1. FROM: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/channel-7-chopper-pilot-killed-runaway-taxi-article-1.230423
In accordance with Federal Laws provided For Educational and Information Purposes – i.e. of PUBLIC Interest
Channel 7 chopper pilot killed by runaway taxi
BY Adam Lisberg & Bill Hutchinson
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Monday, October 8 2007, 1:13 AM
One person was killed and several others injured when a cab crashed into them on 3rd Avenue.
Pat Dello Iacono was celebrating his 80th birthday with Smith and his family when the accident happened.

2. Paul Smith
An out-of-control cab jumped a curb outside a midtown restaurant last night, hitting and killing one man and
injuring three of his relatives as they said goodbye after a birthday dinner.
Paul Smith, a 60-year-old helicopter pilot for WABC-Channel 7, died in the 9:45 p.m. accident at E. 40th St. and
Third Ave., relatives said.
Smith, the father of an NYPD officer assigned to the 75th Precinct, won an Emmy in 2005 for coverage of a News
Channel 4 helicopter crash in Brooklyn.
At least three other members of Smith's family, including his wife, Donna, 55, who suffered a broken leg, were
rushed to area hospitals, police and relatives said.
"We were just saying goodbye and this cab just ran him over," Tom Dello Iacono said of relative Paul Smith, who
was pinned by the yellow cab.
Another family member, Charlotte Della Iacono of Florida, was being treated at Bellevue Hospital for minor
injuries, said Tom Dello Iacono, of Long Island.
A 7-year-old boy from Broken Arrow, Okla., was also injured in the crash and taken to Bellevue, fire officials said.
The child is related to the Della Iaconos, police said.
Tom Dello Iacono said he and his family had just eaten at Docks Oyster Bar and Seafood Grill and were standing
in front of the restaurant when the cab hurtled toward them.
They were at the restaurant celebrating the birthday of Pat Della Iacono, Charlotte's husband.
Donna Smith, of West Islip, was being treated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell for a broken leg,
fire officials said.

3. The accident remained under investigation early this morning. No charges were immediately filed against the cab
driver, who police declined to identify.
Witnesses said the cab appeared to be speeding uptown when the driver lost control.
The taxi plowed into a concrete planter box and a sidewalk tree before smashing into the pedestrians, trapping
Smith underneath, witnesses said.
Ty Willing, of the Philippines, said he and two friends were walking past the restaurant when the cab came
speeding toward them. He said he was brushed by the taxi's bumper and knocked to the ground.
"The taxi suddenly came and swerved and hit down the flowerpot and the tree and then the man," Willing said.
"He was pinned under the car. I was right behind the man who was pinned."
Willing's friend, Marlon Co, said he saw Smith kissing a woman goodbye just before he was struck.
"I saw the cab coming really fast," Co said. "Fifty or 60 [mph] and then it came into the tree."
Diners inside Docks described hearing "a boom" and then saw distraught witnesses running back into the
restaurant screaming for help.
"There was a guy laying down. He looked dead," said one diner, who rushed to the window. "There was a lot of
blood."