New York City and its immediate surroundings raise the accident rates for the state of New York astronomically.
According to experts and statistics, New York State ranks auto accidents as the leading cause of injury-related deaths. Recent numbers showed an annual average of 1,098 deaths, 12,093 hospitalizations, and 136,913 visits to emergency rooms due to traffic injuries.
Reasons Why New York State Is More Prone to Auto Accidents and Injuries
New York has many reasons why the state is prone to vehicle accidents. One of the major reasons is the sheer traffic volume of visitors, tourists, passersby, and commercial product deliveries. Each group creates its unique problems and challenges.
Victims of car accidents need all the patience they can muster and the best legal representation in the area to recover the compensation they deserve for their injuries and losses. When fighting a lawsuit or traffic violation in New York’s morass of confusing traffic laws, it always helps to hire a local attorney. It is always wise to talk to a Brooklyn car accident lawyer for the best results in your case based on years of experience and aggressive representation.
However, knowing the most common reasons for accidents in the state might help you prevent and avoid car crashes, traffic issues, penalties, and lawsuits.
1. Traffic-related Injuries
The traffic volume on New York State’s roads includes East Coast travelers to the major metropolitan cities, including Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Boston, and cities in New Jersey. In addition, the commute between New York City and nearby areas means that there are thousands of rush-hour commuters trying to gain an advantage.
2. Excessive Speeding
The NHTSA reports speeding as a contributory cause of a third of all accidents. Aggressive driving has become the norm on the congested highways of New York. It’s sometimes difficult to drive the speed limit when all other drivers seem to be speeding.
3. Distracted Driving
New York law enforcement members regularly issue 200,000 tickets a year for violating cell phone and texting laws, but that‘s just a drop in the bucket against statewide distracted driving. The leading cause of driver distraction is just one of the driver distractions on the state’s parkways, interstates, and highways. These include famous historical sites like the Statue of Liberty, waterfront sites, unique traffic levels, and even in-your-face guerrilla-type advertising.
4. Failure to Yield the Right-of-way to Pedestrians
On New York’s congested streets and highways, drivers often forget that pedestrians always have the right-of-way. As a result, a pedestrian/vehicle crash almost always includes devastating pedestrian injuries. The NY Department of Health estimates that 1.6 out of every 100,000 New Yorkers get killed in pedestrian accidents.
5. Driving Under the Influence of Drugs, Alcohol, or Medication
Someone is killed every 50 minutes by an impaired driver. According to NHTSA, these include drivers under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or prescription medications. Even those who can pass a BAC test or screening might still be impaired.
6. Making Unsafe Lane Changes
Jockeying for a position is common during rush hour in New York State. As a result, passing unsafely and changing lanes frequently is a factor in 18% of New York accidents. The results include deaths, injuries, and extreme property damage. The problem is an even greater factor in motorcycle accidents because the operators don’t allow proper following distances.
7. Driver Fatigue
Driver fatigue ranks as a common problem nationwide, but the problem is especially severe in New York traffic, which is truly the state that never sleeps. You find severe traffic at any hour of the day. In Manhattan, commercial drivers turn the borough into full daylight traffic conditions. As a result, driver fatigue is easy to develop despite the extreme traffic.
8. Understanding New York City’s Confusing Commercial Traffic Laws
According to local reports, more than 10,000 people are injured by drivers with out-of-state plates each year. In addition, motorists become confused by complex parking regulations for commercial vehicles, mostly banned in Manhattan during the daytime. Confusion also comes with confusing parking regulations throughout the city and other districts in the state.
Getting Local Representation
Even if you are completely innocent in a car accident in New York, it still pays off to hire a local attorney to represent your interests. On the other hand, if you did something that resulted in a person’s injuries and property damage, hiring a New York attorney is probably the only way out of such a situation.
About the author:
Early in his journalism career, Kerry L. Tucker had a revelation: there were not enough experts reporting on law issues. Legal matters are part of daily life. Yet, there seems to be a general aversion towards them. One of the main reasons for this is that the convoluted legal language is difficult for many people to follow. Therefore, he decided to change how the law is perceived by the public. Throughout his career, he met with many people who shared their personal stories with him. Some of these hit him harder. One of the cases that stayed with him and influenced his future career development was a car accident case involving a child. From then on, he decided to zero in on car accident lawsuits.
