4 hospitalized in 4-car crash in Miami

MIAMI (WSVN) - Four vehicles, including a medical van that was transporting elderly people, collided at a busy intersection in Miami, injuring four people, police said.

According to Miami Police, the collision occurred at the intersection of Northwest 36th Street and 22nd Avenue, Friday afternoon.

Four different vehicles were involved in the collision. An orange landscaping truck was on the scene, pressed up against a Chevrolet Silverado that crashed into a bus bench. A Honda could be seen next to the landscape truck and then the medical van that was carrying multiple elderly people.

“We were coming along, and we crashed,” Blanca Barleta, who was in the medical van, said through a translator.

A surveillance video of the moment of impact was released, showing the medical van traveling northbound when it comes in contact with the Chevy Silverado traveling in the eastbound lanes. The pickup truck could be seen being pushed into the intersection and into the westbound lanes of Northwest 36th Street.

7News spoke with witnesses and some people who were involved in the collision. They said the medical van was traveling along Northwest 22nd Avenue and drove through the light. The Chevy Silverado was traveling in the eastbound direction and swerved into the westbound lane in an attempt to avoid the medical van. That’s when it ended up on the sidewalk and crashed into the bus bench. It was then smashed by the landscape truck.

Four people were transported to the hospital, and at least one of them was listed in serious condition. According to 7News sources, all four were inside the medical van.

The medical van was carrying patients, and one of the people inside the van went through the front windshield, according to someone who was driving the Honda that was involved in the crash.

She said she couldn’t believe her eyes as she watched someone go through the windshield of the medical van. “He had to swerve to not hit nobody else, which is me and hit the side because there were people sitting at the bus stop, but they jumped out. He hit the side, so he don’t have to hit the people that was at the bus stop sitting,” she said. “He’s fine. He was in shock initially, but he’s coming down from it.”

Dayamila Valdes, the daughter of the driver who was operating the pickup truck, said she’s relieved that her father, 55-year-old Sanson Valdes is OK. “He hit her. He tried to avoid her as much as possible, and that’s when he got in that little nook, and he almost hit the people in the bus stop also, but thank God he didn’t,” she said. “The lady that flew out, she was already being attended by everyone else when we got here, and they took her away.”

The Chevron gas station owner, Alex Castro said he heard the whole thing. “Big boom, the glass shattering, saw the reaction from all the customers,” he said.

The intersection has since been closed due to the amount of cars involved in the crash, according to police.

Officials are guiding traffic to alternative routes. Glass could be seen on the road. No one at the bus stop was injured.

Hours after the crash, vehicles were finally towed.

The east and westbound lanes of 36th Street is completely shut down, as of 7 p.m. Friday.

City of Miami public service aides, the traffic homicide unit and Miami Police are all on the scene to investigate and clean up the mess.

Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.