8th tragic driver
Cabbie kills self as e-hails cripple business
Crippling competition from Uber and Lyft has driven another desperate city cab driver to suicide — the eighth this year — according to industry officials who said the cabbie hanged himself inside his Queens home.
Taxi medallion owner and driver Roy Kim's body was found hanging from a belt in the bathroom of his Flushing home last week, the latest in a staggering string of suicides to hit the city's yellow cab and black car industries, both of which have suffered in the new era of ride-sharing apps.
Kim, 58, who rented a room on the third floor of a 45th Road building, worked around the clock, but it apparently wasn't enough to plug the financial dam that began to break as the value of his oncevaluable taxi began to plummet, and he struggled to record as many fares.
Neighbor Wonsik Kim, 45, said the cabbie moved into the building four years ago, and mostly kept to himself.
The neighbor said Kim didn't often talk about his money woes, except once last year when the value of his medallion dropped.
“We talked about it last summer,” the neighbor said. “The value went down so he was kind of stressed. He worked seven days a week from 8 a.m. to almost midnight.”
The neighbor said he was not home when Kim's body was found. He was out working — as an Uber driver.
“Before I started Uber, he was OK,” the neighbor said. “But after he bought the medallion, and I started Uber, not that much. He was a little different.”
Kim was last seen seen Oct. 29, and was found dead Nov. 5, cops said. The person who found the body said Kim hadn't been seen in several days. Police said he may have been dead several days.
“We have suffered yet another devastating loss with the suicide of taxi owner/driver Roy Kim,” said Taxi & Limousine Commission boss Meera Joshi.
“This tragedy underscores the importance of finding new ways for government, the industry and lenders to work in unity to address the financial challenges that are weighing so heavily on our licensees.”
In September, driver Fausto Luna, 58, jumped in front of an oncoming A train at the 175th Street/Fort Washington Ave. station in Washington Heights. Livery driver representatives said he had become distraught over skyrocketing debts.
In June, cabbie Abdul Saleh, 59, hanged himself inside his Brooklyn apartment over similar debt woes. The Yemeni immigrant drove a yellow cab for 30 years, sending money across the Atlantic to help his family in the war-torn nation.
A month earlier, driver Yu Mein (Kenny) Chow's body was found in the East River after he had been missing for 11 days, officials said.
For months, cabbies have called for a cap on Uber and other for-hire companies to tie fares to the meter rate.
Advocates for struggling cabbies have said the city and the TLC should offer bailouts to make up for auctioning off medallions at ridiculous prices before allowing the market to become flooded with e-hail car services
“Modifying, restructuring and lowering loans would go a long way in providing relief and keeping taxi services available to New Yorkers for years to come.” Joshi said.
The Independent Drivers Guild urged despondent drivers to get counseling.
“The for-hire vehicle industry is in a far reaching crisis that is affecting thousands of families across our city right now,” the group said in a statement. “Years of sub-minimum wage pay, mounting bills, exploitative bosses and punishing shifts have taken a great toll on our city's for-hire drivers.”