Postal rig hits FDNY truck in Queens

QUEENS, NY — A wild accident left a trucker critically injured and five firefighters hurt Thursday when a U.S. Postal Service tractor-trailer smashed into a fire engine in Queens, police said.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

The impact spun the FDNY rig – which was racing to a call with sirens blaring – almost 180 degrees, sending it through a wooden fence and into the front yard of a house at 225th St. and N. Conduit Ave. in Laurelton.

“I heard the siren first, and then I heard ‘boom,’” said the homeowner, Galva Robinson, 46. “I looked through my window and the fire truck is in my yard.”

A taxi suffered minor damage when it rear-ended the tractor-trailer, cops said. The truck’s jackknifed cab was crumpled.

“They had to cut the cabin to get [the driver] out,” said a witness, Jacob Lifshitz, 45. “It’s very sad.”

The 45-year-old truck driver was fighting for his life at Jamaica Hospital last night. The firefighters from Engine 311 were at the same hospital in stable condition. The taxi driver was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital in stable condition.

Equipment, including hoses, flew off the fire truck and into the yard. Skid marks from the 18-wheeler mail truck, owned by MT Transportation of Bay Shore, L.I., stretched 70 feet toward the intersection, which has a light. It was unclear whether the truck had the green.

6 Comments

  • crown heights

    wow what an accedent
    What time did this happen?
    I hope the fire mens are ok

  • cc

    OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!
    that firetruck is damged!!!!!!!!!!!!
    wow!!!!!
    be careful when u drive!!!

  • Fire Marshal Bill

    picture it…you’re sitting at an intersection…hear sirens and air horns and some knucklehead who doesn’t want to stop because 1. he thinks he can beat the fire truck thru the intersection. 2. thinks that he deserves the right of way. 3. is in a rush, because the mail gots to get thru. Lesson: You hear the sirens and horns pull over to the right side of the road.