Truck Crash Slows Traffic on LIE

A furniture delivery truck driver narrowly escaped serious injury on the Long Island Expressway after he plowed into the rear of another eastbound truck under the Douglaston Parkway overpass.

The crash, which took place shortly after noon today, immediately snarled traffic for miles in both directions as highway police stopped traffic to get fire and emergency equipment to the scene.

An unidentified driver for RMGC Associates of New Brunswick, NJ had to be cut from the cab by FDNY personnel and was removed from the scene by an ambulance to Flushing Hospital Medical Center.

"He's going to be okay," a police officer at the scene said of the driver.

The force of the crash pushed the windshield into the driver's compartment, and crumpled the cab. Truck parts and shattered glass littered the roadway.

There was no word on the condition of the driver or any helpers in the struck vehicle, which was owned by Brother Quality, Inc. of Clifton, NJ. But it appeared to have sustained only minor damage.

Other truckers and commuters hoping for a quick Thanksgiving getaway made for the service roads, slowing down local traffic in both directions. One commuter on Douglaston Parkway, having finally escaped the tie-up, said she had "been in traffic for an hour."