As a New York personal injury law firm, RMFW fully understands that pedestrian accident victims and their families need to work with skilled injury attorneys to protect their legal rights and pursue appropriate claims for benefits and compensation following a serious or deadly motor vehicle collision.
Unfortunately, pedestrian accidents are far too common within New York City. When these accidents occur, there are often significant problems with the way that the news media covers them. Reports can undermine important efforts to encourage the public to take driving safety seriously in order to better protect pedestrians.
Common Issues With the Way Pedestrian Accidents are Reported
Streets Blog recently provided a detailed summary of the problems with the way that pedestrian accidents are generally reported by local media after collisions occur. The blog outlined the four “biggest sins” that reporters commit when they cover collisions involving pedestrians. Some of the problematic things that the media does when discussing pedestrian incidents includes:
- Victim blaming: Many media reports of fatal pedestrian accidents appear to blame the victim for his or her own death. Notations that the victim was jaywalking or not in a crosswalk often accompany pedestrian accident reports and are an example of the type of language that can imply the accident wouldn’t have happened if the victim had only followed the rules.
- Failing to consider the conditions of the street: When pedestrian accidents are reported, the reports rarely include any information about street conditions. More than half of all pedestrian fatalities occur on multi-lane arterial roads. Death rates are especially high on wide streets that are home to apartment buildings and commercial areas that people walk to frequently. If the data was reported on street conditions, patterns could be identified and the public would have more info on where the greatest pedestrian accident risks are. In some locations, for example, as many as 50 percent of pedestrian traffic deaths happen on just three percent of roads, many of which tend to be concentrated into lower income areas.
- Talking about cars instead of about drivers: Many reports describe the things that the car did. For example, a report may indicate that an SUV hit a pedestrian. By not focusing on drivers, the reports tend to obscure the fact that many pedestrian crashes occur as a direct result of driver behaviors like speeding or failing to yield.
- Using the term “accident” instead of crash: While most car crashes aren’t intentional, the accidents are still preventable. Using the word accident could suggest that nothing can be done to stop similar incidents from occurring in the future. A term like collision or crash is more neutral and it does not give the false impression that crashes are just random, unpreventable bad luck.
Pedestrian accidents are not just accidents–someone causes them to occur. The person who is responsible for causing the accident needs to be held accountable so victims and their families do not face uncompensated financial loss. Contact Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff, a personal injury law firm in New York, if you or someone you love was a crash victim and you want to make a claim for damages against the driver who caused harm.