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A group of yellow cab drivers spent Friday evening trying to reach a friend who’d stopped answering after a drop-off in the West Village. He’d started his shift that afternoon, and the drivers who work alongside him check in with each other throughout the day, so his silence stood out. When calls went unanswered for hours, they went to the broker who handles his taxi medallion, who used the GPS locator attached to the cab’s meter to find it.
The cab was parked near Seventh Avenue and Charles Street, according to amNY, which reported that the friends reached it around 11 p.m. and found the driver inside. Jagjit Singh, 53, had pulled over there after dropping off passengers, and he died in the taxi, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance told NY1. One source described him to the station as having suffered a medical episode.
Singh drove a cab for 20 years and leaves behind his wife and 10-year-old twins. On Tuesday, his family returned to the corner where he died, joined by friends, fellow drivers and advocates for a memorial. Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the Taxi Workers Alliance, said it breaks their hearts that he took his last breath in the car where he was supposed to be working.
According to the alliance, Singh is the third taxi driver found dead in their cab in three months. Advocates told NY1 the deaths point to the physical and emotional toll of the job, with drivers working long hours under heavy stress. Taxi and Limousine Commission Commissioner Midori Valdivia, who attended the memorial, said changes are needed to address what drivers are facing, and tied the issue to the affordability crisis the mayor has been talking about.
Someone close to Singh’s family also asked the city to offer social service assistance in multiple languages, saying language barriers can keep people from seeking help when they need it.
