A Rhode Island man has been arrested and is now facing several court charges after allegedly driving around Providence with a woman stuck to the hood of his vehicle.
47-year-old Keith Beard was arrested on Tuesday, the 11th after he was stopped at the corner of Union Avenue and Althea Street by the authorities. According to the police, the woman was still on the hood of his car at the time.
Maj. Henry Remolina, a Providence police spokesperson, said this scene began to play out after Beard’s vehicle collided with the victim’s on Exchange street in the city’s downtown area.
The woman got out of her vehicle to confront Beard, who refused to leave his car. He also tried to zoom off, almost hitting her, and she immediately put her hands on the hood of his car to protect herself from getting hit. Her hand stuck between Beard’s vehicle’s hood and the windshield area.
She had no choice but to stay there as he drove through Route 6 West and Route 10 South before getting rescued by the police, who stopped the car. She was reportedly stuck there for about 10 minutes as Beard drove three miles before he was stopped.
Footage obtained by the media showed the victim sprawled on the car as the car sped off.
This video submitted to @wpri12 shows a woman on the hood of a moving car.
Providence police tells me the woman approached the car after it hit her vehicle on Exchange Street. The man then fled and her hand got stuck on the hood.
Police ended up stopping the car. @wpri12 pic.twitter.com/jKv0R929Aj
— Anita Baffoni (@AnitaBaffoni) August 10, 2022
"*" indicates required fields
Other motorists who witnessed this scene also made videos and posted them on their social media pages. A man who witnessed the scene posted the video on Twitter with the caption, “Look what I saw on the way home.”
According to reports, the victim could be seen through Beard’s rear window as she was clinging onto his car and screaming. However, Beard had ignored her while pretending not to see her as he drove off for about three miles, till he exited a highway and was stopped by the police.
The rescued victim was identified as a female motorist in her 20s. She was immediately transported to Rhode Island Hospital and released after it was confirmed that she had luckily suffered only minor injuries on her hand, which was attended to.
The woman had also told the police that she did not know Beards personally and only met him for the first time after the accident. She added that she had dialed the emergency number several times and was also yelling at Beard to stop the car to no avail.
Beard was taken immediately into custody and transported to Central Station. In addition, Beard has been charged with driving to endanger, resulting in personal injury, criminal negligence and battery, felony assault, and duty to stop in an accident. He has also been charged with driving on a suspended license and will be facing trial soon.
Furthermore, he was also issued several violations, including the duty to give information or render assistance, due care by the operator, and failure to file an accident report.