Earlier this summer, a Staten Island woman was struck and killed while crossing the street as she took her dog for an early morning walk. The 50-year-old woman was about halfway across the street at the intersection of Richmond Road and New Dorp Lane, within the crosswalk, when the 71-year-old driver of a 2014 Toyota Tacoma, Luigi Tucci, struck her as he made a left turn onto New Dorp Lane.
The impact threw her up in the air before she landed on the asphalt. Two bystanders performed CPR in an attempt to save the woman. Unfortunately, she was already unconscious and unresponsive when the police arrived. The woman, who police did not initially identify, died at Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze two days later.
Police arrested and charged the driver with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.
In cases where drivers strike pedestrians in the crosswalk, it is possible that a court could find that the driver was completely responsible for the accident as a matter of law without even having to go to trial first.
As the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department, explained in the case Friedman v. Rogerson, 131 A.D.3d 1204 (2d Dept. 2015), a plaintiff may establish that she is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the issue of who is at fault for an accident by showing that she was walking in a crosswalk, “that she had observed the conditions of approaching traffic before she began to cross, and that the defendant driver was negligent in failing to yield the right-of-way”.
In a similar case where a man was hit by a car at an intersection called Blok v. Mammadov, 126 A.D.3d 836 (2d Dept. 2015), the Appellate Division explained that a plaintiff was entitled to judgment as a matter of law because he showed that, “before entering the crosswalk, he looked in both directions of the roadway to make certain that no vehicles were approaching, that the pedestrian control device was in his favor, and that the defendant, in making a right turn, failed to yield the right-of- way”.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident, or lost a loved one to a car accident, please contact Louis Grandelli, P.C., to discuss your case.
