Articles Posted in Long Island

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On January 9, 1960 an owner of a gasoline station in The Bronx, New York. On this date, the gasoline delivery truck arrived to fill the underground tanks. There is an asphalt area on the side of the station to provide the delivery truck with a safe location to pump out the fuel. The delivery trucks are not supposed to be on the concrete customer pavilion at any time. While the delivery truck is delivering the fuel, the owner would go out to the customer pavilion to be available in case of emergency since it took about an hour for the fuel delivery.

On the date of the commercial truck accident, the owner of the station was attending to a customer at the service island by pumping the gasoline into the customer’s car. The delivery truck was on the asphalt section delivering the gasoline. When the tanks were full, the driver got in and decided to cut through the concrete customer pavilion section rather than exit out of the station through the asphalt delivery side. He had failed to secure the handles to the bulk box compartment swinging doors on the side of the truck prior to pulling off. In fact, he stated that he did not even know that the owner was out on the customer pavilion and thought that he was still in the office area.

As the truck pulled past the owner of the station, he was struck in the rear end by one of the bulk box compartment doors that were sticking out. The force of the blow spun him around and into the rear tires of the delivery truck. A witness grabbed him and pulled him free of the wheels. This accident resulted in serious injury to the gasoline station owner. A lawsuit was filed by the gasoline station owner against the delivery truck driver and the company that the delivery truck driver works for.

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On August 6, 2005 an employee of an ice company was driving a rental truck on Rout 25A at the intersection of Warner Road in Huntington, Long Island, New York at about ten in the morning when he ran into the rear end of another vehicle that was stopped at the traffic light.

In this case, the owner of the rental truck company is asking for a summary judgment relieving it from liability due to the coverage under the Graves Amendment that provides an owner of a vehicle that “is engaged in the trade or business of renting or leasing motor vehicles shall not be liable under any State law for damages sustained in a motor vehicle accident provided there is no negligence or criminal wrongdoing on the part of the owner.” (see, 49 USC § 30106[a])

The driver of the rental truck opposes this motion since he claims that when he attempted to stop the truck, he discovered that the truck’s brakes were faulty. He claims that his negligence to maintain the truck in a safe fashion removes any protections that the Graves Amendment would otherwise have provided to the truck rental company.

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On Sunday, March 28, 1982 a commercial truck accidentoccurred in the Rotterdam Industrial Park in Schenectady County, New York. A part time employee of a transport company rented a truck from a local truck rental company and drove it to the industrial park on that date to collect a load of apace heaters that needed to be transported for shipment the following day. His nine year old son was with him in the rental truck, as was his employer. His employer’s 16 year old son and a friend of his arrived shortly thereafter in the employer’s personal car.

The Bronx employer got out of the truck at the industrial park office. The employee, his son and the two teenaged boys continued to the bay where the space heaters were located. The employee backed up the truck to about a foot or so from the building. He stated that the left just enough room for a person to get by while loading the truck. He then left the truck in reverse, but turned the ignition off. They began to load the truck.

While loading the truck, the employer’s 16 year old son decided that they needed music. He went in to the passenger compartment of the rented truck and tried to turn on the radio. It would not work. He then decided that the ignition must have to be on in order for the radio to work. He turned the ignition key and the truck came on. It lurched backward three times because it was in gear. By that time, the employer had gotten to the location. He jumped into the truck and turned it off.

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A 35-year old Queens man was returning, one December day, by car from New England with his wife when he met an accident. According to the man’s testimony, he had a slight collision with a van in the entrance ramp of the Bruckner Expressway. The collision resulted in locked bumpers. The two drivers exited their vehicles to disengage their bumpers. The next recollection, the man said he was waking up on the ground.

The man’s wife, now deceased, testified at an examination before trial that while she was watching her husband dislodge the bumper, a tire rolled past and hit him in the back, rendering him unconscious. She stated that the tire was traveling so fast, she thought that it killed him. The wife first saw the tire when it was about five feet away from her husband, and did not see where it came from. According to records in court, the tire had an identification tag stapled just below the tread. The tag bore the name of a tire manufacturing company.

The man filed an action against the van owner and the tire manufacturing company to recover damages for the personal injuries he sustained as a result of the accident. The tire manufacturing company moved to dismiss the action complaining that the evidence presented failed to establish any negligence on its part, and failed to connect it with the offending tire. The trial court granted the motion.

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This is a case between two establishments, a service station and a Bronx flower shop, as well as the insurance companies of each of these two establishments and is about the commercial truck accident, which occurred in the flower shop and in the service station.

The owner of the truck is a couple who has been a regular customer of the service station for quite a long time. When the male owner died, the female owner wanted the truck to be sold for $100. She asked the male manager of the service station to sell the truck. He agreed to do so and went to the residence of the owners to retrieve the truck. Because the car couldn’t start, he towed the car to his service station, all with the permission and consent of the female owner.

After the male manager had repaired the car, he placed a “for sale” sign on the car and parked it on the southern side of the service station. The truck’s front end was facing the northern part towards the flower shop. Te flower shop was adjacent to the service station’s north line. The truck was parked on that area for two to three weeks, before the commercial truck accident happened.

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On April 20, 1972 a taxi cab and a truck were both travelling on Second Avenue near 70th Street. The two vehicles collided and the taxi was pushed up onto the sidewalk where it hit a woman. The woman was severely injured and her leg had to be amputated. The jury in the initial trial awarded the woman $800,000 from the taxi company. No compensation was demanded of the truck company whose truck was at fault for the accident in question.

The Court stated that:

‘Whatever version of the accident is accepted in whole or in part, or in combination, the conclusion is inescapable that the truck driver failed to maintain that degree of control over his vehicle and that degree of alertness to conditions of traffic surrounding him, which it was his legal obligation to maintain under the conditions prevailing at the time and place of the accident.’

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On February 19, 2005 a commercial truck accident occurred near the intersection of First Avenue and 78th Street. A pedestrian was attempting to cross the street on 78th Street. A commercial truck was attempting a left turn from 78th Street onto First Avenue heading north. The Queens pedestrian was struck by the rear left wheel of the commercial truck while he was inside the confines of the crosswalk. While this would seem to be a straightforward account of an accident, there are still questions to be answered. Depending on the way you evaluate an incident, the fault can lie with either party.

The victim states that the truck driver is responsible for the accident and his injuries because he was lawfully crossing the street inside the crosswalk when the commercial truck accident occurred. The commercial company that owns the truck claims that the pedestrian was intoxicated and that the truck never hit him. They claim that he walked into the back wheels of the truck while he was intoxicated.

The question is considered as to whether a pedestrian or a motorist has the right of way at an intersection and code 34 RCNY § 4-04(b)(1) clearly states that “the operator of a vehicle shall yield the right of way to a pedestrian crossing a roadway within a crosswalk when the pedestrian is in the path of the vehicle or is approaching so closely thereto as to be in danger.” Also Vehicle and Traffic Law §115(a) provides “when traffic-control signals are not in place or not in operation the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right of way, slowing down or stopping if need be to so yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk on the roadway upon which the vehicle is traveling. . .” Several expert witnesses were offered who stated that had the driver been using due caution and looking in his mirrors for pedestrians, the accident would not have occurred. They stated that they believed that the truck driver should have been able to stop the truck which would have prevented injury to the pedestrian.

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A man was sitting in his truck at a stop light when he was struck in the rear by a commercial rental truck causing substantial injury to his vehicle and to him. He and his wife filed a lawsuit against the driver of the rental truck, the business that hired him, and the rental company that leased him the vehicle.

The Long Island rental company appealed the Supreme Court’s first decision because they should not have included it in the issue at all. They advised that they hold no liability in the course of this accident because all they did was lease the truck and that the truck had been maintained in good working order. They advised that there was nothing wrong with the truck or the truck’s brakes which would cause it to strike the vehicle in front of it without driver error.

The driver of the rental truck had made a deposition earlier in which he had agreed that there was nothing wrong with the rental truck or its brakes and that the accident was driver error. The Westchester driver was using the rental truck in the course of his business and was working for that business at the time of the accident. The business concurred that he was working for them and that it was their business.

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In January, a tour bus filled with high school students was travelling down the highway returning from an Honor’s Choir concert at the University of North Dakota. An accident ahead forced the bus to slow down.

The wreck was severe. According to a witness, the scene didn’t look like anyone could have survived.

As the students peered out at the wreckage, a senior boy recognized his father’s car.

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A 24-mile section of Interstate 70 closed last November due to a rock slide that left boulders imbedded 6 feet deep into the roadway.

The detour prescribed by officials tending to the road closure was a 220-mile route through the western mountains.

The expected road closure is to last at least a day, as Department of Transportation workers clear the debris from the estimated 100 foot by 10 foot rock slide. Some of the boulders cleared were as large as a van.

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