Six hospitalized in rush hour, 5-car pileup on Vets Highway in Smithtown

A rear-end, chain-reaction crash set two vehicles on fire and sent six people to the hospital Tuesday evening on Veterans Memorial Highway in Smithtown, police said.

The rush hour wreck happened near Ledgewood Drive, where four vehicles were stopped in a left-turn lane waiting to head north.

John Heenan, 60, of Glendale, was driving a 2025 Mazda CX30 east in the left lane about 5:55 p.m. when he struck the rear of the last vehicle in the line, a 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander.

The collision set off a cascade that pushed three other cars into each other.

Heenan’s Mazda caught fire, and the flames spread to a 2025 Tesla Model 3 that had been struck in the chain.

Six motorists were taken to Stony Brook University Hospital — five by ambulance and one flown in a Suffolk County Police helicopter.

Heenan suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

The Mitsubishi’s driver, Erin Applebaum, 43, of Hauppauge, also sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries and her two daughters, ages 9 and 12, were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

The Tesla’s driver, Michelle Lewis, 43, of Hauppauge, and her 8-year-old son were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The drivers of the other two cars involved in the crash — Ahad Idris, 31, and 39-year-old Ann Denning, both of Smithtown — were not injured.

Smithtown Fire Department members put out the fire.

_{Top: GLI file photo}