As New York City school students headed back to classrooms for in-person instruction on Sept. 13, Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled efforts to bolster traffic safety, especially pedestrian safety, throughout the city. The mayor has announced that the New York Police Department will ramp up its traffic safety enforcement efforts throughout the fall with an emphasis on school zones.
Calls for Stringent Enforcement
According to an article in The Staten Island Advance, NYPD will specifically crack
down on speeding, reckless driving and failure to yield to pedestrians in school zones throughout the five boroughs. These violations are, of course, some of the most common causes of fatal pedestrian accidents, which have seen an uptick this year. City officials say failure to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks has been a contributing factor in more than 60% of pedestrian accident deaths this year.
The NYPD has also assigned additional officers to increase enforcement against illegal phone use and texting while driving. In addition, the department will target drunk drivers, deploy more highway officers to deter speeding drivers, and focus on motorcycle safety by targeting dangerous drivers whose behavior creates hazardous conditions for motorcyclists. NYPD and Department of Transportation street teams scattered throughout the city over the last week to remind drivers to exercise caution in the coming weeks as students return to school.
Speed Cameras Reduce Crashes, Injuries
The mayor also renewed his calls for the state legislature to expand the city’s school zone speed camera program and allow the cameras to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. De Blasio has called on the state to change the existing law and have cameras operate around the clock compared to their current operating hours — from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays. The mayor said more than one-third or 36% of non-highway traffic fatalities in 2020 occurred in school camera zones at times cameras could not issue citations.
The mayor’s office also laid our statistical evidence showing that speed cameras reduce crashes, injuries and deaths in corridors where they are installed. Before the speed camera installations, these roadways saw an average of 1,089 annual crashes, 839 of which involved injuries.
In the year after the installation of the cameras, the same roadways saw 936 crashes, 748 of which involved injuries. Overall, injuries decreased 16.9% along school zone speed camera corridors in the year after installation. Additionally, the data shows that 150 New Yorkers were killed or seriously injured while the cameras were off in 2018, representing 36.9% of all people killed or seriously injured within school speed zones.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
Injured victims of pedestrian and bicycle accidents can seek compensation from at-fault parties for damages including, but not limited to, medical expenses, lost wages and benefits, hospitalization, rehabilitation, permanent injuries, disabilities, past and future pain and suffering, etc. Families that have lost loved ones in such accidents can seek compensation for damages such as lost future income, medical and funeral costs, pain and suffering, etc.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a pedestrian 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 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 nearly 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. 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.silive.com/news/2021/09/mayor-announces-crackdown-as-part-of-back-to-school-traffic-safety-plan-calls-for-nyc-speed-cameras-to-go-247.html