Auto accidents are a major concern in New York City. The city is such a large municipality and it is so busy that some auto accidents are seemingly unavoidable. However, many of these collisions involve people who are employed by the city and are in a vehicle that is provided to them by the government. This is causing concern as there has been an increase in these specific types of wrecks. People who were involved in a crash with a city vehicle must think about the aftermath and know what steps they can take to recover compensation.
The Mayor’s Management Report says that there has been a rise in accidents involving city drivers in which that driver was deemed at fault. This is for the fiscal year 2019. While there was a reduction in the fleet of such vehicles to 30,755, there was a .3% increase in preventable accidents to 3,357. Simultaneously, the number of injuries increased to 827 from 763. That is an 8% increase. There were four fatalities compared with two in the previous statistics.
The safety records of various employers were also calculated. The New York City Fire Department was the worst, with more than 10 crashes for every 100,000 miles traveled. Next was Sanitation at 7.6. The Department of Health had the fewest at 1.6. In 2015, the city began collecting these records. Each city agency is responsible for investigating crashes involving its employees. As the city vehicle accident frequency has grown worse, the number of accidents for civilian drivers has steadily improved since 2014 when Vision Zero was implemented. Suggestions to help road safety include increased defensive driving courses and even the elimination of driving privileges for those employed by the city. Until that happens, however, these numbers are worrisome for people sharing the road with city-employed drivers.
If a person is in an auto accident, there will be many factors to consider. That includes medical costs, lost income and other problems that accompany serious injuries. If the accident was with a driver employed by the city who was in a city-owned vehicle, this should be assessed in the full context of the car accidents case.
