This is the moment a New York man was caught on camera hailing a taxi to leave the scene of a car crash while his trapped female friend burned to death nearby.

The footage shows 23-year-old Saeed Ahmed asking a taxi driver in the middle of a highway if he can get a ride just moments after crashing his car on in Brooklyn on Friday night.

The video, which was shot by a witness and obtained by ABC7, shows his car engulfed in flames in the background.

His passenger, Harleen Grewel, 25, was pronounced dead at the scene after her charred body was found in the front passenger seat by firefighters at the scene.

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This is the moment 23-year-old Saeed Ahmed asked a taxi driver if he could get a ride just moments after crashing his car in Brooklyn, New York on Friday night

Ahmad was allegedly weaving in and out of traffic on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway before his 2007 Infiniti G35 hit a barrier.

He is said to have escaped the burning wreckage before flagging down the taxi to take him to hospital, leaving Grewel behind in the car.

Saeed was later arrested at a hospital where he was being treated for burns to his arms and legs following the crash.

Ahmad's father has since said he doesn't know what his son was thinking fleeing the scene of the horror crash.

'I don't know what happened yet, I need to see him, talk to him, find out what happened,' Mohammad Azam told the New York Daily News.

He added that he never knows what happens in Ahmad's life and he is often out late with his friends.

Meanwhile his brother Waheed Ahmad, 21, told the New York Post that he never fled the crash scene and suffered his injuries trying to save his friend.

The video, which was shot by a witness and obtained by ABC7, shows his car engulfed in flames in the background

Saeed Ahmad's passenger, Harleen Grewel, 25, was pronounced dead at the scene after her charred body was found in the front passenger seat by firefighters at the scene

'He did not just run away from the scene. He lost his phone in the car [and was] unable to call the ambulance,' he said.

'He tried to get her out. That's how his hands and his legs and his neck got burned. He couldn't get her out. The fire got too crazy. It just burned so quick.

'Everything is chaos right now. We are shocked. It's horrifying for the girl and her family.

'He's emotionally distraught. Every time they ask him about what happened, he's crying and screaming. His friend burned alive.'

Saeed admitted to police that he had been drinking alcohol before the crash but a subsequent blood test revealed he was not legally drunk.

He was charged with criminally negligent homicide, leaving the scene of an accident, aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle and speeding.