A woman was killed in a pedestrian accident on a busy Lower East Side intersection the night of Dec. 18 after she was struck by an SUV whose driver then left the scene. According to a report on Streetsblog.org, the pedestrian was crossing Stanton Street in the crosswalk when the driver of the SUV turned right from Clinton Street hitting the victim. The driver reportedly kept driving. Emergency workers took the badly injured woman to Bellevue Hospital where she died.
Recent Lower East Side Pedestrian Accidents
This year, in just the 30-square-block Lower East Side, there have been 478 reported crashes that left 235 people injured — including 60 bicyclists and 46 pedestrians — according to statistics from the NYPD’s database. Overall in the city, between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15 of this year, there were more than 77,000 reported crashes that injured 45,456 people Streetsblog reports. This means there are more than 223 reported crashes every in New York City and 130 people are injured each day, the outlet reports.
Also, the NYPD reported that Paul Rozenfeld, an 88-year-old man who had been struck Dec. 2 by a driver who was turning left onto First Avenue from East 80th Street, had died from severe head trauma suffered in that pedestrian accident. Rozenfeld was taken to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center where he died on Dec. 16. The driver has since been charged, but the exact charges have not been made public by police, according to Streetsblog.
Victims’ Rights in a Fatal Hit-and-Run Crash
In New York, leaving the scene of an accident without stopping is a serious offense under the law, commonly referred to as a hit-and-run. Under New York Vehicle and Traffic Law §600, any driver involved in an accident must stop and provide their name, address and insurance information to the other party or to law enforcement. This applies whether the accident involves another vehicle, a pedestrian, a bicyclist or even property.
In a hit-and-run collision, the driver and vehicle owner are both responsible parties even if the owner was not driving when the accident occurred. If the driver was on the job and/or operating a company vehicle at the time, his or her employer can also be held liable. When the driver is apprehended in a hit-and-run case, he or she can be held financially liable for the injuries, damages and losses caused.
Such drivers can be held financially responsible whether or not they are arrested and/or charged. If a hit-and-run driver has injured you, please remember that you can seek compensation through the uninsured motorist clause of your auto insurance policy (even though the driver has not been identified) or through a quasi-state agency if there is no motor vehicle in the victim’s household. It is in the best interest of injured victims and their families in such cases to contact an experienced personal injury lawyer before contacting the people responsible for the injuries, and definitely before contacting or communicating with any insurance company, or their lawyers, investigators, or adjusters.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
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 over 54 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 $2,000,000 in a hit-and-run accident, 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 recovered $1,500,000 for a lady who was hurt by a bus.
We also obtained $295,000 out of a $300,000 insurance policy in compensation for the victim of a bicycle dooring accident (where a car door opens into the path of a bicyclist). 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. Also, we got a $1,400,000 verdict in a motorcycle accident.
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, lead poisoning and medical malpractice cases including, brachial plexus palsy (Erb’s palsy) and cerebral palsy 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.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com