Dad: Drove on pot, not smack

A NEW YORK Water Taxi returning from a trip to the Statue of Liberty struck the dock at Pier 79 in Hell’s Kitchen Friday, injuring 30 passengers, authorities said.

Firefighters and medics rushed to the Hudson River near W. 40th St. after the vessel hit the dock during a planned stop around 4 p.m., police said.

“Apparently some of the people were standing, so when the taxi hit they flew forward,” said a worker at the pier. “Problem is, people are too eager to get out.”

A family from the Netherlands was among the passengers jostled around.

“The boat crashed into the pier and everything flew forward,” said Goris Bausa, 15. “It all happened in the flash of an eye, in a second. It was really scary.”

Her mother Joyce Fisser, 42, said she saw a small boy with a head injury.

“You think, ‘Oh, God! What’s happening?’ People were falling, glasses were falling!”

Their traveling companion, Mark Bruijnen, 47, slammed his face into the seat in front of him.

“It was bleeding for about 10 minutes or so and then it stopped,” he said.

“The people that were taken to the hospital, they had light injuries — nosebleeds, a black eye,” Bruijnen added.

His son Cas had a bruise above his eye. “It hurts a little bit,” the 8-year-old said. First responders were still evaluating passengers for injuries, none of which were considered life-threatening.

EMS treated 30 people for minor to serious injuries, FDNY officials said.

Circle Line, the company that runs the water taxi, did not respond to a request for comment. A BROOKLYN dad accused of overdosing on heroin and passing out while driving his car through Brooklyn — leaving his 7-year-old daughter to take the wheel — claimed he had merely vaped marijuana, new court papers reveal.

Eric Roman Jr. was released on $100,000 bail after he was arraigned on charges of putting his daughter in grave danger, officials said Friday.

Roman was heading toward the Belt Parkway in his 2016 gray Lexus when he passed out around 5:30 p.m. on July 20. His daughter Kayla Roman climbed into his lap and steered the car.

Two quick-thinking EMTs spotted the girl and slowed the sedan down by letting it crash into their truck’s bumper.

The EMTs found Roman “snoring heavily, pale, sweating profusely, and breathing at no more than four breaths per minute,” according to the criminal complaint.

Roman was given Narcan — a nasal spray that can reverse overdoses caused by opioids — and he regained consciousness, leading investigators to conclude he was under the influence of heroin, according to court papers.

Roman told investigators he was “smoking a vape with weed,” the papers said. He faces up to seven years in prison.