What to Know
- Seven vehicles crashed on the LIE during the morning commute
- Three people were pronounced dead and 10 others were injured, two of them critically
- Traffic was backed up for miles and the eastbound lanes of the LIE were closed to traffic
Three people were killed and 10 others were injured Wednesday in a multi-vehicle collision on the Long Island Expressway, where just days earlier six other people died in a horrific crash.
The chain-reaction wreck involved six vehicles on the highway in Maspeth, Queens at about 4:20 a.m., according to authorities.
That's when a black Infiniti sedan driven by Michael Fabre hit a divider, sheared in half and fell onto a ramp below. A car slammed into the Infiniti, and a dump truck then hit three cars backed up behind the first collision.
Three people -- Fabre, 25, Giovanny Sanches, 24, and Christina Formato, 24 -- were pronounced dead at the scene; 10 others were taken to a hospital, one with serious injuries, fire officials said. The other injuries were non-life-threatening.
"I heard a bam and then another bam," one man said. I ran outside, and as I ran outside I hear cars breaking and I hear cars crashing."
The accident closed the eastbound side of the lower level of the highway and backed up traffic to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
Local
The cause of the accident is under investigation.
On Aug. 21, another crash on the expressway, near Manorville, Long Island, claimed six lives.
Among those killed was Scott Martella, 29, of Northport, a communications director for Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and a former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Police said Carmelo Pinales, 26, of Hicksville, apparently lost control of his vehicle, which crossed over the grassy median, went airborne and struck two vehicles, a BMW and a Honda, that were traveling westbound.
Pinales and his 27-year-old sister, Patricia Pinales, of Westbury, died at the scene. His 10-year-old son, Cristopher, was taken to a hospital, where he later died. Two others in that vehicle, including Patricia's 3-year-old daughter, were injured. A couple in another vehicle later died of their injuries.
