NEW YORK CITY TRAFFIC ACCIDENT ATTORNEY

HOW COMMON ARE TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS

Traffic Accidents remain of the leading causes of catastrophic injuries and fatalities in the United States.  According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), traffic accidents are the number one killer for people under 44.  Even with the tremendous advancement in safety technology, lower speed limits and improvements in road design, car accidents are all too frequent.  A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study found that “child safety seats provide a statistically significant 25% reduction in the least serious injury category.”  This was a much lower impact than expected due to the large proportion of seats being used improperly.  Airbags have been found to reduce the severity of head injuries for head-on collisions, but also produce injuries of their own, including serious burns.  They have also been known to cause fatalities in children under 12.

HOW OFTEN DO TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS RESULT IN LAWSUITS?

So how are our courts holding up with handling all the injuries from traffic accidents?  The no-fault/serious injury threshold holds passed in the 1970’s in New York have reduced the number of traffic accidents that result in litigation.  Claimants can only bring lawsuits when there has been a legally defined “serious injury” and cannot sue for minor injuries.  Insurance companies will often settle minor injury cases for “nuisance value” even if they don’t meet the legal standard, but the cases cannot proceed to lawsuits without the risk of dismissal.

WHAT TYPE OF LAWSUIT APPLIES TO TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS?

When you sue for pain and suffering, lost future income and other damages for a traffic accident, the legal principle that applies is liability for negligence.  Lawyers call this type of action a “tort.” In order to be liable for negligence, a person must have failed to use the ordinary care that a reasonable person would under the same or similar circumstances.  Examples of this lack of ordinary care are “following too closely” resulting in hitting another car in the rear, not stopping at a stop sign or speeding. If the driver is speeding at 100mph on a city street, that behavior would be considered reckless, and still actionable.  It should be noted that if a driver uses their car as a weapon, causing an accident intentionally, the insurance coverage might not apply, and it is not, for obvious reasons, possible to insure yourself against intentional acts.

DRIVER ERROR

Driver error is the most common type of negligence for traffic accidents, but there are other kinds of negligence that applies in some situations.  Distracted driving is an increasing cause of accidents nationwide. Examples of distracted driving include having a mobile phone in hand, texting while driving, applying cosmetics and tending to a child in the vehicle.  Distracted driving could be the root cause of the “lack of care” described above, the distraction causing the driver to fail to notice a stop sign or a car stopping in front of their vehicle.

VEHICLE MAINTENANCE

A vehicle owner is responsible for the proper care and maintenance of their car, and the driver of the car is responsible for making sure the vehicle is in proper shape before getting behind the wheel.  This applies not just to cars, but to buses, trucks, motorcycle and any type of motor vehicle.  Improperly functioning brakes are a leading cause of accidents, and when that type of failure is in a bus or truck, the results can be catastrophic.

PRODUCT LIABILITY

Sometimes an accident is not the driver’s fault,  or the injuries are worsened by a defect in the vehicle itself.  This would give rise to a product liability claim against the manufacturer or a vehicle.  Common examples of manufacturing design defect are: SUV Rollovers, defective tires, gas tank ignition, defective seatbelt, and airbags.  There can also be a claim against a mechanic that serviced a car, if, for example, the brakes fail shortly after a repair.

DEFECTS IN ROADWAY

Defects in a road such as potholes or improper construction that interferes with the flow of traffic can give rise to a claim against the municipality.  In New York, a Notice of Claim must be filed within 90 days of the accident for such cases. Other common claims against municipalities are for broken traffic signals, missing stopping signs and trees that obscure traffic signals.  There can also be a claim for the improper design of the highway itself.

CONTRIBUTORY AND COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE

In New York cases are decided under the theory of contributory negligence.  For example, if you fail to stop fully at a stop sign, but can prove that the car with the right of way was speeding, responsibility for the accident is shared.  A passenger can be responsible for some portion of their injuries if it can be shown that they distracted the driver, and thus are at least a partial cause of the accident.

INSURANCE

In New York, driver’s are required to have a minimum 25/50 policy.  This coverage can pay out $25,000 maximum to an individual and $50,000 for all claims for a given accident.  There are higher requirements for commercial vehicles, for example, taxis must carry a minimum 100/300 policy.  If the other driver has no insurance in effect, a claim can be made under the uninsured provision of one’s own policy.  For pedestrians and bicyclists where there is no insurance, a claim can be made under a “policy in the household,” or with MVAIC.  Some people carry underinsurance coverage which can provide coverage in excess of the policy limits of the other vehicle under the person’s own policy.

DEADLINES

There are many deadlines to be aware of for traffic accidents.  No-fault forms must be submitted within 30 days. A Notice of Claim against the City must be filed within 90 days.  A lawsuit must be commenced against the City within a year and ninety days. The statute of limitations for traffic accidents is three years, but only two years for a wrongful death Claim.  If there are other types of claims involved such as design defects, those claims will carry their own Statutes of Limitations. This is why it is very important to consult with an attorney promptly after a traffic accident.

LEGAL RESOURCES IN NEW YORK

NEW YORK CITY TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS

New York City has a long history of traffic accidents going back to it’s very inception. Long before there were cars on the roads, they were clogged with horses, people, cyclists and other vehicles, humans and animals large and small. The efforts to make the streets safer seem to always end up making things worse, and it’s doubtful the problem will ever be solved. That’s why New Yorkers depend on New York City traffic accident attorneys to help them recover what they’re entitled to when they’re injured in an accident in New York City.

In New York City, over 200 people a year are killed in traffic accidents, despite Mayor Bill Blasio’s Vision Zero plan and his vow to eliminate all traffic deaths. Sadly, there were more car accident fatalities in 2019 than in the two years prior. Bike lines were supposed to help cyclists feel more comfortable on New York City’s crowded roads, but it’s actually caused a huge spike in cyclist deaths. A large part of the problem is that New York City drivers simply aren’t used to sharing the road with cyclists, causing many accidents that are described as being caused by “driver inattention” or failure to yield the right of way.

Motorists blame cyclists and pedestrians for failing to follow the rules, but statistics show less than 5% of car crashes are actually caused by this behavior. The reality is that drivers are responsible for the lion’s share of fatal crashes, as well as those that cause catastrophic injuries. The contributing factors are usually driver inattention or distraction, failure to yield the right of way, disregarding of traffic signals and driving at an unsafe speed. 

Mayor DeBlasio is now planning to seize vehicles when drivers get too many tickets for speeding or running red lights. There is the opposite to this idea in Staten Island where they believe that traffic restrictions are too onerous and that people should not lose their property over a “traffic ticket.” Advocates for safety point out that few arrests are made of drivers that cause deaths and catastrophics injuries from crashes. For example, of the 28 cyclists that were killed in motor vehicle accident crashes last year, only four of the drivers were arrested.

Brooklyn is by the far the most dangerous place in the city for motor vehicle accidents which is why insurance premiums for cars garaged in Brooklyn are the highest in the City. In addition to cyclist accidents, Brooklyn has a large amount of truck accidents due to gentrifying former industrial areas where there are still warehouses and a large amount of trucks. Accidents involving cyclists and trucks are particularly dangerous as well as truck accidents that involved pedestrians. Pedestrians deaths represent the greatest share of deaths from motor vehicle accidents in New York City.

New York City traffic accident attorneys are seeing more people injured in accidents. In fact, traffic accidents involving serious, severe and catastrophic injuries are up over twenty percent since DeBlasio took office. The Covid 19 Pandemic has decreased the rate of traffic accidents in New York City, at least temporarily, but simply because there are less cars on the road. The high rates of accidents are likely to come right back once everything opens up.