Seven-Vehicle Pileup on I-494 Claims Life of Cab Driver

A 57-year-old Burnsville cab driver on his way to pick a passenger up from an Edina location died shortly after 5 a.m. this morning as part of a multi-vehicle crash on I-494, near the France Avenue exit.

The massive crash involved a tanker truck and six other vehicles, according to information released by the Minnesota State Patrol. Cab driver Nadir Ombabi, 57, of Burnsville, was the lone fatality in the incident.

A 64-year-old Minneapolis man also sustained injuries, but the State Patrol reports they were non-life threatening. The other seven people involved in the pileup did not sustain any apparent injuries.

An unlicensed motorist who ran out of gas in the far right lane of the interstate, where three vehicles crashed into it. Isidoro Corona, 49, of Minneapolis, has been booked into the Hennepin County Jail as he was driving on a revoked license at the time.

Court records reportedly show Corona being cited at least six times in the state for driving without a valid license since 2005, in addition to other traffic violations.

Lt. Eric Roeske with the Minnesota State Patrol said Ombabi's cab appears to have been rear-ended as it slowed for the crash in the right lane. The vehicle went spinning out of control and was sideways in the westbound lanes of traffic when it was struck by the semi.

I-494 was closed off until nearly 9:15 a.m., while the State Patrol investigated the incident, according to Roeske. 

Ombabi had been a driver at Northstar Taxi for five years now, according to comments made by owner Gamal Eshmawy to the Star Tribune. This is the first fatality for a driver with Northstar since it started in 1980, he said.

"He was very, very polite," Eshmawy told the paper. "A very nice person. It's really, really sad."

Ombabi was a native of Sudan, where Eshmawy said he studied medicine. He reportedly has a sister in Canada and a brother living in California.