NYC yellow cabbie badly hurt by 100 mph Midtown Manhattan drag racer, police say

A yellow cab driver was badly hurt in Midtown when a drag racer going an estimated 100 mph slammed into his car and dragged it for nearly a block authorities said Tuesday.

The victim, Golam Uddin, 51, fractured his collarbone, patella and multiple ribs.

The suspect, Hamza Salman, 27, was charged with assault, reckless endangerment and participating in a speed contest or race.

The collision happened 4:35 a.m. Sunday at Fifth Ave. and W. 44th St.

Salman, speeding down the avenue in his white 2018 BMW M5, ran red lights at 46th, 45th and 44th streets as he raced a blue BMW, authorities said.

At W. 44th St., Salman slammed into Uddin’s taxi.

The force of the collision sent the taxi a full block south until he came to a rest at W. 43rd St., the criminal complaint said.

“I caught the red light and I hit the taxi,” Salman said, according to a complaint in Manhattan Criminal Court. “It wasn’t red when I hit it. It was yellow and the taxi was in the middle lane and I hit it.”

Uddin, the complaint said, was in shock and incoherent when first responders got to the scene. He was in critical condition when medics rushed him to Bellevue Hospital.

Salman, who lives in Queens, was arraigned Sunday and let go under supervised release.

The driver he was racing fled the scene, police said.

Uddin’s wife, Masuma Akter, said she was upset that a judge let Salman free while the case is pending.

“How come they released him?” she said. “My husband is in the hospital. He hit my husband’s car. Now he is going be in the hospital.

“My husband’s suffering. We have kids. They released this guy. I don’t feel good. They only keep him one day and they release him.”

Akter, 41, said her husband was lucky to be alive.

“It’s like a miracle!,” she said. “You see that car? You see that picture? My husband was in the driver’s seat.”

Akter was describing the twisted yellow metal that was once Uddin’s livelihood. She said her heard a noise, and then everything was black.

“They did one surgery near the collarbone,” she said. “They put a screw in. He has two more surgeries. He is in a lot of pain and sleeping. His left side, his collarbone — he broke eight ribs. He said, ‘I don’t even remember what happened.’”

Akter said she got a call about the incident a couple of hours later.

“I was very shocked,” she said. “Sometimes he came late, but most of the time he comes 2:30 or 3:00 a.m. He’s driving taxis almost 27 years. He has never had anything like this happen.

“He also is shocked. He likes this job. He has his own taxi. He says, ‘I love my job.’”

Akter said she and Uddin met in Bangladesh in 1995. They have seven children ranging from 7 months old to 21 years old. She said his taxi driving has kept the family together.

Akter said her husband is a former president of Bangladesh Yellow Society New York, an association of Bangladeshi taxi drivers.

“He’s been doing it a while,” she said. “He was just doing his job and suddenly that happens.”

A current member of the association, who described Golam as a “nice guy” and “pious” man, was concerned about how his friend would make ends meet.

“What’s he going to do now?” questioned Me Salam. “He is now in serious condition. He cannot work. How is he gonna maintain his family?”