Justice For Manhattan Pedestrian Hit By Taxi
Our Manhattan car accident lawyers won a major victory last month in the New York County Supreme Court for a pedestrian who was hit by a taxi while crossing the street. Based upon motion papers alone, our lawyers won summary judgment, which means that the Judge agreed that the taxi driver was one hundred percent at fault and that a trial to determine who was at fault was not necessary. Under New York Civil Procedure Law and Rules section 3212(b) summary Judgment must be granted where there is no defense to the cause of action or that the defense has no merit.
In this particular case, our client was crossing Broadway, in Manhattan’s upper west side and the cab driver who had the green light made a left onto Broadway and hit our client. The taxi cab driver admitted to the responding police officer that he did not see the pedestrian until it was too late.
Often drivers think they don’t have to look out for pedestrians when they have a green light. However, the rule is that a vehicle going straight has the right of way with a green light, but the pedestrian crossing the cross street to the green light (crossing with the traffic going straight) has the right of way and vehicles which are turning must yield to the pedestrian.
In New York, the law is clear that an unexcused violation of the Vehicle and Traffic Law and the City Rules constitute negligence per se. The following rules provide strong evidence that the pedestrian travelling straight with the walk sign in their favor has the right of way compared to a turning vehicle with the green light. V.T.L. 1111(a)(3), provides pedestrians with the right of way to cross a street when they are facing a green light within a crosswalk. V.T.L. 1146 requires every driver of a vehicle to exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian. V.T.L. 1163 prohibits drivers from turning on a roadway unless and until such movement can be made with reasonable safety. Further 34 RCNY 4-03(a)(1)(i) affirmatively requires vehicles with a green light which are turning right or left to yield the right of way to pedestrians lawfully within the intersection or an adjacent crosswalk. Further 34 RCNY 4-03(a)(1)(ii) provides pedestrians facing such a green signal with the right of way to proceed across the roadway within the crosswalk. Moreover, 34 RCNY 4-02 prohibits drivers from operating their vehicles in a manner that will endanger any person. Finally, 34 RCNY 4-04(d) requires that the operator of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian.
Our personal injury lawyers proved that because the taxi driver breached the foregoing state and city laws, all of which imposed a statutory standard of care, he was negligent per se and his negligence was the proximate cause of the accident.
