A teenage boy riding in the front passenger seat of a Cadillac that crashed and overturned at 100 mph on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn — an impact that killed three of his friends — is amazed he survived the deadly collision without a scratch, he told the Daily News.
“I went to the hospital, but I have no injuries,” FaisaI Manteen, 16, said when reached at his parents’ home in Seagate, Brooklyn, Thursday. “I guess it’s a miracle.”
Three of Manteen’s friends were ejected from the Cadillac Escalade and died when it collided with a black 2024 Honda HR-V in the eastbound Belt near Exit 1 by 65th St. in Bay Ridge on Tuesday. A fifth passenger, 18, also survived.
(L-R) Abdul Rehman, 16, Konstantin Gerantidi, 17, and driver Huzayfah Aziz Algahiem, 18, died after the 2002 Cadillac Escalade they were riding in collided with a 2024 Honda HR-V near Exit 1 by 65th St. in Bay Ridge on Aug. 25, 2026. (GoFundMe; Obtained by NYDN)
Unlike his friends who died, Faisal was wearing his seatbelt, he remembered.
“The others weren’t wearing seatbelts,” he said. “I don’t know what to say. It was terrible.”
Medics rushed the five teenage boys to local hospitals. The Cadillac’s 18-year-old driver Huzayfah Aziz Algahiem and two of his passengers — Konstantin Gerantidi, 17, and Abdul Rehman, 16 — died at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, cops said.
Investigators determined that the Escalade was going 100 mph when it crashed around 11:35 p.m., a police source said. The speed limit on the Belt Parkway is 50 mph.
Just before the crash, Algahiem switched from the center to the right lane, cops said. He braked sharply due to a slower moving vehicle in front of him and was rear-ended by the Honda SUV behind him.
A mangled Cadillac Escalade is pictured in a police lot in Brooklyn, New York on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, after three teens were killed in a late-night crash on the Belt Parkway. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News)
The out-of-control Cadillac then hit a guardrail, spun around and overturned.
“We might have been hit from behind, but I couldn’t tell. It was a big car, and everything happened so fast,” Manteen recalled. “Our car flipped over. The three of us who weren’t wearing seatbelts were thrown. They were ejected.”
“I saw them on the ground,” he said, remembering the aftermath of the crash. “Two weren’t moving. Only one of us was moving.”
When pressed for details on what led up to the crash, including whether the car was speeding, the teen declined to comment.
“I have to go,” he said before ending the interview.
Mateen said he and his friends had gone to dinner in Bay Ridge and were heading home when they crashed. He and the 18-year-old survivor were treated at Maimonides Medical Center.
The Honda became partially wedged under the Cadillac during the crash and also overturned, police said. The 46-year-old woman driving the HR-V and her passenger, a 44-year-old woman, were taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn in stable condition.
Algahiem had a valid license, police said. He had received six motor vehicle summonses in the past, including in January for speeding and making an unsafe lane change on the Belt Parkway, police said.
In August of last year, Algahiem got a summons for speeding and driving on the shoulder on Staten Island. He didn’t answer that summons in court and had his license suspended, but it was eventually restored, the sources said.