SURREAL: A motorist stands in the midst of yesterday’s pileup looking at the flaming tractor-trailer, from which the driver narrowly escaped, at the front of the chain-reaction catastrophe. (William Jones)
It was hell on wheels.
A woman was killed and 33 other people were injured in a massive chain-reaction smashup on the Long Island Expressway yesterday after a big-rig driver lost control of his truck.
The 18-wheeler — carrying Sandy debris — smashed into several cars heading eastbound at Exit 68 in Yaphank at around 2:50 p.m. before bursting into flames.
“It looked like something from an action movie,” said witness Mike Jiminez, 24, of Flanders.
“I was going the opposite way, and the cars were just flying all over the place.”
Nearly 40 vehicles were involved. Injured drivers were spread among three hospitals.
Police did not release the name of the driver who died, but said she was a 68-year-old woman from Blue Point.
Two people — Nicki Boralli, 20, and Sean Shilling, 37 — were choppered to Stony Brook University Medical Center in critical condition. The rest of the injuries were not life-threatening.
Two cars caught fire in addition to the truck, but the fatality was not in one one of those vehicles.
Jiminez said that the truck driver, Raymond Simoneau from Vermont, exited his vehicle as its engine exploded.
“The guy barely got out,” he said. “He had to go right through the flames to make it from the front, the cab. Whoever that guy is is lucky to be alive.”
Another witness, Danny Gershonowitz, said he saw the truck driver kick out his windshield to escape after several people tried unsuccessfully to open his door.
A tow-truck driver pulled another occupied vehicle away from the blazing big rig.
The metal- and glass-strewn roadway resembled a demolition-derby site. Traffic was closed for hours in both directions.
Suffolk police have not pinpointed why the truck driver lost control and are investigating.
A source said that a construction zone roughly three-quarters of a mile ahead of the crash site reduced the lanes from three to one and that the truck might have smashed into braking cars.
“When I ran back up to the scene, I was afraid to see what I was going to find,” Gershonowitz said. “I was sure there would be multiple fatalities. Thank God there weren’t.”