Traffic across New York City’s five boroughs and the counties surrounding the nation’s largest metro area is fast-paced and complex. No other locale in the United States – or perhaps anywhere else on earth – is marked by such frenetic and diverse motorized activity.
There are of course millions of passenger cars that routinely negotiate the city’s varied roadways. They routinely jockey for space and position with public and private buses and commercial conveyances of multiple size and shape. Trucks of every description– dump trucks, garbage trucks, delivery trucks, refrigerated trucks and more – are constantly on the move. So too are taxis, ambulances, police cars, motorcycles and emergency vehicles.
This must be mentioned too. Any spotlighting of NYC’s traffic would be incomplete without a nod to the scores of thousands of bicyclists that share the road and, of course, the legions of walkers across the city.
That complex flow of vehicles and persons makes for some obvious challenges getting around.
Moreover, it also spells a recipe for heightened risk, a point noted in one legal overview focused upon motor vehicle accidents and resulting personal injuries across New York City and surrounding areas. That source emphasizes that, “In the city that never sleeps, car and truck accidents happen at all hours of the day.”
Motor vehicle crashes and collisions of course occur across the metro throughout the year, even when the weather is warm, drivers’ visibility is unimpaired and roads are dry. The risks of accidents and injuries assume a special magnitude, though, when annual winter weather takes hold.
The obvious perils that attach to winter driving
Motorists who don’t annually adjust their behind-the wheel habits when winter conditions strike invariably add to crash-and-injury statistics.
Winter driving is just different – and more dangerous – for a host of reasons, including these:
- Visibility that can become virtually nonexistent
- Road slipperiness owing to snow, ice, sleet and rain
- Adverse road conditions that haven’t yet been remedied by maintenance efforts
- Imprudent driving behaviors
That last bullet point merits special mention, given that driver negligence is the predominant and often sole cause of negative behind-the-wheel outcomes in winter. Things that might luckily yield only close calls at other times of the year – speeding, tailgating, fiddling with a cellphone, playing with a child or pet or succumbing to some other distraction – can spawn deadly results in a mere second during winter months.
Pursuing a meaningful remedy following a winter accident
Individuals and families victimized by third-party negligence or other factors contributing to vehicle-linked personal injuries during winter or throughout the year are far from powerless to act. They can secure timely and knowledgeable input from a proven legal team that can help them pursue a meaningful remedy.
Such an outcome promotes post-accident accountability and can additionally secure maximum compensation that can be applied in the following areas:
- To pay for medical expenses
- To recoup lost wages
- To cover the costs of required rehabilitation and therapy
- To compensate for emotional pain and suffering
Motorists need to act with due caution during every moment they are engaged in traffic. When they drive in a reckless or negligent manner and injure others as a result, the legal system understandably holds them accountable and enables their victims to respond in a meaningful way.
