What Happened
Two people were killed and dozens more were injured late Monday night when a chartered coach bus carrying the crew of a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight overturned on the westbound Long Island Expressway in Queens, crossing into oncoming traffic and triggering a massive, multi-vehicle pileup, according to ABC7 Chicago.
The crash occurred at approximately 11:45 p.m. on Monday, June 30, 2026, on the westbound Long Island Expressway in New York City. The vehicle involved was a chartered airport shuttle bus occupied by the crew of Royal Jordanian Flight 8261, which had arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport from Amman, Jordan, just before 9:45 p.m. that same evening. The crew had departed JFK and was in transit to their hotel when the sequence of catastrophic events unfolded.
According to officials cited by ABC7 Chicago, the westbound coach bus first collided with two vehicles traveling in the same direction before striking the center divider of the expressway. The impact sent the bus into a rollover, which carried it across the divider and into the eastbound lanes of the LIE. Once in the eastbound lanes, the overturning bus crashed into two additional vehicles traveling in the opposite direction. In total, the single incident involved at least six vehicles — the coach bus and five other cars.
The bus driver was pronounced dead at the scene. One passenger aboard the bus was also pronounced dead. The driver of one of the eastbound vehicles struck by the out-of-control bus was transported to a hospital in critical condition. Three other drivers involved in the crash were reported to be in stable condition. Approximately two dozen passengers who had been riding aboard the shuttle bus were taken to area hospitals to be evaluated for injuries, per reporting by ABC7 Chicago.
Following the crash, investigators and sources revealed deeply troubling details about the background of the deceased bus driver. Sources told ABC’s New York affiliate, WABC, that the driver had accumulated seven prior arrests, including charges for burglary, sexual abuse, and forcible touching. He was a registered Level 2 sex offender at the time of the crash. While he held a valid commercial driver’s license, his personal driving record included seven moving violations: two citations for speeding, two for disobeying a traffic control device, and one for dangerous driving. Critically, none of those moving violations had occurred while he was operating a vehicle in a professional capacity. ABC New York affiliate WABC reached out to the driver’s employer for comment but had not yet received a response at the time of publication.
Royal Jordanian Airlines released a statement in the aftermath of the crash, saying in part that the carrier did not yet have full details of the incident and was actively monitoring the situation while coordinating with authorities. The airline’s flight, numbered 8261, had originated in Amman, Jordan, before landing at Kennedy Airport, after which the crew boarded the chartered shuttle that would ultimately be involved in the deadly wreck.
The crash shut down the Long Island Expressway in both directions for several hours, creating a massive traffic backup as emergency crews worked to clear the wreckage from the travel lanes and investigators processed the multi-vehicle scene. All lanes of the Long Island Expressway were eventually reopened once crews finished clearing the scene. The cause of the crash remains under active investigation, authorities said.
Location & Road Context
The crash unfolded on the Long Island Expressway — one of the busiest and most heavily traveled corridors in the New York metropolitan area — within the Queens portion of the highway, which connects Long Island’s suburban communities to Midtown Manhattan. This stretch of the LIE carries enormous volumes of commercial traffic, airport-bound travelers, and employee shuttles at all hours, given its proximity to JFK International Airport. The expressway’s configuration — two carriageways separated by a center divider — meant that when the coach bus breached that barrier, it introduced a westbound vehicle traveling at highway speed directly into the path of oncoming eastbound traffic, dramatically amplifying the danger to drivers who had no warning or time to react.
The section of the LIE where this crash occurred is well within the area regularly tracked by Long Island Traffic for incidents, delays, and road closures. For real-time updates on expressway conditions across the region, commuters can monitor the Long Island Expressway corridor page and accident reports on this site.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
The cause of the crash remained under investigation as of the time of this report. No charges had been publicly announced as of publication. However, the background of the deceased driver — seven prior arrests including for burglary, sexual abuse, and forcible touching, plus his status as a registered Level 2 sex offender and a personal driving record that included violations for speeding, disobeying traffic control devices, and dangerous driving — is expected to draw scrutiny toward the charter company that employed him and how he was vetted for a role transporting airline crew members. According to ABC7 Chicago, WABC reached out to the driver’s employer for a response but had not heard back.
Investigators were continuing to process the crash scene in the hours that followed the incident. As is standard in fatal multi-vehicle crashes in New York State, the investigation will likely involve reviewing the bus’s black box data, any available highway surveillance footage, and the professional licensing records associated with the driver and his employer.
Broader Impact
The crash raises urgent questions about how charter and airport shuttle companies screen the professional drivers they hire to transport airline crews and other passengers — a sector that typically operates under less public scrutiny than commercial bus lines. New York State law requires commercial drivers to hold a valid CDL, but the revelation that the deceased driver carried a personal record of seven moving violations, including citations for dangerous driving and disobeying traffic signals, underscores the gap that can exist between minimum legal licensing requirements and the actual fitness of a driver for high-volume passenger transport duty. For those involved in the crash seeking to understand their legal rights, Long Island Traffic’s know your rights resource provides a starting point.