A careening cab smashed into an exclusive apartment building on Central Park West yesterday – injuring three people and shattering the midday calm on one of the city’s toniest thoroughfares.
“It was ugly,” said Sammy Rodriguez, describing the bloodstained scene he witnessed after a yellow taxi mounted the sidewalk and crashed into the side of 55 Central Park West, on the corner of West 66th Street.
The taxi was driving south on Central Park West and collided with a Lincoln Town Car, police said.
“He hit me,” said the driver of the Lincoln, Stavros Haramis. “When I was making my turn, the taxi came and hit me.”
The Lincoln had been traveling north and was trying to take a left when the taxi hit its right side, causing the hack to ricochet smack into the corner of the Art Deco co-op, police said.
“There were two people in the back of the cab, a man and a woman,” said Rodriguez, a maintenance worker at the residence.
“They looked like pretzels. Their legs were just twisted,” he said.
Rodriguez said he asked the mangled pair if they were all right but they were too hurt to answer.
“I thought [the guy] was dead,” said Rodriguez, who called 911 for help. “He had blood coming out of his ears. The door he was leaning on was just dripping with blood.”
The taxi driver got out of his vehicle, appearing physically unscathed but disoriented, Rodriguez said.
The passengers were taken to St. Luke’s Hospital and were in stable condition, said a spokesman. The driver was taken to New York Hospital. All of their names were withheld by police.
Haramis, the driver of the Lincoln Town Car, said he didn’t need to go to the hospital. “I was a little shaky at first, but I’m OK,” said the Riverdale man.
No tickets were issued for the accident.
Additional reporting byPhilip Messing