The year 2015 brought Mayor de Blasio’s ambitious Vision Zero program into effect in order to eliminate pedestrian fatalities in the five boroughs. However, it was not as successful as originally predicted.
New York City saw over 38,000 hit-and-run accidents in 2015, 48 of which resulted in catastrophic injury or death. The majority of the hit-and-runs, about 34,000 of them, caused property damage, and most of it was minor.
But 4,000 hit-and-runs during the year injured people. That figure is about the same number injured last year in 2014, according to the NYPD Transportation Bureau. This statistic shows us that Vision Zero was not as effective as planned and needs to be seriously re-examined.
de Blasio has strongly defended the Vision Zero program that he established. He has defended the several preventative steps the city has taken according to the program, including reducing the speed limit to 25 mph on city streets, redesigning 130 streets and intersections, practically doubling the number of speeding tickets given to offenders, and nearly tripling the amount of citations given to drivers and vehicles that fail to yield to pedestrians when they have the right of way.
Other initiatives offered in the plan include establishing protected bike lanes on city streets, widened sidewalks to allow more pedestrian safety, and re-designing and re-calibrating traffic lights to give children and seniors more time to cross the street safely.
However, proper enforcement of hit-and-runs remains extremely low. For the 4,000 hit-and-run accidents that resulted in injuries, only 480 of the drivers faced criminal charges, while another 475 were cited for a moving violation-not a serious infraction.
For the 48 accidents that resulted in serious injury or death, only 28 of the drivers were ever found and/or arrested.
This is a serious dilemma not only from a law enforcement perspective, but it also means that the vast majority of injured parties cannot file a claim for damages, because they don’t know who was at fault to pay for the accident. Justice for victims requires the city to take steps to address this problem.
The attorneys at the Law Office of Richard M. Kenny have over a combined century of experience and achieved over $100 million in verdicts and settlements to prove their success rate. Our attorneys are very familiar with the roadways and laws in and around New York City and have been tackling car accident cases since they began their careers. This is their expertise and they are here to help you get the results you deserve. Call our office today to speak to an attorney about your next steps after a car accident.
