Queens Driver Starts 4-Car Collision, Injuring 11

The Southern State Parkway westbound at Exit 13 in North Valley Stream. Doug Kerr via Wikimedia.

The Associated Press

Police say a chain-reaction wreck on a Long Island highway has injured 11 people, including a motorist charged with drunken driving.

The four-car crash happened around 2 a.m. Sunday on the Southern State Parkway in West Hempstead.

State police say a Queens man was driving his car west when he hit an SUV that was stopped in the right-hand lane. The SUV then collided with a broken-down van that was stopped in front of it.

Police say the driver in the first car then lost control of it and hit a minivan that was driving by.

The 31-year-old Queens driver was arrested on a DWI charge and hospitalized with facial trauma and a pelvic injury, police said. The injuries to other people are described as less serious.