Short summary: One man in the roadway, two vehicles, one driver who fled. When a hit-and-run driver is never found, New York generally still has a path to compensation through MVAIC. And when one of the vehicles belongs to the City, the deadline to act gets dramatically shorter. This case has both problems at once.
A death in Morrisania early Saturday morning shows how complicated a pedestrian case can get, fast.
What happened
Around 3:47 a.m. on August 8, a man was involved in a physical altercation near College Avenue and East 166th Street in the Bronx, police said. He was left lying unconscious in the roadway.
About ten minutes later, a white BMW SUV heading east struck him and kept going. A marked NYPD vehicle traveling the same direction at roughly 12 mph then struck him a second time. The officer stopped and rendered aid, but the man died at the hospital.
The BMW driver has not been identified. The NYPD Highway District Collision Investigation Squad is investigating, as reported by ABC7 New York.
One crash, multiple possible claims
Cases like this are never one claim. They are a stack of separate questions, each with its own insurance, its own rules, and its own deadline.
The BMW that fled is a hit-and-run problem. The police vehicle is a municipal-liability problem. Even the altercation that left the man in the roadway raises its own questions about what started the chain.
The hit-and-run problem
If the BMW driver is never caught, that generally does not end the case. New York created the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation, MVAIC, for exactly this situation: victims of hit-and-run or uninsured drivers who have no policy of their own to claim against.
The catch is notice. MVAIC's filing deadlines are short and unforgiving, generally measured in days and months, not years. Families who wait for the police investigation to finish can lose the window entirely. We cover the basics in our guide to hit-and-run and uninsured-driver claims.
The police-vehicle problem
Claims involving a City vehicle run on their own, much faster clock. Before a lawsuit can even be filed against the City, a notice of claim generally must be filed within 90 days of the incident.
That 90-day clock does not pause while the family grieves, and it does not wait for the Collision Investigation Squad to publish findings. We explained how that clock works in our piece on the Brooklyn NYPD chase lawsuit.
If this sounds like your family's situation
Get the police report and the collision squad case number. Write down every agency involved. And get advice before any deadline question is answered with a guess. Our 10-step checklist is a good place to start.
Questions New Yorkers ask us
What if the driver who hit your family member fled and was never caught?
Generally, MVAIC exists for exactly this: it stands in for the insurance the fleeing driver should have had. But it has strict notice requirements, so the worst move is waiting to see if police make an arrest.
Can you bring a claim when a police vehicle was involved?
Generally yes. Cities are not automatically off the hook because the driver was an on-duty officer. But the notice-of-claim deadline is generally 90 days, far shorter than an ordinary case, which is why these claims need attention immediately.
Not sure where you stand after a crash? Get your free case review or call (888) 208-0529. A real person answers, 24/7.
Reporting: ABC7 New York.
