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| The May 20th crash scene overlooking Petterino's restaurant. |
Posted: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 6:18AM
Cab crashes into downtown restaurant... again
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CHICAGO (CBS/WBBM) ― It's happened again. A taxi cab crashed into Petterino's restaurant at Dearborn and Randolph Streets this morning, a month after another cab slammed into the restaurant.
Only this time, the crash happened before the restaurant was open for business.
The crash happened around 5 a.m. today. WBBM's Kris Habermehl reports two cabs, one headed south on Dearborn and the other west on Randolph, collided sending one of the vehicles into the restaurant.
No injuries are reported but there's plenty of broken glass to clean up. A front plate glass window was destroyed, and planters were pushed up against the building.
The restaurant is part of the Goodman Theater complex.
On April 14th, a taxicab drove into the side of a crowded downtown Petterino's restaurant around 1:45 p.m., shattering windows and causing a passenger to suffer minor injuries.
The Ace cab struck a pair of French doors on the east side of the downtown eatery, which at 150 N. Dearborn is located at the intersection of Randolph and Dearborn.
 Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said the cab swerved to avoid another vehicle and hit the building in the April crash.
 CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports the cab driver, Taofeek Rahman of Chicago, says he was rear-ended as he stopped to pick up a passenger, which caused him to veer into the restaurant.
But a passenger in the backseat of the cab said everything happened so fast that he wasn't sure how the cab ended up hitting the restaurant.
"I don't know how this happened. It seemed like he just lost control,'' said Michael Love, 25, of Englewood.
Love said he and his 21-year-old girlfriend were in the cab and headed westbound on Randolph on the way to the nearby Daley Center when the cab suddenly took a right turn on Dearborn, away from the Daley Center.
A taxi crashed into the front entrance of Petterino's April 14, 2009. (Ron Gleason/WBBM )
Both he and his girlfriend hit their heads on the partition between the front and back seats in the cab. His girlfriend complained of a headache and went to get medical care, but Love didn't know where she went or if she suffered a more serious injury. Fire Department officials said two people were examined at the scene, but no one was transported to the hospital.
No one was sitting at the table in Petterino's bar closest to where the cab hit, and the restaurant's popular outdoor seating was not open.
Rahman has one moving violation conviction on his record and was involved in an accident in July 2007, according to the Illinois Secretary of State.
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Contents of this site are Copyright 2009 by CBS 2. WBBM contributed to this report.
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