Shocking video shows shirtless passenger savagely beat Lyft driver after telling him to drive faster to a hospital
- Incident took place in New York City borough of Queens on Thursday
- Eduardo Madiedo picked up a man and a woman for a Lyft ride to Astoria
- The two passengers ordered a Lyft to take them to Mount Sinai hospital
- Male passenger appeared sick and took off his shirt in the back seat
- He then ordered Madiedo to drive faster, but Madiedo couldn't due to traffic
- That's when male passenger went into rage and savagely beat Madiedo
Horrific surveillance video shows a Lyft driver being savagely beaten by a passenger who demanded that he drive faster to a hospital.
Eduardo Madiedo picked up two passengers - a man and a woman - in Queens, New York on Thursday and was asked to drive them to Mount Sinai Hospital in the Astoria section of the borough.
The first 11 minutes of the ride proceed without incident before the male passenger in the back seat appeared ill and removed his shirt, according to video footage obtained by WNBC-TV.
The male passenger gets visibly irritated while asking Madiedo, the driver, to drive faster.
Eduardo Madiedo (far right) picked up a man and a woman who ordered a Lyft ride to a Queens, New York hospital on Thursday
The ride went smoothly for the first 10 minutes until the man in the back seat, who appeared ill, took off his shirt and began demanding that Madiedo drive faster
The man grew enraged when Madiedo told him that he was unable to drive faster because of the traffic conditions
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But Madiedo lets him know that he is unable to speed up because of the traffic.
‘I’m sorry, man, I can’t get in front of the cars that are in front of me,’ Madiedo tells the passenger.
‘Why?’ the man asks.
Madiedo responds: ‘Cause it’s blocked. There’s two lanes. You don’t see?’
The man is then heard angrily telling Madiedo to drive in the right lane and bypass the other vehicles, prompting Madiedo to warn him.
The man threw some 10 punches at Madiedo while the woman in the back seat made little effort to restrain him
‘Excuse me, man, if you’re gonna be disrespectful I’ll just pull over right now,’ Madiedo says.
At this point, the man lunges toward the driver and begins to savagely punch him repeatedly.
After throwing about 10 punches, the man regroups and moves toward the driver’s seat, hovering over Madiedo.
The man appears to try to grab a hold of Madiedo, who at this point has pulled the car over.
The man then lets go of Madiedo and exits the car.
Seconds later, he is seen throwing another punch at Madiedo through the driver’s side front window.
The woman in the back seat made little effort to restrain the man. After the beating, she followed him out of the car.
‘I almost lost my life, in a flash almost,’ Madiedo told WNBC-TV.
‘Everything felt surreal. I just felt less than human almost.’
Lyft said that the male passenger in question has been banned from its service. Police are now searching for him
Madiedo shared the video with WNBC-TV in the hope that local viewers in the Queens area will be able to identify him.
‘I hope they catch this guy and I hope he definitely doesn’t have access to any type of ride share platform,’ Madiedo said.
Lyft told WNBC-TV that the man in question has been kicked off the ride-sharing app.
Police are now searching for the man.
As for Madiedo, it may be time to look for a new line of work.
‘I feel like I have to start looking for a new job at this point or a new form of income,’ he said.
