Following Mayor Eric Adams’ promise earlier this year to curb pedestrian accidents
at street intersections, New York City is moving to raise crosswalks and make drivers slow down. According to a report in The New York Times, Adams wants to raise hundreds of crosswalks across New York and let pedestrians cross the street safely. The proposal comes amid a surge in traffic deaths that started during the pandemic and has been fueled by an epidemic of speeding and reckless driving.
In 2021 alone, citywide, 273 people including 125 pedestrians were killed in crashes, according to city data. Since Adams took office in January 2022, another 37 people, including 20 pedestrians, have been killed in crashes as of Feb. 27. This alarming spike in traffic fatalities has sharply reversed the progress that had been made under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative, based on the news report.
How Raised Crosswalks Can Help
Raised crosswalks are essentially crosswalks that are elevated to the level of the sidewalk. This helps make the pedestrians who are crossing more visible to approaching motorists and forces the motorists to reduce their speeds to negotiate the bump. Raised crosswalks have been shown to make streets safer elsewhere. However, in New York, a city that has 40,000 intersections, there are only 17 of these raised crosswalks. Starting this year, the city plans to add 100 raised crosswalks each year as part of a broader effort to redesign some of New York City’s most dangerous intersections.
Hand in hand with these improvements, city officials are also pushing to step up enforcement and stop drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians — a violation that has become far less of a focus during the pandemic when police departments have been stretched thin. Similar to other U.S. cities, New York City saw a jump in traffic deaths during the pandemic, which experts say was caused by speeding and reckless driving brought on by emptier roadways, lax enforcement, increased alcohol/drug use and greater levels of anxiety.
In particular, street intersections have been likened to death traps for the pedestrians and bicyclists involved in these collisions with speeding and reckless drivers, according to the New York Times. Over the past five years in New York City, more than half of all pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities, and more than three-quarters of pedestrian and bicyclist injuries, have occurred at street intersections, city officials said.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
If you have been injured in a New York pedestrian accident, you may be able to seek compensation for damages including medical expenses, lost income and benefits, hospitalization, cost of rehabilitation, permanent injuries, disabilities, past and future pain and suffering, etc. If you have lost a loved one in a pedestrian accident, you may be able to seek compensation by filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the responsible parties.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a pedestrian accident or bicycle accident, or if you have lost a loved one in an auto accident caused by a negligent (careless) driver, 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.
Pedestrian accident victims and their families should also remember that they can seek compensation for injuries or losses in collisions even if the victim was not walking in a marked crosswalk and even if the driver involved in collision was not charged. Our law firm recovered the full one million dollar insurance policy for a girl who was not in the crosswalk when a motor vehicle hit her.
For over 50 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 bicyclist 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, and 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, and $2,500,000 for a man who fell through an improperly secured hole.
We also obtained $295,000 in compensation for the victim of a bicycle dooring accident (where a car door opens into the path of a bicyclist). Also, one of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases.
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 and/or medical malpractice cases in New York, 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: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/nyregion/nyc-raised-crosswalks-traffic-deaths.html