Five-Car Pileup on Atlantic Avenue

Nearly a dozen people were injured in a five-car pileup outside the Post Office on Atlantic Avenue on Friday night, fire officials said.

The accident, which occurred shortly before 9:10 p.m. between Third and Fourth Avenues, sent four people to Long Island College Hospital with non-life threatening injures. Seven others declined medical attention, according to officials and an EMS lieutenant at the scene.

"I just felt the impact and I thought it was a truck that hit me," said East Orange, NJ resident Jennifer Alleyle, who was driving to a church gathering in Bedford-Stuyvesant when her Toyota Highlander was hit from behind by another car that was rear-ended.

Alleyle, who was still shaken as the accident was being cleared, said she didn't see the vehicle that caused the chain reaction and ended with four SUVs being damaged, but witnesses at the scene said a Mercedes came tearing down the eastbound lane and caused the accident.

One man at the scene was placed inside a police car with handcuffs behind his back. It was not immediately known if he was the man responsible or charged in connection with the accident.