The incident happened at 49th Street and Sixth Avenue around 11:20 a.m.
The crash happened directly under a traffic camera, which showed the cab up on the sidewalk.
A bicyclist was also struck, and the cab and cyclist were pointing fingers on who caused the accident. Police are still investigating the circumstances. The cab driver was questioned at the scene, given 3 summonses and then released.
EMS was on the scene, but several passersby helped the injured victims.
The most seriously hurt was Sian Green, a young female tourist from England who was walking with a friend. She was rushed to Bellevue Hospital with serious injuries to her legs. One of them was severed according to witnesses.
"The cab just came off the street on to the sidewalk, hit her and her leg got pinned against the concrete. I just jumped up...grabbed my belt and put it on her leg as tight as I could," said David Justino.
Justino, 44-years-old, is a union plumber trained in emergency first aid.
He used his belt to help stop the bleeding from the woman's leg. Witnesses grabbed the severed leg and put it in ice.
"I just told her sweetheart, I've got you, an ambulance is coming," adds Justino.
Max Crespo, who owns a food truck down the street, came running when he saw crash.
"A yellow cab jumped the curb, didn't hit any breaks, hit a girl and knocked her leg right off, and probably the other one too," he said. "A gentleman, a plumber, he saved her leg, grabbed his belt and applied the first tourniquet. We grabbed a dog leash from some person, I don't know where they went, and [tied] the other tourniquet. We grabbed the bottom part of her leg and put it in an ice bucket and filled it with ice."
Magdy Elsayed rushed over with his cooler as other vendors gave bags of ice.
Celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz heard the accident and rushed to the scene to help out, staying until ambulances arrived.
The studio where he tapes his syndicated talk show is nearby.
Oz says in a statement that emergency medical crews were already treating the injured woman who had a bad leg wound. He says a good Samaritan made a tourniquet out of a belt for the woman.
Police questioned the driver, 24-year-old Mohammad Himon, for more than an hour. He was finally released after being given three summonses. Both the driver and a bicyclist, who was slightly injured, blamed each other for causing the accident. The good Samaritans said they were just thinking about the victim.
