A woman was killed in a horrific pedestrian accident in Brooklyn earlier this month. The woman, a 61-year-old home health aide, was crushed in a Brooklyn parking lot by a backhoe. The accident wasn’t discovered until later when a witness found the victim laying on the pavement.
Initially, responding police officers suspected that the victim may have been struck by a car. She was unresponsive when they arrived and was later declared dead at a nearby hospital. Upon investigating the scene, they discovered that this bizarre pedestrian accident involved a construction vehicle and had been captured on video by a surveillance camera in the parking lot. The video appears to show the woman walking across the parking lot with her head down (possibly looking at a cellphone). The video goes on to show the victim being clipped by the construction vehicle’s bucket, then struck and dragged by the machine as she lay on the ground.
Neither the operator of the vehicle nor a nearby worker seemed to notice the woman at all at any time during the tragic accident.
Police are now investigating the job site and the individuals working there. While the video contained no audio track, it didn’t appear as if the vehicle was emitting an audible warning while it was in reverse. Neither does the video show any safety cones, cordons, or barriers to keep pedestrians out of harm’s way.
In the vast majority of pedestrian accidents in New York City, the liability for the accident rests on the operator of the vehicle. However, pedestrians still have a duty to see what is there to be seen. Still, even if the pedestrian is not paying attention, the operator does not have the right to simply mow down the pedestrian simply because he or she was looking. The operator still has the obligation to avoid the accident.
If you’ve been injured in any kind of accident involving a vehicle in Brooklyn, contact an experienced pedestrian accident attorney in New York City today. Call the Law Offices of Nussin S. Fogel at 800-734-9338 or 212-385-1122 for your free consultation.