A young man dies street racing in New York City this week. Normally this wouldn’t make national news, but Andre Beadle was a popular social media star with 233,000 Instagram followers and 58,700 YouTube subscribers who regularly watched his videos of how fast his purple 2023 BMW M240 could go, even on public roads.
Shortly after 1AM on Wednesday November 7 2024, 25-year-old Beadle was driving at a high rate of speed, eastbound on the Nassau Expressway near JFK Airport in New York. He’d just left a speed shop and was showing off how quickly his car could go. Video from horrified onlookers showed the BMW’s engine blowing up, sending oil and fluids onto the road and the cars tires, causing the vehicle to lose control and slam into a metal pole.
The 25-year-old was racing in the left lane when he suddenly swerved across the road into the right shoulder, striking the metal pole and ejecting him from the vehicle. The vehicle was demolished and Beadle was rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center where Beadle was later pronounced dead.
Debris from the crashed car was cast across the highway. Police even found a tire, torn from the vehicle, under an overpass hundreds of meters from the crash scene. Considering the number of innocent bystanders, its a miracle nobody else was killed.
Only hours before his death, Beadle published a video to YouTube of him and his friends in a car shop working on the now-totaled vehicle. His final video had an eerie end as the BMW was recorded speeding towards the Nassau Expressway, the site of his fatal crash.
Fans paid tribute on social media, and his family held a memorial service yesterday atHaffen Park in the Bronx, which included a ‘balloon release’ to honour 1Stockf30’s memory. A similar tribute meet is planned by the local Toronto car community on Sunday night
That’s the risk with street racing. Sad when crashes like that happen.
100% true. Of course I feel bad for the kid (only 25) but he knew the risks of his actions and paid the ultimate price.
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The odd part are the followers on social media elevating him to demii-god like status. Revering him for his impact on NYC car culture.
That seems to be the way it is these days. He’s certainly more worthy of veneration than the criminals that they turn into martyrs.
I guess in the US, street takeovers and ‘sideshows’ are a problem. Kinda rare here in Canada.
I noticed many comments on social media that Andre Beadle was not part of that negative scene. He helped build his cars, got kids interested in the automotive world, and took his car to the dragstrip.
But the streets don’t care who you are. Famous or not, you street race with 1000 hp and no roll cage or safety systems…the inevitable will occur.
I read street takeovers in Los Angeles are a serious problem. A guy plowed through a crowd recently, seriously injuring people.
Good Golly, you should see the stuff they do in Atlanta! Takeovers got so bad the mayor declared a ‘lawless zone’ where kids could stunt drive until they killed each other….but NO police involvement.
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I’ve seen video of the ones in LA and it looks just as bad.
I expect the car meet I’m going to tomorrow to devolve into one.
That stuff is way out of my area of unsensibleness. I don’t know if street takeovers happen here. I think the gangs are too busy shooting at each other.
Call me a bitter old man, but I don’t feel sorry for the death of this “influencer.”
I feel relieved though that no one else died in the crash.
Finally somebody said it. I read dozens of news articles about this young man. And too many social media posts to count.
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The news reported it as a tragedy (which it was) but assigned no blame.
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Social media was just a shit-show. People saying that this influencer helped car culture in New York, and respected that he wasn’t involved in ‘takeover activity’. But that’s bullshit. So many of his videos were street racing on public roads, its a MIRACLE that nobody was killed.
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While I didn’t post it, there’s a video of the wreck. Dozens of cars stopped along the highway watching the BMW fly past, then shattering into pieces. Every one of those guys could have been a victim.