Police recorded 283 crashes on Van Wyck Expressway, Queens, between 2023 and 2025, with 262 people injured and 1 killed. That places it #15 among 1,304 Queens streets with at least two crashes a year, and it carried 0.5% of the borough's recorded crashes.
Police recorded 273 crashes on this street in 2025, up 2,630% from 2024. So far in 2026 (through October 31, 2026), 322 crashes have been recorded.
Crashes on Van Wyck Expressway by year
| Year | Crashes | Injured | Killed | Pedestrians injured | Cyclists injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | 322 | 285 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 2025 | 273 | 254 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2024 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Injuries and who was hurt
There were 93 injuries for every 100 crashes on Van Wyck Expressway, above the Queens rate of 56.
Pedestrians accounted for 0.4% of injuries on Van Wyck Expressway, cyclists for 0.0% and vehicle occupants for 100%.
| Road user | Injured | Share of injured | Killed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pedestrians | 1 | 0.4% | 0 |
| Cyclists | 0 | 0.0% | 0 |
| Motorists (drivers and passengers) | 259 | 100% | 1 |
What police say caused the crashes
Police named a specific contributing factor in 24% of crashes on Van Wyck Expressway. Driver Inattention/Distraction led the list, at 29% of crashes with a known factor, followed by following too closely and unsafe speed.
ZIP codes this street crosses
Crashes on Van Wyck Expressway by ZIP code, 2023–2025.
How to read these figures
Each figure counts crashes that an NYPD officer reported on the MV-104AN form, which is required when someone is injured or killed or when damage reaches $1,000. One crash can injure several people, so injuries can exceed crashes.
Police do not record the borough or ZIP code for every crash — about 23% of crashes citywide in the same years have no borough — so local totals are a floor, not an exact count. The contributing factor is the one listed for the first vehicle in the report.
Street names in police reports are typed by hand. We merge common spellings (for example "Ave" and "Avenue"), but some crashes on this street may be filed under a variant we could not match.
Source: NYPD crash reports published by NYC Open Data (Motor Vehicle Collisions – Crashes). Data through October 31, 2026. Figures are preliminary and may change. How we calculate these figures.