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Three Hudson Valley women had the ride — and the scare — of their lives on Wednesday when the driver of a taxi they were taking to a medical appointment in Manhattan led police on a fast-moving chase through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel at the height of morning rush hour.
A 33-year-old Bronx man was behind the wheel just after 9 a.m. when an officer with the MTA Police Department, part of a multiagency task force specifically targeting “ghost vehicles” and their drivers flouting traffic laws on the Queens side of the tunnel, ordered him to pull over and stop the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Instead, the man swerved around the uniformed cop standing in a traffic lane at the mouth of the East River crossing. The Jeep drove over a line of traffic cones and forced other task force officers conducting enforcement to scatter from the path of the oncoming SUV. As it disappeared into the narrow, two-lane tunnel, officers gave chase, recording the speeding vehicle’s efforts to escape on a patrol car dashcam.
Approximately 1 minute, 50 seconds later — and more than halfway to Manhattan — the Jeep was boxed in by two patrol vehicles and forced to finally stop. Removed from his seat by officers, the driver struggled and flailed his arms in an attempt to avoid getting handcuffed.
When other officers opened the rear passenger-side doors of the Jeep, its three anguished passengers — sisters, ages 65 and 67, from Westchester County, and the elder woman’s daughter, 45, who lives in Putnam County — were hysterically crying as a result of the ordeal.
Minutes later, the women, still visibly shaking inside an NYPD van, told officers they called a medical transport company that morning to arrange a ride to Midtown Manhattan for a doctor’s appointment.
Unbeknownst to them, their driver had a license that was suspended seven times. And the 2018 Jeep he was operating had a fraudulent paper license plate purportedly issued in Georgia that lacked required security features normally displayed on such temporary plates. It also showed a vehicle identification number that did not belong to the same SUV.
The Jeep also had two active registration suspensions for unpaid toll violations and parking judgments and had an expired inspection sticker and expired insurance. Further, the excessively dark tinting on the Jeep’s windshield and side-door windows rendered them nearly completely black.
The three passengers were transported by police to a hospital in Westchester County, where they were treated for minor injuries. One NYPD officer and one MTA officer also sustained minor injuries — to their knees, an elbow, and a hand — during the struggle to take the driver into custody. They, too, were treated and released from a local hospital.
The interagency task force responsible for getting these kinds of illegal vehicles and their drivers off New York City roads is comprised of officers from the NYPD, the NYC Sheriff’s Office, the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, the MTA Police, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, the New York State Police, the Port Authority Police Department, and other law enforcement partners.
Since its creation in March 2024, the group has carried out 39 operations around the five boroughs, including the Midtown Tunnel initiative this week, resulting in 469 arrests, 19,547 summonses written, and the seizure of 2,195 motor vehicles associated with $19.9 million in outstanding fees, fines, and taxes related to toll evasion, scofflaw driving, and other related offenses.
The ongoing operations are part of a unique, comprehensive city-and-state collaboration to thwart cases of stolen and unregistered motor vehicles, as well as the proliferation of altered or forged license plates.
When the Jeep driver was stopped this week, he was found to be actively wanted by NYPD detectives in the Bronx for allegedly committing a domestic assault last month.
In addition to that charge, he now faces multiple offenses related to his dangerous exploits at the Midtown Tunnel, including: two counts of assault on a police officer; three counts of unlawful imprisonment; three counts of reckless endangerment; three counts of assault by recklessly causing physical injury; one count each of criminal possession of a forged instrument, resisting arrest, reckless endangerment, obstructing governmental administration, and fleeing an officer in a motor vehicle; two counts of driving a vehicle with a suspended registration; reckless driving; aggravated unlicensed operator; operating a motor vehicle without an inspection certificate; operating a vehicle without insurance; failure to produce an insurance identification card; a windshield tint violation; two counts of excessive tint on safety glass; operating an unregistered vehicle; having improper license plates; failing to obey a police officer; two counts of failing to obey a traffic device; improper passing on the right; and moving unsafely from a traffic lane.