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Cabbie who blamed cyclist after he maimed pedestrian back behind the wheel

Victim suing city and driver for £16m

A New York cab driver who blamed a cyclist for distracting him after he mounted a kerb and hit a British tourist, causing her to lose her leg, is driving a cab again.

In August last year driver Mohammed Himon, 24, hit 40-year-old bike courier Kenneth Olivo before mounting the pavement outside Rockefeller Plaza and ploughing into British tourist Sian Green, 23 who was sitting on a wall eating a hot dog at the time.

The impact severed Green’s left foot and she was saved from potentially bleeding to death by bystanders who used improvised tourniquets to treat the wound. The damage was too severe for surgeons to be able to reattach her foot.

Himon blamed Olivo for the crash, claiming the cyclist had caused him to panic and lose control of his vehicle when he banged on the car. Olivo said he had been trying to get the driver’s attention as Himon was turning into him.

No charges were brought against Himon, though New York’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) suspended his licence for 30 days. In light of this and his previous driving violations, the TLC asked Himon to voluntarily surrender his license, but he declined.

After the crash that cost Green her leg, Himon said he wanted to try and find another line of work.

“Driving in the city is so dangerous,” he said. “I don’t want to drive a taxi. I want to study medicine to help people.”

However, he has returned to driving while he decides what he wants to do, said his lawyer, Cynthia Fisher

“He has been driving regularly, uneventfully — thank God — and just doing what he has to do,” she told the New York Post.

“He brought his family over here. Right now he’s trying to maintain them until he figures out what his next move is going to be,” she added. “I don’t think he’s really made up his mind yet.”

Himon’s first move after getting his licence back was to lie about his driving in order to get a job. He was fired from Arthur cab after his past came out.

“I asked if he had any accidents. He said no. He drove here two days,” a manager at Arthur Cab told the Post. “The TLC called and asked if he was working for us, and then they told me.”

Meanwhile Green is suing Himon and the city of New York for $27.5 million (£16.4 million), claiming that Himon’s licence should have been suspended before the crash because he had previous infractions for speeding and running a red light, and in 2010 was involved in another crash in which a person was injured.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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8 comments

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nowasps | 10 years ago
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The woman isn't suing them for anything like enough.

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congokid | 10 years ago
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You think you've heard all the self-serving, self-pitying crap that drivers come out with to justify their dangerous driving and appalling lack of regard for other road users, and then this comes along...

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FluffyKittenofT... | 10 years ago
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Cyclists really should stop being so irresponsible as to get themselves hit by drivers, given the way the poor drivers then understandably freak out and have to crash into someone else in order to calm down.

"there are too many bicycle people on the road"

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userfriendly | 10 years ago
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However, he has returned to driving because he was simply lying in order to look like a victim himself, was what his lawyer, Cynthia Fisher, didn't say.

FTFY.

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Airzound | 10 years ago
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You talkin' to me?

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brooksby | 10 years ago
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Quote:

In light of this and his previous driving violations, the TLC asked Himon to voluntarily surrender his license, but he declined.

I'm sorry, but is that a joke? An "accident" like this happens, and he is asked to voluntarily surrender his licence? Surely it should have beenm taken away pending a re-test or something???

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Saratoga | 10 years ago
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Presumably driving in NY is thought of as an absolute right and not a privilege earned, just as many in the UK see it.

Anyone who can panic and lose control of their vehicle should not be driving at all; they are a danger to all other road users and it's only good luck that they haven't killed someone yet.

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jasecd | 10 years ago
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Much like in this country it seems that there is no crime so bad that you lose your driving licence.

How on earth were no charges bought against him? A woman has lost her foot!

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