Harrowing dashcam video shows the moment an unlicensed driver speeding in his daddy’s car slammed into a vehicle inside the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, seriously injuring two people, according to authorities and sources.
Jorje Beato, who only has a learner’s permit, was driving his father’s 2014 Jeep Patriot while high on a mix of cocaine and marijuana around 1:20 a.m. April 28 when he crashed through a barrier at the closed 35th Street ramp and into the tunnel heading into Queens, according to sources familiar with the incident.
Beato, 18, continued heading east, driving at approximately 60 miles per hour — while both lanes of traffic were actually traveling in the opposite direction, into Manhattan, the sources said.
The shocking footage from Uber driver Zafar Iqbal’s dashcam, which was posted to Twitter by @NYScanner, then shows the Jeep turn the bend and drive directly into the path of Iqbal’s oncoming vehicle.
As Beato’s SUV got closer, Iqbal tried to drive toward the middle of the tunnel, video shows, but was unable to avoid being struck.
The teen then fled from the Jeep, and unknowingly into the hands of waiting MTA Bridges and Tunnels Officer Greg Baranowski, who was on his way into the tunnel in his patrol car at the time.
Beato, who was combative and incoherent, initially pointed his cellphone at Baranowski, as if to simulate a weapon, and later resisted arrest, the sources said. Empty plastic baggies that contained drugs were found inside the car, the sources said.
He told cops he was on his way to a hotel to get some rest, the sources said.
The Bronx man was charged with reckless driving, criminal possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of marijuana, leaving the scene of an accident with injury and unlicensed operating, according to authorities.
Both the Uber driver and his passenger suffered serious, non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, according to the source.