New York City was once viewed by many as the crime capital of the country. Residents and visitors alike walked the streets of the Big Apple with care, always fearful a crime was about to happen. Many things have changed in New York City over the past couple of decades. A monumental effort to make the city safer has paid off — New York City is now one of the safest big cities in the country, according to recent crime statistics. Safe from violent crime, that is. Although gun violence has decreased markedly in recent years, New York car accidents have not, making cars more dangerous than guns in the Big Apple.
Transportation Alternatives, a transit advocacy group, collected New York City data from the last ten years in order to compare deaths by guns and deaths by cars. The results may surprise you. From 2001 to 2010, 3,882 people were murdered by firearms. During the same ten year period, 3,923 people were killed in some type of traffic accident. Advocacy groups such as Transportation Alternatives, or TA, content that law enforcement agencies are partially to blame for the high number of traffic-related deaths. They point to the relatively small number of traffic accidents that are investigated and the fact that even egregious violations of traffic laws rarely result in serious penalties for the violator.
According to data collected by TA, less than 10 percent of all serious traffic accidents are investigated by any New York law enforcement agency. The NYPD does not routinely investigate traffic accidents. Even those that cause severe injuries are not automatically investigated by the NYPD. The NYPD has 19 detectives assigned to their Accident Investigations Squad, yet a detective is not even called out to an accident scene unless someone is already dead or it appears likely that someone will die as a result of the accident, say TA representatives.
The Problem with Not Investigating
If you have been involved in a car accident in New York City and the other driver was negligent or at fault, you may be entitled to compensation for your physical injuries as well as for the emotional pain and suffering caused by the accident. Before you can be eligible for compensation though, you must prove that the other driver was at fault. In some accidents, fault is obvious; however, in many accidents the question of negligence is not immediately clear.
When a law enforcement agency immediately responds to an accident scene, the report generated by the agency is often helpful in determining who was at fault. Along with the officer’s own observations of the accident scene, the report also typically includes witness information, weather data and anything else that might be relevant to the accident. Whether any of the drivers were issued citations is also indicated on the accident report, in most cases. While this is not definitive proof of negligence, it can be useful to the determination of negligence.
Anyone who lives in New York City, or regularly drives a vehicle in New York City, is well aware of the volume of traffic that flows through the city each day. Although it may not be realistic to expect every fender-bender to be investigated, it does seem realistic to expect that a police report should be created for all injury accidents.
The lack of investigation by law enforcement makes the need for a New York City car accident attorney even greater if you have been injured in an accident. The car accident attorneys at Ginarte Gonzalez & Winograd have both the experience and the resources to properly investigate the car accident that caused your injuries in order to resolve the issue of negligence. Once we have established who the negligent party was, then we can pursue compensation for your injuries.
With six offices conveniently located in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, we have an office near you. Contact the firm today by calling 888-446-2783 for your free consultation, or fill out our online contact form.