Short summary: Six vehicles, three people hurt, one of the vehicles owned by the federal government. Sorting out fault in a pileup this size is rarely simple, and a federal vehicle in the mix adds its own separate process. Families generally do not have to untangle either problem alone.
What happened
Around 4:15 a.m. on September 12, six vehicles collided in a chain-reaction crash on the Major Deegan Expressway near Exit 7 in the Bronx, FDNY said. One of the vehicles was a U.S. Postal Service truck.
Three people were injured, two seriously and one with minor injuries. All three were taken to Lincoln Medical Center. One vehicle involved sustained extensive damage, including a crushed hood and rear end, as reported by Hoodline, citing News12 Bronx.
No cause has been released, and no charges have been announced.
Untangling fault when six cars are involved
A two-car crash is generally a fairly direct question: who ran the light, who followed too closely, who changed lanes without looking. A six-car chain reaction is a different problem. Each impact can shift fault, and a driver in the middle of the pile can be found partly responsible for hitting the car ahead while also being a victim of the car that hit them from behind.
Working out that chain generally takes more than a police report. Vehicle damage patterns, dashcam and traffic camera footage, and each driver's insurance statement often have to line up before anyone can say with confidence who owes what.
When one of the vehicles is the federal government's
A USPS truck is a federal vehicle, and a claim against it does not run through the same channel as a claim against a city vehicle or a private driver. Instead of a 90-day notice of claim to a city agency, an injured driver or passenger generally has to file an administrative claim with USPS itself under the Federal Tort Claims Act, on its own timeline and its own form. We covered how that federal process differs from the city's shorter deadline in our piece on a USPS truck involved in a Hell's Kitchen crash.
That does not mean the USPS truck caused this crash. It means that whatever role it played generally comes with its own separate claim process running alongside every other driver's.
If you were hurt in a multi-car crash like this
Get your own vehicle's damage photographed before it is repaired or towed away, and get the names and insurance information for every driver involved, not just the one you believe hit you. Our step-by-step checklist covers what to gather in the first hours, which matters even more when there are six cars instead of two.
Questions New Yorkers ask us
Can more than one driver be responsible for the same crash?
Generally yes. New York allows fault to be split across multiple drivers in a single crash, and a chain-reaction pileup is exactly the kind of case where that split matters most.
Does a federal vehicle change how long you have to file a claim?
Generally yes. Claims against a federal vehicle or agency follow the Federal Tort Claims Act, a separate process from the city's 90-day notice of claim, with its own forms and its own deadline.
Not sure where you stand after a crash? Get your free case review or call (888) 208-0529. A real person answers, 24/7.
Reporting: Hoodline, citing News12 Bronx.
