A cab roaring down Second Avenue yesterday smashed into two cars, lost a wheel, jumped the curb and plowed into a newsstand, killing an elderly man buying a newspaper.
A doorman at a nearby apartment building raced to the carnage to pull the dazed newsstand vendor from the wreckage of his kiosk and tried to help the mortally wounded victim.
But the doorman was unable to save Ralph Onorato, 76, of 303 E. 57th St., who was taken to NYU Hospital and declared dead from massive internal injuries.
Detectives were treating the crash as an accident last night and had not charged the driver, whose name they did not release.
The cabby told cops his gas pedal had gotten stuck and his brakes didn’t work.
Witnesses along the busy East Side intersection said the terrifying chain of events began at 11:50 a.m. as two vehicles, a Toyota, and a yellow cab behind it, waited in a right lane at a red light on Second Avenue at 58th Street.
Suddenly, another yellow cab came flying up behind them, first slamming into the rear passenger side of the taxi, causing it to rear-end the Toyota. The first cab – which witnesses said was speeding – then continued, sideswiping the Toyota’s right side.
“The driver had no control of the car. He hit me, then the car in front of me,” said cabby Azhar Iqbal, 43.
The impact sheared off the speeding cab’s left front tire and the metal wheel base screeched along the pavement with sparks shooting out as the taxi zoomed diagonally across Second Avenue.
Next, it jumped the curb at the southeast corner at 57th Street, smashing into the newsstand, mowing down Onorato and injuring pedestrian George Vasquez.
The collision sent shards of wood and metal from the newsstand flying into a Duane Reade store, smashing a window.
Chris Falcon, a doorman at 300 E. 57th St., said: “I heard the noise and thought the building was coming down.” Falcon, 60, ran to the rubble and pulled out news vendor Amin Nurul, and then attempted to help Onorato, but “he was in really bad shape.”
Onorato was pronounced dead at 1:50 p.m.
Vasquez, who suffered minor leg injuries, said: “I could have been killed, so I feel very lucky.”
Witnesses said the cab appeared to speed up after it hit the two cars and headed for the newsstand. They said they saw no brake lights.
“I think the driver panicked and pushed the accelerator,” said Ronny Mintz, a passenger in the Toyota.
Nurul said: “The wall hit me from behind and everything fell on me, but I’m alright. I’m lucky.”
A Post investigation two weeks ago revealed that taxicabs routinely race along Manhattan avenues at up to 40 mph over the speed limit.
ANATOMY OF A SMASH-UP
1) Cab strikes rear of a second cab stopped at a red light, forcing it into the rear of a Toyota.
2) Out-of-control cab jumps curb and smashes into newsstand.
3) Shards from the newsstand shatter a Duane Reade window. A doorman saves the vendor, but customer Ralph Onorato is killed.