Manhattan Truck Accident Lawyers

Manhattan recorded 11,902 motor vehicle crashes, 4,875 injury crashes, and 28 traffic fatalities in 2024. Commercial truck volume is concentrated on the West Side Highway, FDR Drive, Canal Street, 14th Street, 23rd Street, 34th Street, 42nd Street, the bridge approaches (Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, GWB, Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, Queensboro Bridge), and below-grade Park Avenue South. Box trucks, sanitation trucks, delivery vans, and tractor-trailers all contribute.

New York County Supreme Court at 60 Centre Street handles civil cases with unlimited jurisdiction, the correct venue for any serious truck injury claim. Appeals go to the Appellate Division, First Department (Manhattan and Bronx). For crashes involving NYC vehicles, NYC Sanitation, MTA buses, NYPD or FDNY vehicles, a Notice of Claim must be served on the NYC Comptroller within 90 days under General Municipal Law 50-e. For Port Authority bridge and tunnel crashes (GWB, Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel), 1-year written notice applies.

Truck cases routinely involve multiple defendants. The driver. The motor carrier (liable for negligent hiring, training, supervision under 49 CFR 382, 391). The trailer owner. The shipper if cargo was improperly secured or overweight. A broker that dispatched a carrier with known safety violations. The maintenance contractor. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (49 CFR Parts 390-396) create non-delegable duties. Manhattan's commercial freight network. Hunts Point Market deliveries, restaurant supply, retail logistics, sanitation, produces a wide range of defendant chains.

Three years from the accident date for personal injury under CPLR 214(5). Two years from date of death for wrongful death under EPTL 5-4.1. If the crash involved a NYC vehicle, MTA bus, NYC Sanitation truck, or other public vehicle, a Notice of Claim must be served on the NYC Comptroller within 90 days under GML 50-e. Port Authority crashes (GWB, Lincoln, Holland tunnel approaches) require 1-year written notice.

Electronic logging device (ELD) data showing hours of service is often purged within six months. Dash cam and forward-facing camera footage may be overwritten within 7 to 30 days. Qualcomm or Omnitracs fleet telematics carry their own retention schedules. Physical evidence from the truck, damaged parts, tire skid marks must be preserved before the vehicle is repaired. We send litigation hold letters demanding preservation of ELD data, dash cam footage, driver logs, inspection records, and maintenance records within days of being retained.

West Side Highway / Henry Hudson Parkway carries heavy north-south truck volume. FDR Drive on the East Side. Canal Street is the spine of SoHo / Tribeca commercial freight. 14th Street, 23rd Street, 34th Street, 42nd Street (the Lincoln Tunnel approach), and 57th Street are major east-west crosstowns. Bridge approaches concentrate truck queuing crashes: Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, Queensboro Bridge. The GWB, Lincoln Tunnel, and Holland Tunnel approach corridors carry interstate freight.

Past and future medical expenses, lost wages and future earning capacity, pain and suffering, permanent impairment, loss of consortium, and in fatal cases pecuniary loss to the statutory distributees under EPTL 5-4.3. Commercial truck policies typically carry $1 million primary coverage with excess and umbrella layers stacked on top. Manhattan juries have historically returned substantial verdicts in clear-liability truck cases.

Cyclists and pedestrians struck by trucks have full no-fault PIP benefits up to $50,000 from the truck's insurer, and direct tort claims if the serious-injury threshold is met. Manhattan truck-vs-cyclist and truck-vs-pedestrian fatalities have produced some of the city's largest catastrophic-injury verdicts. Right-turn truck-vs-cyclist crashes are a particular Manhattan pattern given the bike-lane geometry on First, Second, Eighth, and Ninth Avenues.