A four-car accident blocked traffic on Lake Lansing Road east of Abbott Road for about 40 minutes Monday.

One car rear-ended another at about 2:20 p.m., which caused two more cars in front of it to also get hit, East Lansing police Sgt. Carl Nowak said.

Although three vehicles had to be towed, there were no serious injuries.

One of the car's backsides was completely exposed, with the body torn off and pieces hanging from it.

Two cars, a pick-up truck and van were involved in the crash, Nowak said, adding that the accident is still under investigation.

In addition to the vehicles, a fire truck, ambulance, a couple tow trucks and a few police cars blocked the street from the intersection to the entrance of the shopping plaza near the southeast corner of the intersection.

An officer directed traffic in the middle of the intersection, and a police car blocked westbound Lake Lansing Road traffic.

Cars heading west on Lake Lansing Road had to detour through the Beaner's Gourmet Coffee parking lot on the southeast corner of the intersection. At one point, a line of nine cars waited to get through.

Alex Willey was sitting in her car in the parking lot when she looked up to see a smaller black car get hit from behind and bounce forward to hit the pick-up truck in front of it.

"It was out of nowhere, definitely a blink-of-an-eye sort of deal," the family community services senior said.

When the accident happened, a Capital Area Transportation Authority bus driving on Abbott Road almost got into another accident, said Michelle DeVore, a food industry management junior.

DeVore was on the route 26 bus when another car cut it off, causing the bus driver to slam on her brakes and the extra-long bus to whip around.