New York City is known for its excellent public transportation system and its annual car accident totals. Despite the large utilization of bus and rail services, there are nearly two million cars registered to NYC residents, in addition to the City’s many commercial vehicles, buses, trailers, motorcycles, farm vehicles, and taxis.
Head upstate looking for a reprieve from NYC traffic, and you’ll find scenic country highways that connect small towns, hamlets, and legacy industrial cities. Far from the City skyline, blink and you might not even think you’re in New York anymore. But in the blink of an eye, that picturesque road trip to a farm or the Finger Lakes can turn into an ugly mess if you’re in an accident in your car, on your bike, or as a pedestrian.
No-Fault laws intended to simplify the New York car accident claim process may prove to be anything but simple if you’re unfamiliar with the system and are dealing with serious injuries. You might also be able to go outside the No-Fault system and recover additional money—as long as you know which exceptions apply.
While submitting a claim, questions can pile up as quickly as paperwork. Pain Injury Law has created a new way of dealing with New York car accident claims that puts you at the center of things and makes the recovery process as painless as possible.
In 2014, New York City had a vision: eliminate all traffic fatalities and injuries. Over the past decade, the City has seen some progress—and some setbacks—toward its Vision Zero goal. While overall traffic deaths fell significantly from 2014 to 2018, they began to tick up again in 2019 and in 2022, New York City was essentially right back where it started in terms of fatalities, and now with a new wrinkle: e-bikes and e-scooters adding to the transportation mix—and transit mess.
Smaller cities like Rochester, Syracuse, and Jamestown have also adopted Vision Zero policies, to various levels of success.
“Zero” traffic injuries and fatalities have always been aspirational and directional. And by some measures, New York traffic accidents are trending in the right direction. But a closer look at car crash numbers shows there is still plenty of work to be done to improve the safety of New York’s streets and highways.
New York City sees thousands of crashes every month, totaling tens of thousands of collisions every year across the five boroughs, according to NYPD Motor Vehicle Collision Data. The City’s open-data portal shows that those crashes lead to hundreds of fatalities and several thousand serious injuries annually, with pedestrians and cyclists consistently making up a significant portion of the most severe cases.
Borough-level data reveal notable differences in crash patterns that mirror the distinct character and daily rhythms of each borough:
The New York State DMV reports more than 290,000 total crashes statewide each year, including over 100,000 injury crashes and 1,000+ fatal crashes annually.
A separate statewide analysis from the New York State Comptroller shows that motor-vehicle deaths have recently reached their highest point in a decade, with many of the most severe crashes occurring outside the five boroughs, particularly on higher-speed rural roads, county highways, and interstates.
New York requires drivers to report any crash that causes injuries or more than $1,000 in property damage to the DMV. After that, most injured people must begin the claims process through New York’s No-Fault system, also called Personal Injury Protection (PIP).
New York’s No-Fault rules are meant to simplify the claims process and reduce lawsuits. In practice, they offer important but limited benefits:
Due to these inherent limits, No-Fault works best, and is primarily designated for, relatively minor injuries. New York car accident laws also offer a secondary, non-PIP track. When injuries are more serious or losses exceed PIP coverage, you may be able to step outside the No-Fault system and file a lawsuit.
Under New York law, an injured person can bring a claim against a negligent driver if:
It’s at this point that many car accident cases shift from a simple insurance claim into a more complex legal process—and where working with a personal injury attorney makes more sense.
New York’s definition of “serious injury” includes:
Courts require objective medical evidence to support a serious injury claim. That can be challenging when injuries are not immediately visible on imaging—such as concussions, mild traumatic brain injuries, soft-tissue injuries, or delayed-onset pain.
But even when injuries are obvious, proving the full range of their economic (e.g., medical bills and lost wages) and non-economic (i.e., pain and suffering) losses may not be, especially when accounting for future losses that can last for months, years, or even a lifetime.
Once a claim leaves the No-Fault system, the injured person must also prove:
Legal terms like “permanent consequential limitation” or “significant limitation of use” can sound abstract, but they represent the exact standards courts use to decide whether someone can pursue pain-and-suffering damages. Those standards can read like the fine print of an insurance policy: lengthy, full of legalese, and hard to understand.
As NYC Vision Zero emphasizes, almost all traffic crashes are preventable, not random “accidents.” While No-Fault insurance covers medical and wage losses regardless of who caused the crash, any case that steps outside the No-Fault system requires a clear showing of negligence—what the other driver (or other party) did wrong.
Some of the leading causes of car accidents in New York, and evidence that you can look for and share with your attorney to help prove negligence, are:
These patterns can vary by borough and from accident to accident, but the underlying theme remains the same: crashes happen when someone makes a preventable error. And when injuries are serious, that error becomes the foundation of a claim outside the No-Fault system.
Working with Pain Injury Law means you have access to top-notch investigators, but evidence—and your chance to collect it—can disappear quickly, so the more proof of negligence you can gather, the stronger your claim.
The headaches of dealing with the New York No-Fault system can be almost as painful as your actual injuries, particularly when coverage is unclear and the accident isn’t a “typical” vehicle-on-vehicle crash.
Being involved in a crash—big or small—can be overwhelming. Your first priority is your safety and the safety of others. Move out of traffic if possible and call 911 when needed.
Don’t delay medical treatment. Injuries like whiplash or concussions may not show symptoms right away, and adrenaline can mask pain. Getting checked out promptly also helps document your injuries for any future claim.
New York also requires certain steps after a crash:
When in doubt about what to do after an auto accident, or about any of these steps, you can always reach out to a NYC car accident lawyer at Pain Injury Law for case-specific guidance.
Most of the time, the New York No-Fault system works the way it is supposed to for minor car accidents. Claims are handled smoothly, and injured parties are compensated swiftly and fairly.
However, not every car accident case unfolds this way. Not only can issues arise within No-Fault insurance, but some accident cases need to be litigated outside of the No-Fault system. Here’s when you should consider hiring a car accident lawyer to help with your claim:
One of your rights when you’ve been in a car accident in New York is to speak with a lawyer at any time and any place. That used to involve calling a lawyer’s office, trying to reach somebody by phone, and hoping they’d be available to help.
With Pain Injury Law, you can get answers from a lawyer directly and start a claim right from your device. No calling an office, being put on hold, or waiting for an attorney callback.
Answer a few simple questions to get started.
We assign a customized care team consisting of a lawyer, paralegal, and case manager to your claim.
Check in at your convenience to see how your case is going. Message your care team and upload documents right from your phone or choose another way to reach out and receive updates.
Our community is the driving force behind Pain Injury Law. For decades, our attorneys and affiliates have served as a lifeline to injured New Yorkers struggling to overcome the physical, financial, and emotional hardships that come with getting hurt. Meet the Client Care Team doing the actual work on your case.
All of the emails, paperwork, meetings, calls, court appearances… it’s all free unless we win your injury case.
All of the emails, paperwork, meetings, calls, court appearances… it’s all free unless we win your injury case.
Because getting injured is hard, getting legal help doesn’t have to be. To provide a secure and customized experience, Pain Injury Law uses cookies and tracking technologies. By clicking “Allow All,” you affirmatively consent to our use of internal session-monitoring technologies for security purposes, as well as the sharing of your device identifiers, web traffic, and audio-visual video viewing history on our public pages with third-party advertising partners. By making a selection, you acknowledge you have read and agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
