NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police say a driver fleeing officers after a traffic stop was decapitated when he slammed into the back of a flatbed truck.

Police said Thursday that Leroy Samuel was pronounced dead at the scene of Wednesday’s accident on a Brooklyn highway off-ramp.

They say a female passenger with back and neck pain was taken to a hospital.

They say the 22-year-old Brooklyn man sped away in a 2003 Infiniti shortly after he was stopped by police near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

They believe Samuel was trying to get off the expressway at Atlantic Avenue when he crashed into the tractor trailer, which was stopped at a traffic light.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.