A pedestrian was killed and three others were injured in four separate automobile accidents involving yellow cabs in Manhattan yesterday. None of the cab drivers were reportedly cited for infractions.

At 1:48 a.m. a woman in her sixties whom police said may have been homeless was pinned to a utility pole by an out-of-control yellow cab SUV on Third Avenue at East 27th Street. The woman was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital. The driver, 32-year-old Sayeed Ahmed, said he was driving north on the avenue when he was bumped from behind by another car. The driver of that car, 22-year-old Derek Greenbaum, was cited with failing to yield.

Around 2:30 a.m., police and fire officials say they responded to a report of a cab striking a woman at Sixth Avenue and West 23rd Street. The woman suffered a broken pelvis, and the driver of the cab was not charged with a crime.

At 7:42 a.m., a cabbie smashed his taxi into a pole on Park Avenue at 75th Street and suffered minor injuries. Witnesses told the Post that the cab, which wasn't carrying passengers, ran up onto a median and hit a tree before it struck the pole.

At 6:45 p.m., a 59-year-old woman was struck by a cab at West 181st Street. A police spokesman said that he didn't immediately have any information available on the incident, likely because the victim's injuries were not life-threatening, but the Post's witnesses say she and her grocery bags were dragged on the ground along with the vehicle. "I saw a cabbie going real fast," the witness said. "He didn't know he hit her."

The woman was taken to Lincoln Hospital in stable condition, and the report states that the driver of the cab, a Ford Escape SUV, wasn't charged.

While several studies [PDF] have shown that cab drivers are less likely than other drivers to cause crashes that injure their passengers or pedestrians, the long hours and sedentary nature of their jobs are cause for concern. According to a recent report in Gotham Gazette, many cab drivers work 60 to 70 hours a week in 12-hour shifts, which is longer than the 11 hour shifts that drivers of 18-wheelers are permitted to work.