A fast getaway attempt nearly cost a driver his life after his alleged reign of destruction through a Brooklyn neighborhood ended in a high-speed crash that flipped his minivan on its side, briefly pinning the man underneath.
Police said the 61-year-old driver was speeding from the scene of a hit-and-run in Brownsville where he had allegedly struck a 26-year-old woman and 3-year-old toddler Saturday. The woman had been pushing her stroller near Rockaway Parkway and Winthrop Street around 4 p.m., according to cops.
The van driver didn’t stick around, and instead floored on the gas and took off. He appeared to make it a handful of blocks before surveillance video seemingly caught him smashing into two parked cars on Blake Avenue.
Cell phone video from the scene showed neighbors working together to push the van upright and rescue the driver who was still pinned in the driver’s seat.
Danny Square, a delivery driver, was at both scenes Saturday. He told News 4 he witnessed the van driver strike the pedestrians and a car before making a U-turn and taking off. Square decided to follow the man.
“I don’t know where he was going, he tried to hit someone and flee so I had to chase him,” Square explained.
That same bit of surveillance video that captured the crash and end to the driver’s destructive spree also caught Square pulling up on his bike. After helping out at the scene, Square said something inside the minivan caught his eye.
“He was drunk because we find in his car three bottles of open Hennessy bottles,” he told News 4.
The driver was taken into custody at the second scene. Police did not immediately release his identity or potential criminal charges.
The mother and young daughter she was pushing in the stroller when they were struck by the driver are expected to make a recovery, officials said Saturday.
