Chain-reaction accidents on Sagtikos

Seven accidents, 16 vehicles, four minor injuries.

That was the one-hour toll caused by driver inattention, tailgating and excessive speed in a series of chain-reaction crashes Wednesday morning on the Sagtikos State Parkway in Brentwood, police said.

The accidents were on the southbound and northbound parkway between 7 and 8 a.m., State Police said.

There were five southbound accidents near the Pine Aire Drive exit, Exit S3, and two on the northbound road in the same area. The southbound crashes involved two cars, then three cars, then three sets of two-car crashes, police said.

Three people suffered minor injuries in those five crashes.

The northbound accidents, primarily from rubbernecking as drivers watched the southbound crash scenes, were a two-car crash and a three-car crash, state Trooper Frank Bandiero said. One person was injured, police said.

"It was a whole bunch of two- and three-car accidents," Bandiero said. "What happens is you have a fender-bender, this one in the left lane, and it's just over a small hill, and people don't get off the road quick enough, and you get other people coming up and not paying attention and not able to stop, and all of a sudden you've got another one and another one and another one . . . At one point, there were at least seven cars on the shoulder."

Weather was not a factor, Bandiero said.

"It just driver distraction, inattention," he said.