Incident location, Long Island
What Happened
A car swerving into oncoming traffic triggered a violent chain-reaction crash at the intersection of Boston Road and Union Avenue in the Morrisania section of the Bronx at approximately 11:30 a.m. on Monday, June 15, 2026 — sending a Toyota Highlander airborne onto a parked vehicle and narrowly missing at least two people who had stepped away from their cars just moments before impact, according to News 12 Long Island.
Surveillance video captured the sequence of events in full: the errant vehicle veered across the centerline into opposing traffic, first colliding with a parked truck before the force of that impact redirected it into a Toyota Highlander parked at the curb. The collision was powerful enough to launch the Highlander onto a second parked vehicle, shattering that vehicle’s windshield in the process. News 12 Long Island reported that video footage clearly showed the SUV resting on top of the second parked vehicle in the aftermath.
The owner of the Toyota Highlander, Essa Jabbie, told News 12 he had parked the vehicle and stepped inside a nearby grocery store when he heard the crash. “I hear the noise — boom! So I thought, ‘oh, an accident happened,’ and I see my car on top of another car over there,” Jabbie said. By his own account, less than two minutes separated him from being inside the vehicle at the moment of impact. “Two minutes! Not even two minutes, and accident happens,” he said. “I have a family, I have two girls and this is my wife, so thank God I’m not in my car.” Beyond the shock of the near-miss, Jabbie said the crash has left him in serious financial jeopardy — he relies on the Highlander as an Uber driver to pay rent and support his household. “I have a family, I have to pay my rent and bills,” he said.
A second driver, Tyreq Chiles, 26, also escaped harm by a similarly razor-thin margin, according to News 12 Long Island. Chiles told reporters he had been cleaning out his work vehicle before deciding to leave earlier than usual, taking shortcuts through his normal routine. “It was messy. I did cut some corners, so if I did the full process, who knows how long I would have been in there,” Chiles said. His vehicle was among those damaged in the crash. “I’m super grateful. I’m only 26, I still have so much to live for. Literally anything could have happened. You saw how smashed in that car was. Imagine if I was sitting right there,” he said.
Justice Villaba, who works in a business next door to where the crash took place, said he was among the first bystanders to rush outside after hearing the collision. He found the at-fault driver trapped inside the crashed vehicle. “I saw he was trapped inside, so I wanted to help him out. I saw oil. I was scared it was going to catch fire,” Villaba said. He noted the driver appeared severely disoriented immediately after the crash. “He was disoriented and wasn’t coherent during the first couple seconds,” Villaba told News 12. Despite those initial signs, other witnesses at the scene told News 12 that the driver was ultimately conscious and able to walk and talk after being extracted.
Villaba also addressed what he described as a chronic speeding and reckless driving problem along that corridor, placing the crash in a broader pattern of dangerous behavior he said he regularly witnesses. “He had to have been going well over 25 and on the other side of the street,” Villaba said of the at-fault driver. He expressed particular concern about the proximity to a local school. “My son’s school is up the block, and they always have literally a class of 20 kids coming up this block, so thank God he ain’t hit nobody,” Villaba said. The at-fault driver was transported to a local hospital following the crash. As of the time of reporting, police had not released information identifying the driver or explaining what caused the vehicle to swerve into oncoming traffic.
Location & Road Context
The crash took place at the intersection of Boston Road and Union Avenue in Morrisania, a densely populated residential and commercial neighborhood in the South Bronx. The intersection sits along a busy surface-street corridor that serves pedestrians, local businesses, school foot traffic, and through-drivers alike — a combination that witnesses say amplifies the danger when vehicles travel at excessive speeds or cross into oncoming lanes. Villaba noted that a school is located just up the block, with groups of up to 20 children routinely walking along that stretch during the school day. While this incident took place in the Bronx rather than on Long Island proper, it involved Bronx-area drivers and was covered extensively by News 12 Long Island as part of its regional New York coverage area.
Broader Impact
The crash has had an immediate and tangible economic impact on at least one of its victims. Essa Jabbie, who drives for Uber to support his family, lost the vehicle he depends on for his livelihood. With rent, bills, and two daughters to provide for, the destruction of his Toyota Highlander — even without physical injury to himself — represents a significant financial crisis. For ride-share drivers in New York City, a totaled vehicle often means not just repair costs but lost income during the period it takes to replace or fix the car, a gap that safety net programs rarely cover quickly or fully.