Short summary: A crash in Brooklyn sent an MTA police vehicle spinning into a pillar and sent four people to the hospital. Any injury claim that touches a public authority vehicle generally runs on a 90-day notice of claim clock, and that clock applies to passengers and other drivers, not just to the person who was charged.
The charged driver gets the headline. The people in the other seats get the deadline.
What happened
Officers in an MTA police vehicle were preparing to stop at a red light near 53rd Street and Third Avenue in Brooklyn when they saw a vehicle approaching from behind at speed, MTA officials said. The vehicle struck the patrol car, which spun and then hit a pillar.
Two officers, the driver of the other vehicle and a passenger were taken to NYU Langone Brooklyn Hospital with minor injuries. A 19-year-old was charged with reckless driving and several other traffic offenses, as reported by News 12.
Why a transit vehicle changes the deadline
The MTA and its affiliates are public authorities. A claim against one generally requires a written notice of claim within 90 days of the incident, long before most injured people have finished physical therapy, let alone thought about a lawsuit.
Miss it, and the claim is generally barred, no matter how clear the fault picture is. We covered how brutal that timeline can be in our post on the Bronx crash between an FDNY truck and an MTA bus.
The clock runs even when you were not at fault
People assume the notice rule is something the wrongdoer has to worry about. It is the opposite. The notice is a requirement placed on the injured person before they can pursue the authority.
So the passenger in the striking vehicle, who had no control over anything, generally has the same 90 days as anyone else if any part of their claim runs against the MTA. Being blameless does not extend the deadline by a day.
What to do in a crash involving any government vehicle
Write down the agency and the vehicle number, not just the color. Get the police report and the aided report numbers. Photograph the scene including the pillar or fixed object, since fixed-object impacts often explain injuries that a simple rear-end would not. File the no-fault application within 30 days as covered in our no-fault guide, and get advice on the 90-day question immediately. Our Brooklyn first-week guide lays out the sequence.
Questions New Yorkers ask us
Does the 90-day rule apply if the government vehicle was not at fault?
Generally, if any part of a claim is directed at the authority, the notice requirement applies. Because fault is rarely settled in the first 90 days, filing protectively is usually the safer course.
What if you only feel the injury weeks later?
Generally the clock still runs from the date of the incident, not from the date the pain became serious. That is precisely why these claims need attention long before anyone feels ready to make decisions.
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: News 12 Brooklyn.
