Five people were hospitalized, two of them with critical injuries, after a multi-vehicle crash shut down both sides of the Cross Island Parkway near 154th Street in Whitestone, Queens, on Saturday night. The wreck forced officials to close the parkway in both directions for hours, snarling one of the borough's key routes between Long Island and the Bronx.
According to Fox 5 New York, the FDNY received reports of the crash near 154th Street around 10:15 p.m. First responders transported five people to hospitals, while the 36-year-old Honda Accord passenger was uninjured. Two of those five people sustained critical injuries. New York City Emergency Management reported around 9:45 p.m. that southbound parkway lanes were closing as crews approached the Whitestone Bridge, and officials subsequently closed the northbound lanes as well, according to the same report. As of the report, there was no known reopening time for the roadway, and officials recommended that drivers consider alternate routes.
A Stretch Of Highway With A History Of Severe Wrecks
The location of Saturday's crash sits near the northern terminus of the Cross Island Parkway, where the roadway splits toward the Whitestone Expressway and Bronx-Whitestone Bridge — a stretch that has seen catastrophic collisions before. In January 2024, five people were killed on the same stretch of parkway near the Whitestone Expressway split when a 2018 Mazda sedan struck the center median and collided with a 2023 Honda Pilot, according to News 12. That crash prompted city officials to pledge a review of roadway geometry and speeding concerns, per the same report.
Hoodline previously covered a fatal Cross Island crash that occurred early on October 12, 2024; in September 2025, Queens prosecutors charged a 19-year-old driver with aggravated vehicular homicide and DUI after a high-speed collision on the parkway killed a 17-year-old passenger and injured four others. Excessive speed remains a primary cause cited by Queens law enforcement in crashes along this corridor.
Why Crashes Here Tend To Turn Severe
When a New York City crash results in critical injuries, the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad may investigate the scene, according to 1010 WINS. Commercial vehicles are prohibited on most New York City parkways, per NYC DOT. The source cites low overpasses and narrow lanes as reasons for commercial-vehicle restrictions. High-speed multi-car collisions on the parkway can result in severe outcomes and closures.
The Cross Island Parkway runs 10.6 miles along the eastern edge of Queens, linking the Southern State Parkway at the Nassau County line with the Whitestone Expressway and Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, making it a primary route for traffic moving between Long Island and the Bronx. That geography is part of why a closure like Saturday's ripples across the regional road network rather than staying contained to one neighborhood.
Borough-Wide Numbers Show Progress, But Parkways Remain A Focus
Despite the recurring severity of parkway wrecks, Queens has seen its overall traffic fatalities fall sharply over the past decade. Total traffic deaths in the borough dropped 38 percent, from 93 in 2013 to 58 in 2025, marking the lowest annual total of the 12-year Vision Zero era, according to Make Queens Safer. Motor vehicle crash injuries in Queens totaled 14,186 in 2025, a 9 percent decrease from the Vision Zero baseline set in 2013, per the same data.
Vision Zero and traffic injuries among low-income New Yorkers have been the subject of research. The Cross Island project was part of the city's 2025 agenda, while speeding-focused lane changes belonged to a separate Brooklyn project.
It remains unclear what caused Saturday's multi-vehicle crash, whether speed or impairment played any role, or the current condition of the two critically injured victims. Officials had not announced a timeline for reopening the parkway as of the initial report.
