A vast majority of hit-and-run drivers who have caused fatal accidents in New York City have not been held accountable, according to a report in the Gothamist. Of the 38 fatal hit-and-run crashes between July 2015 and June 2016, only 13, or 34 percent, have resulted in an arrest. During the same period, the police made 14 arrests in 22 hit-and-run crashes where the victim had been seriously injured. When taking into account hit-and-run collisions in New York City that resulted in what the NYPD classified as non-serious “personal injuries,” police have made 450 arrests in 5,066 crashes during the same period. That amounts to an arrest rate of about 8 percent.
Lack of Arrests in Hit-and-Run Cases
The hit-and-run data for 2016 was published in late summer in accordance with a new law, the Justice for Hit and Run Victims Act, which requires the city’s police department to issue annual reports specifically on the number of hit-and-run complaints received compared to the number of arrests made. Mayor Bill de Blasio made a pledge to apprehend and punish more hit-and-run drivers during his annual Vision Zero event last December.
Recently, he also passed a law doubling fines for hit-and-run drivers. The numbers show that police have failed to make an arrest in more than 90 percent of cases where a driver has hit a person with his or her car and then left the scene. For comparison, the arrest rate for murder and manslaughter in 2015 in New York City was about 86 percent or 308 arrests out of 335 incidents.
Resources Deployed Only in Serious Cases
City officials say the police department focuses its resources on the crashes that result in major or life threatening injuries. That’s where the arrest rates are higher. However, NYPD defines a host of injuries as “non-serious” including scrapes, bruises, road rash and much more serious injuries that might require hospitalization and surgeries, but not life support. Even loss of limbs, by that definition, might fall into the non-serious injury category.
Safety advocates say while NYPD should be applauded for the 50 percent arrest rate in serious injury cases, the low 8 percent arrest rate what they choose to define as “non-serious” cases is still a major cause for concern. They suggest that the NYPD use the penal code definition of a “serious personal injury” to determine which hit-and-run cases get the attention of its elite Collision Investigation Squad or CIS. That code defines serious personal injury as a “protracted impairment of health or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ.”
If You Have Been Injured
Victims of hit-and-run accidents are left facing a number of challenges including being saddled with significant medical expenses. Hit-and-run victims often have no one to hold accountable, particularly when an arrest is not made or when the at-fault driver is not identified. If you have been injured in a hit-and-run crash, it is important that you take a number of steps including filing a police report, gathering evidence from the scene and getting prompt medical attention. Contact an experienced NYC hit-and-run lawyer as soon as possible.
Compensation for Hit-and-Run Victims
Please remember that if a hit-and-run driver has injured you, you can seek compensation through the uninsured motorist clause of your auto insurance policy even though the driver has not been identified or seek compensation through a quasi-state agency if there is no motor vehicle in the victim’s household.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident or if you have lost a loved one in an auto accident caused by a reckless driver or due to someone else’s negligence, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you. For over 49 years, our skilled accident attorneys have established a proven track record of helping injured victims get fair compensation for their losses. Our law firm recently recovered $5,600,000 for a man who was hit by a van, and $2,550,000 for another victim of a truck accident, and $3,000,000 for a pedestrian who was hit by a car, the full $1,000,000 insurance policy for a pedestrian who was hit by a truck and $4,625,000 for a driver who was in a car and was hit by a van.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury cases in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
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Source: http://gothamist.com/2016/10/19/nyc_hit_run_utopia.php