Cab Driver Leads Police on Wild Chase

He was already out on bail for allegedly trying to run over his wife. Now he's being charged with DUI and resisting arrest.

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Photo | Jeff Fusco

It was a banner weekend for allegedly drunk motorists in Philadelphia. First, we learned about the police officer caught driving on three flat tires. And now comes word of a suburban cab driver who led police on a wild chase from Penn’s Landing while allegedly under the influence.

Police say they got a call about a reckless driver early on Monday morning, and they found a taxicab from the Ardmore-based Maxwell Taxi Company stopped, facing the wrong way at the intersection of Delaware Avenue and Race Street.

According to police, the cab was running, and the driver, 48-year-old Abraham Bhatti, was asleep behind the wheel. So they knocked on the window. Bhatti didn’t respond. And so they knocked again.

Finally, Bhatti awoke. He started yelling at the cops and removed his foot from the brake, causing the car to start moving in the wrong direction, because, again, he was on the wrong side of the road. So a cop broke his driver’s side window in an effort to get him to stop.

Police say that Bhatti fled on Delaware Avenue — still in the wrong direction — and that a tire eventually fell off the cab. Still, he managed to get down to Pattison Avenue and across the Platt Bridge, winding up on I-95. Soon, he was discovered and stopped at the intersection of Delaware and Oregon avenues.

It’s understandable, perhaps, that Bhatti would want to take a drink, as troubles have been piling up for him. In January, Bhatti was arrested in Bensalem Township and charged with aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person, in addition to other charges, after he allegedly tried to run over his wife with a minivan and assaulted his 13-year-old son. He was also recently charged with violating a protection from abuse order.

For his Monday morning joyride, Bhatti has been charged with driving under the influence, resisting arrest, fleeing police officers, among other offenses. He was out on bail at the time of this latest incident.

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