NEW YORK: Rookie driver Neeru Singh says she has two things to thank for her life being saved from a passenger who assaulted and choked her through the partition window: five quick-thinking friends and their cell phones. On March 18, at 9:30am, Neeru Singh, 22, was on her way to 27th Street and Broadway when the passenger began hurling racial abuses against her.

"She asked where I was from and if I were Muslim or Hindu and then she started yelling at me that we were the cause of all the problems." She then told Neeru to "go back to your country."

All the while during the phone conversation, Neeru had a hands-free cell phone line connected on a conference call to five other taxi drivers, including three women veterans, who immediately warned her that the passenger sounded dangerous. When Neeru threatened to call the police, the passenger falsely reported that she was an undercover officer.

Nervous and afraid, Neeru took off the phone line and left it on the seat next to her, but never disconnected. After several minutes of more verbal abuse, the passenger demanded she be let out early at 28th Street and Ninth Avenue.

While Neeru went to put away the $9 for the $8.90 fare, the passenger reached out through the partition and began choking her neck with one hand and reaching for the money with the other. Neeru's friends heard the struggle and screams for help. Immediately, Raminder Singh called the police and all five friends began to go off-duty from their scattered locations and drive to the scene. Jarnail Singh dropped off a fare mid-destination and was the first to reach the scene.

Upon arriving, the friends saw a woman running away and a devastated Neeru gasping for air. "She was shaking, just trying to get her breath back," said Kaur, who came to the scene from Church and Franklin. A full description of the perpetrator was given to the police and the 10th and 13th Precincts worked together to apprehend the suspect. Neeru says she would rather take a chance getting ticketed by the TLC than chance her safety any day. "My friends saved my life. And I can only be in touch with them on the cell phone."

This is the second choking incident of a taxi driver reported to the New York Taxi Workers Alliance in less than a month. Driver Zakir Howlader was spat on, pulled out of his taxi, kicked until he fell against the curb and then choked while he lay bleeding on his back. The perpetrator - his passenger - sat on his chest, choking him, until three officers plied him off.

Despite several witness protests, the police arrested Howlader, who then faced recovering from injuries, criminal charges and the suspension of his hack license as the TLC suspends hacks upon arrest, not convictions.

Drivers say Howlader's story is becoming all too common and causing wide-spread fear that the police will side with the perpetrator. "If Neeru had elbowed (the assailant) to protect herself, she probably would have been arrested.

There is so much pressure on us, from every side. Even though we serve the public, we are treated like second-class citizens by the TLC and the passengers see it and thinks they can get away with any crimes against us," said Raminder Gill. Gill, driving four-years, says she and her friends rely on each other for the protection drivers are deprived. "We don't talk when there is a passenger, because the passenger might not like it.

But the phone is always on so if we are in trouble, any of our friends can hear and come to help," said 12-year veteran Rajni Tak. "I am also a mother, and that is a 24-hour job. My children's right to talk to me doesn't end when I turn on the ignition. I already work 12 hours every day, how much more time can I lose from my children?"

The NYTWA says the TLC should mandate signs warning against crimes against drivers inside and outside taxis and should allow taxi drivers to use hands-free cell phones, as afforded all other private and commercial motorists in New York State. "All the undercover operations and rules only reinforce the notion that drivers are isolated.

Drivers have been left without a practical or political voice that deems them powerless in the eyes of assailants," said NYTWA Executive Director Bhairavi Desai. "The cell phone is not a luxury item for us, it's our life line." said 30-year veteran Bill Lindauer. "The TLC should end the double standard."