For some reason, photos of trucks stuck under bridges never get old. The latest installment in this harrowing series is brought to us by the driver of a tractor trailer, which collided with an SUV earlier this evening while headed eastbound on the BQE under the Brooklyn Bridge overpass. The FDNY tells us there was some fuel leaking from the truck, but fortunately there were no injuries. more ›

Instead of just piling up the dead Christmas tree bodies on the street like so many Romanovs, area artist MIchael Neff has gathered up some of the fallen evergreen soldiers and honored them with a fitting tribute: hanging from the underside of the BQE in Williamsburg. The ingenious installation can be found where Metropolitan Avenue crosses North 6th Street. This is conveniently located not far from Union Pool, making jumping and tackling floating Christmas trees the perfectly ironic end to any evening. Here's video of the trees in action: more ›

Today in Maddening News Of The New Year, we learn that the much-maligned BQE will continue to be under construction pretty much forever, as it has been for all time. It's not exactly new news, but at least we get some historical context for the headache. more ›

Bad news for anyone who commutes on four wheels, ever tries to get out of the city, or lives remotely near the highway: the BQE and the Gowanus expressway won't be getting better anytime soon. The city has just killed plans to revamp and repair major chunks of both expressways, citing, unsurprisingly, a lack of cash. more ›

Two people were killed in separate early morning crashes on the BQE and Van Wyck Parkway. A man driving a BMW had been speeding on the Van Wyck in Queens around 2:15 a.m.—he lost control of his car when he attempted to exit at Atlantic Ave., and ended up crashing into a tree in front of Jamaica Hospital. The car burst into flames, killing the driver. A witness told a nearby a Gourmet Deli cashier that "he saw him doing about 80 on the freeway as he was passing by him. He said he didn't even slow down when he came off the ramp, then he hit the tree.” more ›

A motorcyclist was killed early this morning after he lost control of his vehicle on the BQE. According to the NYPD, 48-year-old Nelson Perez was exiting a curve east of Montague Street in Brooklyn at around 12:48 a.m. when his 2001 Yamaha motorcycle careened over the center lane and hit a guardrail, ejecting Perez onto Furman Street below. He was transported to Lutheran hospital where he was later pronounced dead. No criminality is suspected, and the incident is still under investigation. more ›

No one could be blamed for losing their minds a little on the migraine-inducing unavoidable major artery that is the BQE—many who came before us have cursed the name Kosciusko as some karate-techno song drifted through the window during some endless traffic jam caused by a broken down truck...and many after us will as well. But it still doesn't mean you should resort to choking your bus driver for not letting you off in the middle of the bridge. more ›

Police sources have confirmed that the man killed on the BQE last Thursday morning was in fact riding a bike. He's been identified as 45-year-old Dominik Perez, a homeless Brooklyn man who was inexplicably cycling on the Staten Island-bound side of the BQE near the Atlantic Avenue exit. A driver in a Lincoln Town Car hit Perez at around 4:15 a.m., and Perez was knocked into the path of a Toyota Camry. more ›

There's been a lot of talk about giving parts of the BQE a makeover (a park, a silencer)—and last night there was a meeting concerning how to "fix the ditch." Or, rather, a meeting about how to pay for the grandiose visions that have been proposed (the cheapest of the three plans is $10MM). more ›

Despite being musically inspiring for some, the BQE is generally a fuzzy migraine wrapped in a pounding headache for commuters and local residents alike; constant traffic delays, dilapidated sections, and endless car noise can do that. With stretches of the expressway between Sands Street and Atlantic Avenue desperately needing repair, state transportation officials are considering several different options for how to handle it. One such proposal that is gaining steam is to build a tunnel under Brownstone Brooklyn that would stretch all the way from the Prospect Expressway to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. more ›

Where's the perfect spot to bring some green space to the Southside of Williamsburg? Sigh, above the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, apparently. According to the Brooklyn Paper there's one group angling to build a park on a platform above the Robert Moses "masterpiece." Sounds peaceful, no? more ›

On a nice Sunday evening, what better entertainment is there than the free, real-time show of a vehicle fire on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway? Reader Eric tells us that so many spectators in Cobble Hill were fascinated by the blaze that they were not only standing in the street but also climbed on the fences of the overpasses overlooking the fire. The police ended up using their van's speaker to tell folks to "get the hell out of the way!" more ›

An unidentified NYPD officer had both legs broken yesterday when he was hit by a drunk driver while stopping another drunk driver on the BQE around 4:30 a.m. The officer, a five year veteran, was escorting a vehicle to a tow pound when he spotted Hector Herrera Espinosa, 40, of Maryland "driving erratically, weaving in and out [of traffic]," a police source tells the Daily News. more ›

Traffic alert: an accident on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway westbound has caused full lane closures near Hamilton Ave. Traffic is practically at a standstill reaching back before the Atlantic Ave exit. Police are reporting that five cars and two trucks are involved in the accident, and there are injuries on site. "Highway is shut down," according to the police scanner. You can check out latest updates here. more ›

A little after 5 p.m. yesterday we got word over the newswire of a "Secret Service involved MVA" on the BQE by 39th Street, where a US Secret Service vehicle was hit by a tractor trailer. Today the NY Post has more details, saying an off-duty Secret Service agent was cut off by an 18-wheeler, whose tires flattened the front of his vehicle and caused him "to spin around and slam into a concrete barricade." Another agent had been nearby, and pulled the truck over — but the driver wasn't charged. While the car was totaled, the agent declined medical attention and is reportedly unharmed. more ›

After Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez obtained $300,000 in public funds last year for a study to explore possible solutions on what to do with the BQE Ditch, the area along the Columbia waterfront between Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens, the input-gathering process is finally underway—via soliciting blog comments. So fire away. [Brownstoner] more ›

The Atlantic Avenue exit of the BQE turned out to be the exit ramp used by one more passenger than was expected Thursday morning when a police officer ended up helping deliver a baby alongside the highway. 37-year-old Officer George Tsoukaris said he hasn't had to help out on a case like this since his rookie days on the NYPD. When Tsoukaris was flagged down Thursday around 11a.m. by a woman in labor and her husband intending to take the BQE out to a Staten Island hospital, he quickly discovered that there wasn't going to be enough time until an EMT arrived...or even time for him to put on gloves for that matter! The couple has chosen not to reveal themselves after taking their healthy newborn to Long Island College Hospital. But the News got the adorable story out of the cop, who says, "She was screaming at the top of her lungs. he's yelling, 'The baby's coming out, the baby's coming out!' ... It's one thing to see the miracle of life in a controlled environment like a hospital, but it's another thing to have it happen on the highway." more ›

The BQE is back up and running after a massive accident left 59 people injured and closed off eastbound lanes for a good portion of the morning following rush hour. A school bus, a casino bus and a tractor trailed were involved with what the Daily News calls a chain reaction accident just before the Kosciuszko Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Queens near the McGuinness Blvd. exit and not far from the Midtown Tunnel. A large majority of the victims were treated at the scene for bumps and bruises. Six people were taken to local hospitals. Newsday says that two went to the Wyckhoff and Woodhull Hospitals in Brooklyn and the other four "were taken to an unknown medical facility by a Hatzolah ambulance, which is operated by Jewish volunteers." Newsmap also shows what appears to be a second accident on nearby westbound lanes, where an overturned chicken truck shut down the highway while waiting for sanitation to clean up. more ›

In 2004 park officials retained landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates to design the new waterfront for Brooklyn Bridge Park. His solution to mute the traffic noise coming off the BQE was to erect a physical barrier between the roadway and the landscaped area, but some folks have declared that this current $7 million solution has numerous problems (most notably that it simply won't work). more ›

Morning rush hour drivers along the BQE this morning encountered a series of signs protesting the occupation of Gaza and what is seen as Israeli war crimes hung by the group Jews Against the Occupation. Signs such as "FREE GAZA" and "JEWS SAY: STOP ISRAEL" were draped from overpasses as commuters headed southbound along the highway. more ›

Reader Joel sent us this photograph of some billowing black smoke in downtown Brooklyn (he took it from Manhattan--see a bigger image here). While it looks ominous--and there is a lot of smoke--it turns out it is a truck fire on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, where it comes out near Middagh/Hicks Streets. The truck was reportedly carrying construction materials, but nothing hazardous. more ›

A fatal car accident late Friday night left body parts strewn across the BQE in Williamsburg after a man was hit by two separate cars while trying to cross the highway. The accident took place near Wythe Avenue just before midnight . The first car that hit the man sped away from the scene while there were no charges for the second car which remained until police arrived. The victim was a 23-year-old Massachusetts native whose identity will not be released until police notify his family. Police say the impact was severe enough that body parts of the victim ended up on the street below. Update:The blog NYU Local is reporting that the victim was NYU sophomore Paul Fortini. more ›

Around 5:45 a.m., a tractor-trailer crashed into a livery car on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway at Morgan Avenue, near the Kosciusko Bridge. The vehicles were Brooklyn-bound, and the collision caused the tractor-trailer to jackknife across the divider and hit a Queens-bound car. more ›

Earlier this morning, a tractor trailer overturned on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The tractor trailer's cargo - an assortment of live chickens - spilled onto the highway and broke open, leaving crews to chase a lot of fowl for hours during clean-up (a worker estimated there were 500!). It's unclear whether all the chickens were retrieved, so if you live near Flushing Avenue and see a feathered friend more suited to a coop than a tree, you'll know why. more ›