Passenger Exiting Uber Mowed Down By Drunk Driver

Wrecked cars at night crash scene with police lights — Photo: Photo Spirit / Shutterstock

A woman died on Brooklyn’s elevated highway after leaving a moving SUV in the dark, then getting struck by a second driver police say was drunk.

Quick Take

Chasna Thelemaque, 37, left the back seat of a moving SUV on the westbound Brooklyn-Queens Expressway early November 8.
She landed in the roadway near Exit 28 and was hit by a second car in the right lane.
Destiny Mendez, 29, now faces charges including DWI, vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault.
Police say the SUV and the car that struck Thelemaque never collided with each other.
Investigators have not said why Thelemaque left the vehicle in the first place.

A Deadly Few Seconds on the BQE

Around 2:25 a.m. on November 8, Thelemaque sat in the back seat of a Toyota SUV heading west on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Near Exit 28, close to the Brooklyn Bridge, she came out of the rear of the vehicle and ended up in the roadway. A second car then struck her in the right lane. Paramedics reached her quickly, but she had suffered severe injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police say the SUV she had been riding in and the car that hit her did not crash into each other. Both vehicles stayed at the scene after the impact. That detail matters because it tells investigators the sequence was not a single collision but two separate events: Thelemaque entering the highway on foot, then getting struck moments later by oncoming traffic in the same lane.

Charges Pile Up Against Alleged Drunk Driver

Police arrested Destiny Mendez, 29, the driver of the car that struck Thelemaque. She faces vehicular manslaughter, vehicular assault, driving while intoxicated, and driving while ability impaired. Those charges point to a driver accused of operating a vehicle under the influence on one of the city’s busiest highways at a time when visibility and reaction time already run thin for every driver on the road.

A Vehicle Identity Still in Question

Reports differ on exactly what Thelemaque was riding in. One account describes the vehicle as an Uber-arranged Toyota RAV4, while another identifies it as a taxi and a Toyota Highlander. No trip record or company statement has surfaced yet to settle which service, if any, arranged the ride she was taking before she ended up on the pavement.

What New York Law Says About Shared Blame

New York courts have long wrestled with cases where more than one person’s actions contribute to a deadly crash. In one past ruling involving a passenger ejected from a vehicle, judges made clear that prosecutors must show both that the defendant’s driving caused the death and that intoxication drove the dangerous operation, not just that a tragic chain of events occurred.

That legal standard will likely shape how prosecutors build their case against Mendez. An earlier report on the crash noted investigators had not yet made an arrest and had not called the incident criminal, before later coverage confirmed the charges now filed. The case underscores a hard truth about highway tragedies: alcohol-impaired driving carries serious criminal consequences under New York law, even when the full chain of events leading to a death remains complicated.