houses apartments, did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for the Taxi and Limousine Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
