A slick passenger hijacked a yellow cab in lower Manhattan on Sunday morning – kicking off a nearly hour-long joyride that came to a halt when he barreled into a Lexus SUV on the other side of town, cops said.
Three people were injured, including the suspect, in the 8:30 a.m. smashup at the intersection of West and Chambers streets that left the Lexus lying on its side atop an elevated median.
The mayhem unfolded on the Lower East Side when the cabbie picked up the 44-year-old suspect just before 7:45 a.m. at Essex and Grand Street, then drove just three blocks when the passenger said he wanted to get out, cops said.
As the suspect got out of the cab, he lied to the hack and told him he had a flat tire.
The concerned cabbie went outside to check, and his former fare hopped into the driver’s seat and sped off.
The hack called cops and tried to use his GPS to find out where his cab was but was unsuccessful, sources said.
Cops finally caught up to the runaway driver after he t-boned the Lexus while speeding northbound on West Street.
Police said they weren’t chasing the cab when it crashed, but a witness walking two blocks south of the accident said otherwise.
“I first saw the cab, and then the cop car whizzed right by me,” said Doreen Caban, 52, who at the time was trying to cross West Street at Murray Street.
“The cab was getting chased by the cop car,” she said, adding the cop car had its lights and sirens on.
“I kept looking to see if the cops were going to stop the cab. They made it to the next block, and that’s where they crashed. The car went airborne, and it landed on its side,” said Caban.
The fleeing cab forced the white SUV up onto a 3-foot high median in the middle of the busy intersection.
Rescuers pulled two men from the mangled Lexus: the driver, 37, and his 37-year-old passenger.
The driver’s bloodied head was bandaged by first responders, and he was taken away on a stretcher wearing a neck brace. The two were taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
Officers slapped cuffs on the injured runaway driver at the scene. Charges against him are pending.