Accident causes problems at Lincoln Tunnel - New York News | NYC Breaking News

An early morning accident outside of the Lincoln Tunnel left about 20 people hurt and snarled traffic for hours, leaving people trapped in line to enter New York City for up to four hours.

Another accident in the late morning caused the closure of a New Jersey bound tube and compounded the problem.

Then a third accident involving several vehicles made things worse.

In the first incident, a bus operated by Martz Trailways rear-ended a NJ Transit bus that was carrying 45 passengers from Paramus, N.J., to the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan, a Port Authority spokesman said.

It happened in the in-bound express bus lane. Two of the injuries were considered serious.

The accident happened at 7:15 a.m. All outbound traffic was being diverted from Route 495 into Weehawken.

Inbound delays were at one hour at 8:30 a.m. and grew to more than two hours as the morning went on.

People were seen getting off of buses and walking into Manhattan from the tunnel because of the traffic issue.

Then, the west bound Lincoln Tunnel was closed due to another accident before noon. Initial reports from the scene indicated that as many as eight vehicles were involved in the crash.

In a third incident, five trucks and three cars were involved in a crash, resulting in several injuries, the Port Authority said.

By afternoon, the tunnel was cleared and traffic was normal.