Driver and airline worker die in Queens LIE coach-bus crash
Police said a 35-year-old coach-bus driver carrying Royal Jordanian crew members from JFK hit another vehicle near Exit 16, setting off a June 29 LIE crash that killed him and passenger Moad Farid Mohd Obaidat.
Reported by press, not yet linked to NYC police crash records. This may change when new official records become available or when matching details are reviewed.
Location under review
What We Know
Police said a 35-year-old coach-bus driver was carrying Royal Jordanian Airlines crew members from JFK toward their hotel when he sideswiped a Honda Accord on the westbound Long Island Expressway near Exit 16 at about 11:45 p.m. on June 29, 2026. Police accounts said the force sent the coach bus over the median into eastbound traffic, where additional collisions followed. The driver and Royal Jordanian employee Moad Farid Mohd Obaidat, 42, died at the scene. News reports varied on the number of people hurt, citing 19 to 20 additional injured people, including at least one critically injured driver. Police and federal investigators were still examining the cause.
A westbound shuttle ride turned into a multi-vehicle crash.
Other reports described the same sequence more generally: a westbound coach-bus driver first collided with vehicles on the westbound side, then the coach bus went over the center divider into oncoming traffic and was involved in additional eastbound collisions.
The crash happened on an elevated stretch of the LIE in Queens.
Reporters placed the crash near Exit 16 for Greenpoint Avenue, with accounts describing the location as Sunnyside, Maspeth, or near Long Island City. Daily News described the westbound approach as an elevated stretch of the expressway next to Calvary Cemetery.
Two people died, and injury reports varied.
Officials said the 35-year-old coach-bus driver and passenger Moad Farid Mohd Obaidat, 42, died at the scene. Daily News identified Obaidat as an employee of Royal Jordanian Airlines and said the driver’s name was being withheld pending family notification.
The injury totals differed across early reports. Daily News reported 19 other patients taken to hospitals, while CBS New York and Gothamist reported 20 injured people. Reports also said at least one driver from the eastbound side was in critical condition; CBS reported three critically injured people.
Police described a coach bus and four other vehicles.
Daily News, citing police, identified the coach as a Freightliner S2 Luxury Mini Coach Bus. The other models named in that account were a Honda Accord, a Honda Pilot, a Toyota Highlander, and a GMC Yukon.
ABC7 and Gothamist reported that the chartered airport shuttle was carrying Royal Jordanian Airlines crew members from JFK Airport to their hotel.
Investigators had not reported a cause.
Police said the crash remained under investigation. ABC7 reported that the National Transportation Safety Board was working with the NYPD.
ABC7 and Daily News reported law-enforcement-source accounts of the bus driver’s prior arrests and seven moving violations. Daily News said those moving violations were issued while he was driving a personal vehicle, not while driving a bus; the reports did not tie those records to a determined cause of the crash.
The LIE was closed for hours after the crash.
More than 70 fire and EMS workers responded, according to CBS New York, while QNS reported at least 79 firefighters and EMS personnel at the scene. The crash shut down the Long Island Expressway in both directions and left traffic at a standstill before crews reopened lanes Tuesday morning.
CBS reported that drivers were seen outside their cars during the closure and were eventually directed to reverse and leave through an on-ramp.