US News

ST. PAT’S PANIC

A doorman bizarrely took the wheel of a cab idling across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral yesterday, lost control and nearly crushed a crowd of worshipers filing in for Holy Thursday Mass, police and witnesses said.

Miraculously, the lone victim was a woman from Arkansas, who was merely grazed by the car as she jumped out of the way.

“Luckily, she got out of the way, because otherwise, it could have been a lot worse,” said an officer at the scene.

“It’s a miracle that no one was seriously injured.”

It made for a wild first day on the job for cabby Joseph Horvath, who pulled up to the Olympic Tower on East 51st Street near Fifth Avenue at about 12:45 p.m. to drop off an elderly woman.

As Horvath helped her to the door, a building doorman, identified by a source as William E. Zambri, helped himself to the cab — apparently because it was blocking traffic.

“I didn’t give anyone permission to move the car,” said Horvath. “If he waited another 20 seconds, I would have moved it.”

Instead, the doorman lunged forward, clipped a parked car and careened across the street — hopping the curb in front of the cathedral.

It barely caught the rectory wall on the north side, which stopped it from bulldozing a horde of churchgoers.

“I thought someone got killed,” Horvath said.

Zambri, who police said will not be charged, told cops he heard an approaching fire engine and jumped in the cab because he was afraid it was blocking the way, the source said.

The near-catastrophe terrified tourists.

“We were just sitting on the steps and we looked up and the cab is coming straight at us,” said Michael, a visitor from Germany who would not give his last name.

“It’s a miracle no one is injured or killed.”

When Horvath ran over to the church, he saw that the car’s bumper was torn off and the left side was smashed.

Horvath, who started driving a cab part-time because his roofing business was slow, said he now fears having to pay for the damage.

“I really can’t afford it. I don’t have money like that,” he said. “I did this to make extra money.”

He said he had no idea how the doorman lost control.

Olympic Tower building managers refused to comment on the doorman’s actions.

john.doyle@nypost.com