STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- By all official accounts, it was a minor accident.

Yet within an hour, it was the center of a national conspiracy theory.

At about 11:40 a.m. Thursday, the FDNY reported that 11 people suffered minor injuries during a collision at Broadway and Castleton Avenue in West Brighton.

Multiple trusted sources with knowledge of the incident told the Advance that one of the vehicles involved was a special needs van carrying young autistic adults.

Nine of them were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

The director of Lifestyles for the Disabled, which owned the van, confirmed the account.

The incident was apparently so minor, it didn't even register with business owners our reporter interviewed in the area.

So what happened?

Within minutes of the van crash, an allegedly drugged driver horrifically plowed his car into a crowd of pedestrians in Times Square, killing one and hurting several dozen more.

Then, a wildly inaccurate report on Twitter at about 12:30 p.m. claimed that the Staten Island incident also involved multiple pedestrians struck by a car, with one fatality and an additional three victims at death's door.

It was retweeted more than 1,700 times and liked by another 855.

Others began reporting it:

Staten Island: Broadway & Castleton Ave, @NYPDhighway CIS Requested after 3 people struck by a vehicle and 1 aided is DOA. #BREAKING — NYC Scanner (@NYScanner) May 18, 2017

Social media followers from around the country accepted the reports as truth and conflated the Staten Island and Times Square incidents.

Fox News didn't help matters by mentioning the two incidents in the same breath in the lead paragraph of a news report Thursday.

The result is that some people nationwide began to connect dots that didn't exist -- that within minutes, motorists plowed into crowds of pedestrians in two New York City boroughs in what sure seemed like a coordinated terrorist attack.

The theory spread rapidly on social media nationwide. When news agencies didn't report on it, some pointed to a conspiracy to cover up an attack.

"Let me get this straight: A car mows people down in Times Square. A car mows people down on Staten Island. Don't jump to conclusions," said one Twitter user.

Another: "ISIS has called for Islamic Car Jihad... Two separate car attacks in NY today. Times Square: 13 injured, 1 Dead Staten Island: 3 hit, 1 Dead."

Yet one more: "DeBlasios NYC. 2nd attack in Staten Island. They don't want ANYTHING that proves Trump correct."

There were hundreds more just like them.

The theory even caught the attention of Mike Cernovich, a national right-wing social media personality, writer and self-proclaimed "national security reporter" who has nearly 270,000 followers and boasts 100 million views a month. Despite his "too early to tell" disclaimer, the flames had been fanned.

The Advance posted details of the West Brighton crash and Staten Island-based watch groups helped spread the word on social media, which helped ease fears on the borough.

City Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore), responding to Cernovich, was among those who took to social media to set the record straight.

I can confirm - the staten island van accident is not terrorism related. Police are not treating as suspicious, nor is hospital. — Joe Borelli (@JoeBorelliNYC) May 18, 2017

Still, nationally, the theory lived on Thursday -- but by Friday morning, it was largely gone from Twitter.