New York City may be getting a new law that further punishes cab drivers who injure or kill pedestrians and cyclists. Recent news reports from the Gothamist and the New York Post show efforts by councilperson Helen Rosenthal, (Upper West Side) to propose this legislative change that would automatically revoke a cab driver’s license if someone is injured or killed in an incident where the cab driver fails to yield. The records also cover the naming of this law “Cooper’s Law” as a tribute to a nine-year-old boy killed in a local accident where failure to yield was involved. New York City Drivers and Responsibility

It’s not just regular private vehicle traffic that New York City pedestrians need to worry about — even first responder or public emergency vehicles can also harm pedestrians. One example is an unfortunate incident reported in the New York Daily News January 7, where a thirty-something local man was hit by a ladder truck responding to a fire call. Personal injury cases like this one are not unusual in places where high volumes of pedestrian and vehicle traffic intersect, as in the often clogged streets of the average Brooklyn neighborhood, but the involvement of a fire emergency vehicle does play a role in evaluating this

There’s no denying that this winter has been tough — it’s tough, not only for drivers, who have to shovel out their cars, scrape ice and drive slowly and carefully over icy streets. There’s also a major impact on urban pedestrians or anyone else who has to travel on foot in the kinds of low temperatures where normal surfaces get icy and slick. Recent reporting from last month on the Daily News includes a slideshow of pedestrians slipping, falling and actually sliding out into busy intersections. In the majority of cases, pedestrians will have right-of-way in the intersection, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a