By Kriston Capps | DCist.com

An arrest is pending for the driver who crashed his cab into Solly’s Tavern last night, an accident that caused several minor injuries and opened up a wall in the U Street corner bar. According to a police report, Afework Berhane, a 42-year-old driver from Northwest, faces arrest for operating a car with a suspended driver’s license and for hacking (operating a taxi) without a license.

Berhane could not give a statement to police or recall what had happened when they arrived at the scene of the accident. The officer leading the investigation cited a “medical emergency of an unknown nature” as the reason for the accident. Unable to provide further information, Berhane was admitted to George Washington Hospital, where he is still being treated as of this writing. Hospital officials could not say whether he would be released directly into police custody.

Berhane’s Maryland driver’s license was suspended in March 2008. His District of Columbia Taxicab Commission face-identification card expired January 31, 2008. There were no insurance records in his car at the time of the accident.

Eileen Naples of Arlington had stepped into the cab at the northeast corner of 11th and U Streets NW and was waiting for her cousin to get in when Berhane peeled off in a diagonal direction across the intersection. Doctors believe that Naples broke her nose but she says she is otherwise alright. She could not say what caused the accident. “The door was still open,” she says. “I didn’t even have time to react.”

Four friends who were sitting in the bar’s window nook facing 11th Street were taken to area hospitals. Though all four of them were assumed to have broken bones, x-rays revealed that their injuries were limited to bruises and lacerations.

“I was basically pinned up against the car and the building,” says Mariel Wiswell, one of the four sitting in the window. “We think it’s a miracle that nothing was broken and that we’re still here. You don’t hear about people living through something like this.”

Her boyfriend, Eric Backus, says that he nicked an artery in his right leg that was still bleeding. All four Northwest residents have been released from medical care.

Wiswell said that she and others could see Berhane experiencing what appeared to be seizure-like symptoms in the cab. “Out of nowhere, this loud crash—and everything was in slow motion. The accelerator was still on,” she recalls. “He was seizing still on the scene.”

A woman who picked up the call at the company listed as the taxicab’s owner said that she did not speak English and did not comment further.

Although the bar now has a new and unsolicited east entryway, that will not prevent Solly’s from opening for Saturday night. The bar will open at 6 p.m. tonight and intends to keep normal business hours open for the duration of repairs.

Photo by Tracy Clayton