Man Pinned Between Vehicles on Broadhollow Road, Seriously Injured

A 25-year-old man was pinned between two vehicles and left with serious leg injuries on Broadhollow Road in East Farmingdale Friday morning, after a BMW disabled in the middle of the roadway triggered a secondary collision that required fire department extrication to resolve.

The crash unfolded around 9:40 a.m. A BMW had broken down and stopped in the middle lane of Broadhollow Road when a 2007 Honda struck the 25-year-old as he stood behind the disabled vehicle, trapping him between the two cars. The 19-year-old driver of the Honda was not hurt.

Fire rescue units responded with hydraulic extrication equipment and worked to free the victim while simultaneously stabilizing both vehicles to prevent further movement. The man was transported to Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip for treatment of serious leg injuries. Broadhollow Road was partially restricted during the operation, disrupting the Friday morning commute in one of Suffolk County's most heavily trafficked commercial corridors.

Crashes like this follow a predictable escalation: a vehicle stops unexpectedly in an active travel lane, a driver or occupant steps outside, and a following vehicle fails to slow or change lanes before impact. Reduced sightlines, higher posted speeds, and driver distraction each amplify the outcome once someone is standing in live traffic. In New York, 37 people were killed outside disabled vehicles between 2016 and 2020, a toll that drove the state legislature to expand the Move Over Law to cover all stopped vehicles, not just emergency responders.

Under New York Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 1144-a, drivers are required to move to an adjacent lane, or slow to a safe speed where lane changes are not possible, when approaching any vehicle stopped on or beside the roadway. Violations carry fines and points on a driver's license. The more immediate consequence, as Friday's scene on Broadhollow Road made plain, is a pedestrian pinned under steel.

If you witness a vehicle entrapment, call 911 immediately and stay on the line to describe the number of vehicles, the position of any trapped person, and whether fuel or fire is visible. Do not attempt to move any vehicle involved, even to free a victim: shifting a car that is pinning someone can cause catastrophic secondary injury. Keep bystanders back from the crash zone and, if it can be done safely, position yourself to direct arriving emergency units to the scene.

Suffolk County Police are investigating the crash and have asked anyone who witnessed the collision, or who has dashcam or surveillance footage from the Broadhollow Road area, to contact investigators.