On behalf of Smiley & Smiley, LLP posted in Car Accidents on Friday, August 10, 2012.
Imagine a picture of a young couple. The young man, clad in sunglasses, sits cross-legged on a bench, next to his wife. She, young and dark haired, is strikingly lovely in a white and blue dress. They are looking down at something she is reaching for. The couple in this image is unassuming in its youth, until the viewer understands that the young bride was killed shortly after the photo was taken.
This image, of a young safety activist and his late wife, recently accompanied a story in the New York Daily News about a bundle of safety bills working its way through the NYC city government. The bills focus on the NYPD's treatment of New York auto accidents in which no one has been killed at the scene.
Apparently, it has come to the attention of local government that the NYPD is failing to respond to a significant number of crashes which are not immediately lethal. Their subsequent failure to fully investigate these sites is impairing the ability of injured victims and the loved ones of those who die eventually from their injuries to pursue just compensation from any negligent parties who contributed to these accidents.
In the case of the young woman in the photo, she was fatally struck by an intoxicated driver but did not die from her injuries until the following day. The delayed and incomplete investigation which ensued resulted in the loss of critical evidence. The bills would effectively compel law enforcement to promptly investigate all accidents resulting in significant injuries.
Every statistic tells the story of an individual person. We can talk about safety in general terms, or we can recognize that each photo of a victim represents a life that could have been spared or properly honored. Hopefully the NYC government will continue to advocate on behalf of those individual victims whose lives either could have been spared or at least more fully honored, had the NYPD showed up for duty at their accident sites.
Source: NYDailyNews.com, "Council takes on NYPD crash probes," Erin Durkin, July 25, 2012
Related Posts: Recognizing and reducing the cost of traumatic brain injuries, What is the concern over New York's hit-and-run laws?, Moving into unchartered territory with self-driving cars, The impaired driving problem and what is being done about it
