A Queens bar owner died early yesterday in a horrific crash near the Long Island Expressway when the livery cab taking him home from work was hit head-on by a wrong-way driver, police said.
The 6:30 a.m. collision split the cab’s frame and sent George Gibbons, 37, flying from the back seat into the driver’s lap, witnesses said.
The Lincoln Town Car was heading east on 58th Road when a Chrysler Sebring went flying west on the one-way street.
“I heard the boom — just boom, no tire [screeching],” a resident said.
A couple said they heard screams from the scene outside their door and realized that it was the cab driver — his dead passenger lying across him.
Two men were witnessed running from the scene, but one later returned bearing a large forehead gash.
“[He] needed the ambulance,” a witness said, adding that “the driver from the limousine was in very bad shape, blood all over.”
The unidentified cabby, 59, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital. So was Gibbons, who was dead on arrival.
The smash-up shut down the LIE service road just blocks from the victim’s Maspeth bar, The Gibbons’ Home, which filled with mourners as the tragic news spread.
Shocked friends and relatives also made a pilgrimage to the crash scene.
Gibbons’ brother, NYPD Officer Brendan Gibbons, said his sibling loved owning his own business.
“It was his pride and joy,” the grieving cop told The Post. “He doesn’t drive, so he always takes these cabs. You’d think he’d be safer.”
The victim’s sister, Bernadette Gibbons, 24, said her George “always made everyone laugh” and “always had a smile on his face.”
Construction worker Gerard Murphy, 36, called George a neighborhood fixture who worked for years as a bartender and had saved to open his own place.
“Everyone loves him. Everyone looks at him with respect,” Murphy said. “He does a lot for people in the neighborhood. There’s not a mean bone in his body. This neighborhood won’t be the same now that he’s gone.”
The Sebring’s passenger, Andre McKanney, 44, of Jamaica, Queens, who ran and then returned, was treated at Elmhurst Hospital. He was charged with possession of marijuana.
Meanwhile, cops are looking for the driver of the Sebring.
The car is registered to Angela Kosoi, 42, of Brooklyn, who told The Post she lent it Friday to a friend for a job interview — but she refused to identify him.
“I had no idea someone died,” she said. “I lent it to them yesterday, and I thought nothing of it.
“I wish it was stolen. I wish it wasn’t my car.
“I’m mortified.”