Three people died and eleven others were injured following a violent multi-vehicle crash in Queens on the Long Island Expressway that may have been caused by two cars racing one another.
Six Vehicle Pile Up Includes Dump Truck
Ultimately, six vehicles were involved in the crash which began around 4:30 this morning near the Maurice Avenue exit in Maspeth.
A 2010 Infiniti was reportedly traveling at a high rate of speed east on the LIE and apparently tried to take the Maurice Avenue exit but lost control and hit a guardrail, splitting the Infiniti in half. Then another car hit one half of the Infiniti. Of the five people in the Infiniti, three were ejected and declared dead at the scene.
Seconds after the initial crash, a dump truck slammed on the brakes and swerved to avoid hitting the initial crashed vehicles, causing three additional cars to crash into the dump truck. One vehicles in the secondary crash was a taxi.
serious accident on the LIE.@katcreag4NY reporting 3 people have been killed …traffic in Queens severely affected pic.twitter.com/eqIA8VVM6F
— michael gargiulo (@michaelG4NY) August 31, 2016
Said one witness, ““It was chaos. The whole block was shut off.”
The two survivors in the Infiniti were transported to the hospital. One of them is in critical condition.
Ten of the eleven injured in the crash were hospitalized.
High Rates Of Speed, Drag Racing Suspected
Investigators believe that the Infiniti was involved in a high speed drag race with another vehicle which was also involved in the crash. The crash is still under investigation.
The crash caused big traffic delays during rush hour, but all lanes were reopened by 9 a.m.
Chain-reaction crash involving at least 6 vehicles kills 3, hurts 9 more on LIE https://t.co/D3ocnqYjvs @KatCreag4NY pic.twitter.com/ICEWYgJLW6
— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) August 31, 2016
Sources:
ABC7 NY
NY Post
Inquisitr