A 26-year-old woman is in critical condition after she was ejected from her Jeep Wrangler when a BMW slammed into the rear of her vehicle on the Major Deegan Expressway early Monday, according to police. The crash happened just before 1:40 a.m. near the W. Fordham Road exit in University Heights, and left the woman with severe trauma to her head and body.
The woman was operating a 2020 Jeep Wrangler southbound on the expressway when a 21-year-old man driving a BMW in the same direction struck the back of her vehicle, according to News12 New York. The impact ejected her from the Jeep. EMS transported her to St. Barnabas Hospital in critical condition, and lanes remained closed during the investigation, with police advising commuters to take alternate routes.
The BMW driver was taken into custody following the crash, but no official charges have been filed at this time. The investigation into Monday's crash remains ongoing.
The Hospital's Trauma-Center Designation
St. Barnabas Hospital is designated as a New York State Level 1 Trauma Center, according to reporting from PR Newswire.
The ejection itself points to the outsized danger of being thrown from a vehicle in a high-speed impact.
A Familiar Stretch of Highway
Monday's crash adds to a documented pattern of severe collisions at this same stretch of the Major Deegan. In March 2025, a 39-year-old driver was killed in a hit-and-run rear-end crash on the southbound Deegan near the same W. Fordham Road exit, around 3:45 a.m., as reported by Norwood News. Years earlier, the area was also the subject of crash coverage.
The intersection of the Major Deegan and West Fordham Road was included in a 2025 analysis, according to the Porter Law Group. Separately, legal reporting firm AEE Law identified the Major Deegan as the deadliest highway in the Bronx by total crash volume, logging 525 crashes in 2023. Broader analyses discuss relationships between traffic volume and collisions in New York City.
Bronx Highways Remain a Persistent Danger
Citywide, traffic deaths are a measure of road safety. In 2024, the Bronx alone logged 10,028 motor vehicle crashes resulting in 4,416 injuries and 54 traffic fatalities, the third-highest death toll among the city's five boroughs, according to city Department of Transportation data analyzed by AEE Law.
The Major Deegan has generated repeated Hoodline coverage of serious incidents in recent months, including a six-vehicle pileup near Exit 7 two days earlier that injured three people. Police have not released further updates on the condition of the 26-year-old woman as the investigation into Monday's collision continues.
