Fisher Island, FL : MacArthur Causeway crash leaves 4 injured on early Thursday afternoon, August 7, 2014

Four cars were involved in an accident on the MacArthur Causeway early Thursday afternoon, which sent four people to the hospital and shut down eastbound traffic, including the PortMiami tunnel, for several hours. The four people did not have life-threatening injuries, according to Detective Vivian Thayer of the Miami Beach Police Department. Two crash victims were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, while the other two were taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center. Police do not yet know the cause of the 1:45 p.m. accident, which occurred by the intersection of MacArthur Causeway and Terminal Island. Several hours later, the causeway was still closed, with traffic being re-routed through Star Island, according to the police department’s Twitter page. The PortMiami tunnel — which runs from the MacArthur Causeway under Biscayne Bay into the port and is the main conduit for cargo trucks — was shut down soon after the accident, but was not damaged. The tunnel is now open, according to officials. “We coordinate closely with the Florida Department of Transportation,” said tunnel spokesman Chris Hodgson, “and they asked us to close the tunnel because they wanted to divert as much traffic as possible off the MacArthur Causeway. So we complied.” The accident caused traffic not just on the causeway itself. Cars on artery streets surrounding the causeway, near Biscayne Boulevard, reported being stuck in up to three hours of traffic. Tempers were flaring on the jammed up streets, with drivers honking and cutting eachother off, and cars getting stuck in intersections. Thayer said police hoped to reopen the causeway within one to two hours. Source : MacArthur Causeway crash leaves 4 injured, briefly shuts down down tunnel