Five-Vehicle Crash on Veterans Memorial Highway Injures Six, Sparks Fire

John Heenan's 2025 Mazda CX-30 rear-ended a line of stopped traffic on Veterans Memorial Highway in Smithtown at 5:55 p.m. on March 24, triggering a five-car chain reaction that set two vehicles on fire, sent six people including three children to Stony Brook University Hospital, and shut down one of central Suffolk County's main east-west arteries for nearly four hours.

The crash unfolded near Ledgewood Drive, where four vehicles had queued in an eastbound left-turn lane waiting to head north. Heenan, 60, of Glendale, was traveling in the left lane when he struck the tail end of that stopped line, hitting a 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander driven by Erin Applebaum, 43, of Hauppauge, Suffolk County Police said. The Outlander was pushed forward into a 2025 Tesla Model 3 driven by Michelle Lewis, 43, also of Hauppauge. The Tesla struck a 2020 Toyota Camry driven by Ahad Idris, 31, of Smithtown, which then hit a 2023 Mazda CX-5 driven by Ann Denning, 39, of Smithtown, completing the sequence.

Heenan's Mazda caught fire immediately after impact and flames spread to Lewis's Tesla before Smithtown Fire Department crews arrived and extinguished both vehicles.

Heenan and Applebaum each sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Applebaum's daughters, ages 9 and 12, were riding in the Outlander; both girls were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Lewis's 8-year-old son was also treated for non-life-threatening injuries. All six injured were transported to Stony Brook University Hospital, five by ambulance and one by Suffolk County Police helicopter. Idris and Denning, whose vehicles absorbed the end of the chain, were not injured.

The crash closed Veterans Memorial Highway for roughly four hours, from rush hour until just before 10 p.m., snarling traffic along Route 454, the 13.67-mile state highway that links Commack to Holbrook and carries commuter and commercial traffic past the Long Island Expressway interchange and Route 111 through Smithtown's commercial core.

The collision occurred precisely where left-turn lanes create a deceleration and stopping point within a fast-moving arterial travel lane, a configuration police said they will factor into their causation analysis. Suffolk County Police Fourth Squad detectives are investigating whether speed, distraction, or other factors contributed to the initial collision. Police said there is no immediate indication of criminality. All five vehicles were impounded for safety checks. No signal-timing review or infrastructure changes at the Ledgewood Drive intersection have been announced by Smithtown or Suffolk County transportation officials.

Anyone with information or dash-cam footage from the scene is asked to contact the Suffolk County Police Fourth Squad at 631-854-8452.