A driver has died after a fiery crash in Brooklyn Saturday morning. Police believe the car was speeding and slammed into a pillar under elevated train tracks causing the car to split in half and burst into flames.


What You Need To Know

  • A driver was speeding on Atlantic Avenue early Saturday morning

  • The vehicle hit the median, pillar and caught fire

  • Police say the driver died

  • People in the neighborhood say speeding is a problem on Atlantic Avenue and Rochester Ave in Bedford Stuyvesant

“It’s hurtful to see someone stuck in a car, you don’t know what their last moments were like,” Reuben Cardoza said.

Cardoza, a food delivery worker, viewed the damage from a car that went up in flames early Saturday morning.

“Doing Door Dash right now I got stopped that way,” he said. “Then I come back and around and see this.”

Police said it was at around 3:30 Saturday morning when the driver of a Maserati was speeding at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Rochester Ave. He lost control, hit the median, pillar and that’s when the car caught fire. Cardoza said people speeding like this is concerning to him especially since he commutes by bike.

“I do Door Dash on a bike sometimes, yeah, it gets scary how people drive. My kids’ mother tells me be careful and this is why,” Cardoza said.

Police said while the driver has died, a passerby on the road helped to remove the passenger from the vehicle, before that person was taken to Brookdale Hospital.

People in the neighborhood crowded around the vehicle as police investigated the scene. Cardoza and other neighbors had these messages for drivers.

“No matter what time of the day it is you got to slow down, if you’re late you’re late, as long as you get there, all that rushing, this is what happens,” Cardoza said.

“I think you’re crazy to be driving fast on Atlantic Ave period,” Jay Williams said, viewing the investigation behind police tape.