Tractor-trailer off GWB topples light pole onto parked cars

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A tractor-trailer operated by a driver with a suspended license toppled a streetlight pole onto two cars parked outside the Port Authority bus station in Washington Heights this morning during an apparent George Washington Bridge U-turn, authorities said.

Photo Credit: *Courtesy PORT AUTHORITY PD*

Jerry DeMarco

03/19/2014 7:30 p.m.

The driver got off the eastbound upper level of the bridge at 178th Street and apparently was trying to turn the 2012 Freightliner around to head back west when it hit the pole, the authority’s Joseph Pentangelo told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

The pole and the street light then toppled onto a Toyota Highlander and a Dodge Caravan, both of which were parked just off Broadway, he said.

Mahamadi Quedraogo, 46, “presented a Georgia driver’s license,” Pentangelo said, “but a subsequent check revealed that he was operating with a suspended license from New York.”

That license showed five suspensions on five different dates, he said.

Quedraogo was arrested on a charge of being an aggravated unlicensed driver and the tractor-trailer was impounded pending release to the owner, Pentangelo said.

IMAGE: Courtesy PORT AUTHORITY PD

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