Personal Injury Law

New York Highway Accidents-Part 2

By Mark Siesel, Esq.

In our previous post in this two part series, we examined the causes of motor vehicle accidents and fatal crashes on New York State roadways based on a NYSDOT study called the Strategic Highway Safety Plan 2007. In this article, we look at the State?s finding regarding New York pedestrian accidents, truck accidents, and motorcycle accidents. Approximately 25% of the annual New York fatal motor vehicle accidents involve pedestrians. This is more than twice the national average. 70% of pedestrian accidents and one half of the fatalities in New York State occur in the five boroughs of New York City, but interestingly, pedestrians involved in accidents in the suburbs are more likely to die in these accidents than in New York City. It is also significant that almost ¼ of all pedestrians injured or killed in the last year of the study (?05) were under 18 years of age.

Accidents between a car and large truck account for 10% of fatal motor vehicle accidents in New York, and approximately 5% of the serious personal injury accidents. From 2002 through 2005, there was a range of 140-150 deaths per year in New York truck accidents. The Department of Transportation determined that the three main causes of these accidents was: following too closely-10%; driver inattention or distraction-9%; and failing to yield the right of way-7%. The majority of all truck accidents are caused by aggressive driving by one of both of the drivers involved.

Motorcycle fatalities and motorcycle accidents are on an upward trend, due to the steady popularity of motorcycles, inexperienced riders, the attraction of ?extreme? motorcycle riding, and the price of gasoline. Motorcycle deaths on New York highways rose from 155 in 2003 to 163 in 2005.

Full post as published by New York Legal Blog on December 17, 2009 (boomark / email).