Metro

Woman sues cab company after cabbie’s hell ride

A cabbie who was hacked off that a passenger was paying with a credit card screamed “I don’t care if I lose my license, I don’t care if I lose my life!” before speeding off with the terrified woman trapped in the back seat, a nightmare lawsuit charges.

Amy Ewertz was so scared about what might happen to her, she flung herself out of the speeding cab – getting her foot run over in the process, “causing her excruciating pain, burning the skin on her ankle and causing extensive bleeding,” the suit says. “The cab sped away.”

Now Ewertz is taking aim at Enaf Taxi as “the owner of the instrumentality used by the driver to terrify and falsely imprison plaintiff.”

Employees at Enaf said they were unaware of the allegations and the suit, which does not name the driver, Mohamed Abdelkader.

The filing says the incident happened shortly after midnight on September 1 of last year, when Ewertz and two friends were calling it a night after a late dinner at 26th Street and Tenth Avenue. The trio hailed cab 6H63, and told the driver they were making two stops.

Ewertz’ friends were dropped off at 48th and Eighth, while she went onto 65th and First. “Unbeknownst to plaintiff, the driver turned off meter” after the first stop and then restarted it, “improperly increasing the total fare,” the suit says.

“Upon reaching the second drop-off point,” the suit says, “the driver demanded that plaintiff pay the first fare, of $7.50, in cash, as well as the second fare.”

Ewertz, “who did not have sufficient cash with her to pay the first fare in cash, agreed to pay the two fares on a credit card, and suggested that the first fare be covered by adding it as a tip to the second fare,” the suit says.

Ewertz then tried to pay the second fare with a $10 tip using her credit card, but the driver “cancelled the transaction, and demanded that the first fare be paid in cash,” the suit says. She tried a second time, increasing the tip to $12, but the driver cancelled it again, the suit says, demanding cash.

Ewertz then “managed to distract the driver long enough to swipe her crediit card a third time, and she was able to complete the transaction,” the suit says – but the driver began to flip out when he heard the receipt printing.

The “driver began to scream, ‘I don’t care if you report me, I don’t care if lose my license, I don’t care if I lose my life,’ terrifying plaintiff,” the suit says. He “locked the door to the cab with the plaintiff still in the back seat and began to speed off.”

Ewert pleaded with him to stop, “but he did not. Fearing for her life, [Ewertz] was eventually able to pry the lock open and flung herself out of the cab,” the suit says.

“Hysterical with pain and fearful that the driver would return to injure her further, plantiff hobbled into her apartment and called 911,” the suit says.

Cops showed up about 10 minutes later with the cabbie, and recommended Ewertz file a complaint with the TLC, which she eventually did, the filing says.

She also filed a police report on the incident on Sept. 24, but police sources said she was “uncooperative” and no arrests were ever made. The TLC attempted to follow up on her complaint, but Ewertz never got back to them.

A source close to her said she did not want to get involved in the criminal process. The same source described her as “kind of a gutsy girl, she still takes cabs.”

The suit seeks unspecified money damages for her physical injuries, which have required months of physical therapy, as well as her “severe emotional distress.”

Ewertz’s lawyer could not be reached.

Sources said the driver has 15 minor violations going back to 2005, the most serious of which was refusal of service and discourtesy to a passenger in December of 2009.