Police collared a Bonnie and Clyde duo accused of a brazen lunchtime bank robbery yesterday when their stolen getaway car crashed into vehicles at an Upper East Side intersection, injuring police officers and scattering cash in the street.

Taxicab driver Surinder Kumar, 38, said he feared being carjacked when the getaway car crashed into the front of his cab while he waited at a traffic light at East 85th Street and First Avenue.

“The robber, he was trying to open the door,” said Mr. Kumar. “I was afraid that he would try to hijack my car. The cops that were chasing them, they came over there, drew their guns, and made him get down on the ground.”

Police arrested the accused robber, Douglas Williams, 51, of the Bronx, and the accused getaway driver, Tasha Beasley, 33, of Manhattan, who allegedly fled the bank in a stolen car after stealing $795.

Mr. Williams allegedly passed a threatening note to a teller at 11:35 a.m. at Fourth Federal Savings Bank at 1335 First Ave. and Ms. Beasley drove the getaway car north eight blocks and turned east, the wrong way onto the one-way East 85th Street, where she rammed into two parked cars and hit a taxicab and a police car. Two police officers suffered bruises to the neck and back when their vehicle was struck. Police would not comment on a witness’s statement that the officers were driving an unmarked taxicab.

Mr. Kumar said he got out of his cab and backed away as the Mr. Williams struggled with police officers while cash scattered in the street.

“There were 10…15 cops and he was struggling with them,” said Mr. Kumar. “It took five or 10 minutes to get cuffs on him because he was resisting. They had a hard time getting his arms behind his back. He was trying to run away. One of the cops was picking the money off the ground.”

Zalman Beigel, 58, was helping his son paint his apartment at 400 E. 85th St. when he heard the crash and looked out the window. Mr. Beigel said he saw two men fighting. One of them was the male suspect and the other was an undercover police officer who had driven a taxicab to the scene, and at first he couldn’t tell which one was the suspect and which was the officer. Then, about a dozen police cars arrived and more officers joined in the struggle, said Mr. Beigel, who went down to the street for a closer look.

“[The suspect] was wearing a hood, like an Eskimo hood,” said Mr. Beigel, wearing paint-splattered clothes as police taped off East 85th Street and stood guard around the smashed-up sedan.”[The suspect] was fighting with the young policeman. There were a lot of undercover guys. For a moment, I thought the policeman was the robber.”

Mr. Beigel also noticed that officers were gathering “a lot of money” off the street and collecting it in a hubcap that had fallen off the sedan. Mr. Kumar said the bills appeared to be of modest denomination – mostly $5 and $10 bills. Police said they found more money in the getaway sedan. “There was cash all over the inside of the car,” said a police source.

Police said that someone called 911 during the robbery, and responding officers spotted a man fitting the description of Mr. Williams getting into the Nissan near the bank. Police followed the getaway car to 85th Street, where the crash and arrests occurred.

Mr. Williams and Ms. Beasley were each charged with first-degree robbery, two counts of assaulting a police officer, unauthorized use of a vehicle, and criminal possession of stolen property. In addition, Mr. William allegedly had two crack pipes in his pocket and was charged with two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance.