Three Brooklyn families are facing an unimaginable loss after a late-night Belt Parkway wreck claimed the lives of three teenagers traveling together in a Cadillac Escalade.
Abdul Rehman, 16, Konstantin Gerantidi, 17, and Huzayfah Aziz Algahiem, 18, were killed Tuesday night when the 2002 Escalade crashed into a 2024 Honda HR-V near Exit 1 around 65th Street in Bay Ridge, authorities said.
The collision happened shortly before midnight, at approximately 11:35 p.m. Investigators believe the Escalade was traveling at roughly 100 mph before the wreck. The posted speed limit on that stretch of the Belt Parkway is 50 mph.
For Rehman’s family, the loss is especially painful. Relatives said the 16-year-old worked at a Häagen-Dazs shop to help his elderly parents and was preparing to begin 11th grade at Rachel Carson High School in Coney Island.
His sister, Anaya Iqbal, 15, said her brother was the family’s only boy.
“He was our only brother,” she said, describing a family now struggling to cope without him.
A cousin, Muhammad Usman, said Abdul had simply told relatives he was heading out to see friends and expected to return soon. Instead, the teenager never made it home.
Family members remembered Abdul as compassionate and hardworking. He helped feed homeless people and had talked about eventually attending business school and becoming a businessman.
Algahiem, meanwhile, had only recently graduated from Rachel Carson High School. His uncle, Amin Algahiem, said the teenager and his friends had gone out for dinner at a Yemeni cafe in Bay Ridge before beginning their trip home.
The 18-year-old hoped to study engineering at Brooklyn College. His parents and siblings were vacationing in Egypt when the deadly crash occurred, leaving relatives overseas devastated.
The third victim, Konstantin, was mourned by relatives in Brighton Beach. A fundraising campaign established to help his family with funeral costs described him as deeply loved and said his death had left those closest to him struggling to comprehend what happened.
According to police, none of the three victims was wearing a seat belt. All three were thrown from the Escalade after it struck a guardrail, spun and overturned. Two additional teenagers inside the vehicle were wearing seat belts and survived.
Investigators said Algahiem moved from the center lane toward the right before braking suddenly for slower traffic. The Escalade was then struck from behind by the Honda, sending both vehicles out of control.
The Honda ended up partially underneath the overturned Cadillac. The 46-year-old woman driving the Honda and her 44-year-old passenger were transported to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn with injuries described as stable.
The two surviving teens, a 16-year-old from Brighton Beach and an 18-year-old from Coney Island, were treated at Maimonides Medical Center.
Police said no charges had been filed in connection with the crash. Algahiem had a valid driver’s license at the time, but authorities said his driving history included six previous summonses.
Among those incidents were allegations of speeding and an unsafe lane change on the Belt Parkway in January. He had also received a summons the previous August for speeding and driving on the shoulder on Staten Island. That summons went unanswered, resulting in a license suspension that was later lifted.
As relatives gathered to mourn, the three teenagers’ futures were suddenly replaced by grief. Friends and family are now left remembering young lives filled with plans, ambition and dreams that ended in a matter of seconds.
