Shocking dashcam footage shows ride share driver attacked by passenger
A ride share driver was violently attacked by a belligerent passenger after refusing to speed through traffic and the altercation was captured in a distressing dashcam video.
Police are still searching for the suspect, identified in the video as “Georgie,” who entered the 2017 Ford Explorer with a female companion in Queens, New York on Thursday.
Driver Eduardo Madiedo works for Lyft, a ride sharing service similar to Uber.
According to NBC News, the pair booked him to take them to Mount Sanai hospital.
The video shows Mr Madiedo driving as the man begins to moan in pain, he then lies down in the backseat while the woman sits quietly with her arm resting on his shoulder.
At the two-minute mark, the distressed passenger pulls off his sweatshirt and demands that Mr Madiedo drive faster.
“I’m sorry, man,” Mr Madiedo responds, adding that the road is blocked with traffic.
The passenger then starts swearing and that prompts the driver to say, “If you’re going to be disrespectful, I’ll just pull over right now.”
Suddenly the man pounces from the backseat, savagely attacking Mr Madiedo with barrage of punches as he tries to navigate the car and fend off his attacker at the same time.
The passenger even partially climbs into the front seat to pummel the defenceless driver as the woman yells, “Georgie, stop!”
Mr Madiedo eventually manages to pull his car over to the side of the road and the passengers get out.
The driver appears shaken as he tries to collect himself.
"Something triggered him and he just punched me in the back of the head all of a sudden, It was really unexpected," Mr Madiedo told WCBS 880.
"When he punched me, he knocked my glasses off, I couldn't really see that well. That was my concern, not to hit anybody else or crash my car and make things worse."
The suspect was later banned by Lyft, and police are still searching for him.
Mr Madiedo refused medical attention after the beating, according to the New York Post, but the assault made him reconsider his ridesharing gig.
He told WCBS 880, “I feel like I have to look for a new job or a new form of income.”
Mr Madiedo isn’t the first Lyft driver to make headlines after being attacked by a passenger.
In August last year, a driver was severely beaten by four passengers in South Los Angeles ,who also took his wallet and $700 worth of property from the car, according to NBC Los Angeles.
The suspects crashed the car and were later arrested with police labelling the incident a carjacking.
And just last month, a Lyft driver in Pittsburgh was attacked by a passenger for moving too slowly, just like Madiedo, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
That driver was also not seriously injured.
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, download the Yahoo News app from iTunes or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo’s daily newsletter. Sign up here.
