What Happened
A minor crash on westbound I-495 in Queens County blocked the right lane on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, according to incident records. The exact time of the collision has not been confirmed in official reports. One right lane remained closed while traffic continued through the remaining lanes.
No injuries have been publicly reported. The specific vehicles involved, the collision type, and the cause of the crash have not been released by authorities as of the time of filing.
Location & Road Context
I-495 — the Long Island Expressway — runs through Queens County before crossing into Nassau and Suffolk counties, carrying some of the densest westbound commuter volume in the metro region. The westbound lanes through Queens feed directly into the Queens-Midtown Tunnel approaches, where a single blocked right lane can back traffic a mile or more during peak periods.
According to Long Island Traffic’s incident registry, I-495 has logged 108 incidents in the past 30 days and 389 so far in 2026 — this crash is one of the 108. The most recent prior fatal crash on the corridor occurred August 11, 2026.