The overwhelming majority of cabbies who killed and maimed passengers and pedestrians in the past five years are back behind the wheel.
Of 16 fatal or serious crashes since 2009 examined by The Post, only two of the drivers had their licenses revoked, according to a review based on a Freedom of Information Act request.
The shocking findings reveal that in even the most egregious cases, drivers with blood on their bumpers can remain active Taxi & Limousine Commission license holders, including:
- Usman Gul, 33, who slammed into 5-year-old Timothy Keith in Brooklyn in 2012, killing him. Gul said the boy, who was deaf, jumped out of nowhere, but the boy’s parents claim in court papers the driver was going too fast.
- Koffi Komlani, 54, who struck and killed 9-year-old Cooper Stock on the Upper West Side on Jan. 10, while the child crossed the street with his father, Richard.
- Faysal Himon, 24, who sheared off the foot of British tourist Sian Green in Rockefeller Center in August 2013 after arguing with a cyclist, which he claimed caused him to lose control and jump the curb.
- Syed Nazir, 52, who wreaked havoc in the East Village in 2010 after he allegedly rear-ended a car and then slammed into The Bean coffee shop, where the vehicle snapped 71-year-old Preston Krupin’s leg.
Even more galling is that drivers whose licenses are revoked can still be reinstated in good standing after a waiting period — in as little as three years — according to the TLC.
Most drivers involved with fatalities can be back behind the wheel in a single day — ineligible for even a temporary suspension unless they’re charged with a crime, according to the TLC.
And since cops rarely witness such accidents, most serious cab crashes result in only traffic tickets being issued — not criminal charges.
Take the case of Komlani, who was slapped with a failure-to-yield summons — which only added three points to his license, according to the DMV. The agency can also tack on eight points to drivers for speeding 31 mph to 40 mph over the limit, three for blowing a red light, and five for reckless driving.
But Komlani’s record was otherwise clean, so he is free to pick up fares.
The TLC can suspend licenses for 30 days only if a driver has racked up six or more points for moving violations, and can revoke them when a driver has amassed more than 10 points.
Critics said either the law or toothless TLC rules need to be changed.
“This culture of acceptance that traffic fatalities and serious injuries are the normal course of urban living, like the weather, is no longer acceptable,” declared Gene Russianoff, an attorney for the Straphangers Campaign.
“It is not acceptable to have people who have killed pedestrians or grievously harmed them to maintain their license,” he added, calling for mandatory post-accident suspensions, and even an automatic revocation.
The Post’s Freedom of Information Act request found that 874 hacks have had their license revoked since 2009 because of point accumulations — a tiny fraction of the 51,340 licensed cabbies in NYC.
The two drivers involved in serious crashes whose licenses were revoked were Shaiful Alam, who ran over and killed a Harlem boy in 2009 and could have been suspended before the tragedy based on his shoddy driving record; and Mohammed Azam, who last summer was sentenced to three years in jail for a 2011 incident in which he drove his cab into two men who were trying to catch a ride from Midtown to The Bronx, nearly killing one of them.
Following The Post’s inquiries last week and a series of investigations, the TLC appears poised to finally put the brakes on unsafe drivers.
Spokesman Allan Fromberg told The Post the agency is now exploring amending its rules so that a driver involved in a crash that kills or maims a pedestrian would have his license immediately suspended or revoked, pending an investigation of the crash.
“These issues are being actively discussed at this time,” he said, adding that the agency is hashing out whether city or state legislative action would be required.
Fromberg also revealed that the TLC — which has long said that it does not track accident data for its drivers — may soon do so.
“We are in the process of exploring ways to access more real-time accident data, as the data typically available to the TLC is significantly delayed,” he said, noting that data can include any information contained in an accident report.
Sources said that Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan — an initiative to be released this week aimed at reducing traffic fatalities to zero — will broaden the TLC’s role in making streets safer.
“These guys are on the road more than anyone else — we need them to be the safest drivers on the road,” said Juan Martinez, a lawyer with the pedestrian advocacy group Transportation Alternatives. “It’s appropriate to hold them to a higher standard.”
Additional reporting by Aaron Feis and Michael Gartland
Faysal Himon, 24
Road rage between a cabby and a bike messenger left a British tourist maimed for life.
Faysal Himon, 24, was driving on Sixth Avenue on Aug. 20 of last year when, he said, cyclist Kenneth Olivo, 40, cut him off.
“He was in my way and I got upset,” Himon told The Post at the time, adding that he just felt the need to “get in front of him” as the situation escalated.
Himon accelerated, lost control and crashed into Sian Green, 25, who was with a friend at Sixth Avenue and 49th Street.
The accident initially cost Green her left foot, and later the leg was amputated below the knee. Last December, she filed a notice of claim against the city, announcing her intent to sue for $27.5 million.
Himon admitted to The Post that he was a lousy driver, with records showing he already racked up nine points on his license, but had two removed for taking a defensive-driving class. After smashing into Green, he got a summons for driving a cab he was not authorized to be driving.
A manager at Arthur Cab Leasing in Queens told The Post that Himon then got a job with the firm after lying at a job interview and after a background check on his taxi license and state driver’s license didn’t show red flags.
“They both were clear,” the manager said. “I asked if he had any accidents. He said no. He drove here two days. The TLC called and asked if he was working for us and then they told me.”
Himon was fired, the manager said.
Himon still has a current taxi license.
Koffi Komlani, 54
Cabby Koffi Komlani was turning left from 97th Street onto West End Avenue on Jan. 10 of this year when he ended a life that had barely begun.
Cooper Stock, 9, and his dad, Dr. Robert Stock, were crossing the street when Komlani, 54, mowed into both, killing the boy.
Komlani was only slapped with a summons for failure to yield to a pedestrian — a fine that will cost him no more than $300.
“The fact that people can drive into people and kill them and get away with a traffic violation, which I understand is commonplace, is utterly appalling,” Cooper’s uncle, Barron Lerner, said at an Upper West Side vigil for the boy. “I can’t imagine to live in a society that would tolerate that.”
Komlani has not driven a cab since the accident, according to the TLC, but has an active license.
Usman Gul, 33
Five-year-old Timothy Keith and his parents, Joseph and Eva, were in New York City for the first time from Texas and on their way to visit the Brooklyn Bridge on April 14, 2012, when they faced tragedy at the wheel of Usman Gul’s cab.
The boy, who is deaf, broke free from his parents and ran into the middle of Hicks Street in Cobble Hill. Gul, 33, slammed on his brakes but was unable to avoid the fatal strike. “There was no time,” he told The Post at the time.
Timothy was rushed to the hospital but was declared brain-dead and taken off life support three days later.
Gul was not charged in the incident, but Timothy’s parents say his Brooklyn-based company, Autumn Cab Corp., is liable, claiming in a lawsuit transferred from Texas to Brooklyn court last December that he was driving his Ford Escape too fast and that his company is “negligent in failing to properly train and supervise” him.
Gul told The Post on Saturday (at JFK Airport, right) that he doesn’t feel bad about the accident. “Actually, no, I’m not too much sad. Actually, I’m not this fault happen [sic],” he said.
Gul, who said he was back behind the wheel of his cab just two days later, has an active license and splits use of his cab with two other drivers.