NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – One multi-car highway collision in Brooklyn Saturday night and another in Queens Sunday morning left two people in critical condition each, the NYPD said.
While driving in the right lane of the eastbound Belt Parkway near Knapp Street Saturday at 9:30 p.m., an Infiniti sedan lost control and sideswiped a Mercedes Benz that was driving in the middle lane, a preliminary investigation showed.
In response to the collision, the Mercedes veered into the left lane and was rear-ended by a Hyundai Palisade.
The Hyundai was overturned onto its side and flew into the Belt Parkway’s westbound lanes, where a westbound Honda Accord livery cab crashed into it.
This crash caused an Audi sedan, Toyota Prius and Nissan Rogue to back-to-back rear end each other, officials said.
The male cabbie and 57-year-old female passenger of the Honda are in critical condition after experiencing severe head and body trauma in the accident.
They were rushed by medical personnel to NYU Langone Hospital Brooklyn, police said.
The 70-year-old male driver of the Hyundai and the 70-year-old female front-seat passenger sustained minor injuries but remain in stable condition. They were also taken to NYU Langone Hospital Brooklyn by EMS.
The man driving the Nissan, 27, also sustained minor injuries and was taken to NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health by emergency responders where he remains in stable condition.
The drivers of the Mercedes, Audi and Toyota all remained at the crash site and were not injured, officials said.
Police said that the unknown driver of the Infiniti, which a preliminary investigation found initiated the crash, fled the scene on foot.
Only seven hours later, another multi-car collision in Queens sent a 22-year-old woman and another woman, 20 to 30, to NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst in critical condition, authorities reported.
At 4:31 a.m. Sunday morning emergency personnel responded to a 911 call of a collision on the eastbound Long Island Expressway near Exit 17, Greenpoint Avenue.
A preliminary investigation showed that an eastbound moving Honda tried to cross three lanes of traffic at the exit.
In the attempt the car struck a barrier and two other vehicles, which caused two women to be thrown from their car, police said.
There have been no arrests and each crash is under investigation by the NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad.