Driver Says He's Scared To Get Behind The Wheel After BQE Accident
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A driver narrowly escaped a terrifying accident on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway this week as a dozen metal poles flew off a flatbed truck, sending one smashing through his windshield.
As CBS2's Ali Bauman reported, Munther Abu-Hamda's black car is now parked and is going to stay that way for the foreseeable future after the poles fell off a truck on the BQE Thursday night, creating a rainstorm of pipes all over the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. They dented his car and pierced his windshield.
"I can't explain for you because I'm thinking to die," Abu-Hamda said. "I expected more pipes coming through my windshield to my side."
The accident happened around 8:30 p.m. and caused a traffic nightmare on the BQE near Atlantic Avenue for the next three hours while crews cleaned up.
Abu-Hamada said he cannot imagine what would have happened if the pole had struck just a couple feet to the side, and said just the thought of it is enough to scare him out of getting back behind the wheel.
"I'm not driving. I'm scared to drive, I'm scared to drive," he said.
That fear poses a problem for the Staten Island father of six who has been working as a black car driver for the past 20 years.
"I'm thinking of my kids. What's going to happen if something happens to me? How will my kids survive?" Abu-Hamada said.
He's also thinking about the driver of the flatbed, whom he just got a glimpse of from below the overpass.
"I asked the officer how this guy's feeling, he said he can't talk, he's in shock," Abu-Hamada said.
Authorities said no one was hurt and there were no arrests.
