A 23-year-old British woman recently lost her leg when a taxi jumped the curb in Midtown Manhattan. The cab swerved onto the sidewalk at 49th Street and Sixth Avenue and hit the English tourist. The collision sent her flying into the air and completely severed her leg.
Witnesses said the taxi driver may have been reacting to a bicycle messenger moments before the pedestrian collision, but officials are still trying to pin down exactly what happened.
“These collision and accidents take some time to reconstruct, so that investigation is still going forward,” said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
The cabbie, a 24-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh, is still deeply distressed about the collision. He said that everything happened so quickly he’s still not sure exactly what occurred in the moments leading up to the amputation injury.
If there was any silver lining in the taxi accident, it’s that the tourist’s life was saved by fast-thinking bystanders. One man used his belt as a tourniquet on the victim’s leg, while a vendor put her severed limb on ice in his cart.
Source: NBC New York, “Taxi Driver Who Crashed In Midtown, Costing Tourist Her Leg, Says He’s ‘Shocked,'” Marc Santia, Aug. 22, 2013
