A livery cab driver was killed in Manhattan by his own luxury black car Thursday as he tried to pick up two female passengers, police sources and witnesses said.
The driver, 58, got out of his Ford Expedition to open the door for the women in front of a TD Bank on Madison Avenue near East 49th Street shortly before 11:30 a.m., witnesses said.
He realized then he hadn’t put the car into park, and got halfway back in the drivers seat — but accidentally hit the gas.
The car surged forward and pinned him against a parked 2013 Ford Econoline.
“He was half in, and half out of the car,” said Phil DeVito, 60, who runs New York business for Capital One and hails from Staten Island. “The door is smashed forward, it pinned him.”
A good Samaritan then jumped into the car to keep it from crashing into a truck and causing a second collision.
“He’s a hero like Batman,” said DeVito.”He just did it while everyone stopped looking.”
The cabbie was rushed to New York Presbyterian Hospital in critical condition, and died there.
Medics at the scene had tried to revive him with chest compressionss.