A taxi driver was fighting for his life after a medical emergency led him to lose control of his yellow cab and crash into a light pole outside the Chinese Consulate in Manhattan on Thursday, sources in law enforcement reported.
The cab driver was traveling west on W. 42nd St. when he lost command of his taxi, drove over the curb, and collided with a light pole situated at the corner of 12th Ave. around 2:27 p.m., according to the police.
Also in the taxi was a 61-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman, both of whom suffered minor injuries in the crash, said police.
The collision also injured a 33-year-old man who was walking nearby. Paramedics swiftly transported the pedestrian, the two passengers, and the critically injured cab driver to Bellevue Hospital for medical care, police stated.
A man from Queens, who was working at the nearby Javits Center for Comic Con, hurried to the scene after hearing the crash and assisted in removing the injured passengers from the cab.
“It was a loud crash. The cab was still smoking,” the 33-year-old Queens man recounted regarding the two backseat passengers. “I helped get the guy out of the back and onto the stretcher. His head was beneath the passenger seat on the right side. She had a large cut on her face and was quite injured.”
“The driver was engulfed by the air bags. His face was smashed completely into the steering wheel he was totally unresponsive. It was a crazy.”
A bus driver for the MTA informed a Daily News reporter at the scene that rescuers had to use what’s known as a hydraulic rescue tool, the Jaws of Life, to free one of the men from the taxi.
“I saw them take someone out,” the bus driver said. “He was trapped. They had to use the Jaws of Life. He looked like he was in bad shape.”
The crash occurred just steps away from the southwest corner of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in New York, which former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called a “spy hub” in 2020 following the arrest of NYPD officer Baimadajie Angwang for espionage.
Angwang was arrested in September 2020 and spent roughly six months in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, much of that time in solitary confinement after federal prosecutors accused him of spying on Tibetan communities for the Chinese government.
A federal judge would drop all charges against Angwang in 2023, but the scandal would ultimately cost the officer his job at the NYPD, with Commissioner Edward Caban firing him in 2024 for failing to submit to questioning by internal affairs investigators about the spying case.
