Subway trains at the Spring Street station twice struck passengers lying on the tracks on separate occasions. How fast should subway trains be moving when they enter a station? The faster the subway trains go, the more people the trains can carry and the quicker people will get to their destinations. Even a slowdown of a few seconds per train can slow the entire system. Speed is so important to the mission of the Transit Authority that the Transit Authority has committed billions of dollars to upgrades which will allow for increases in train speed and carrying capacity. On the other hand, safety is also a paramount priority, and as speeds increase so do stopping distances. (more…)

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Bike riding is enjoyable, healthy and fun. It can also be dangerous. The City is heavily invested in encouraging bike riding and bike safety. Yet, accidents happen, and when they do bike riders may opt to sue. Bike riders receive no special status as tort plaintiffs. Bike riders in court live by the same rules that govern tort claims by pedestrians and car drivers. As New York courts have repeatedly stated, a “bicyclist is required to use reasonable care for his or her own safety, to keep a reasonably vigilant lookout for vehicles, and to avoid placing himself or herself in a dangerous position.” (more…)

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Trees under the common law were considered natural conditions with the result that possessors of land were not liable for injuries caused trees. Professor William Prosser wrote in the first edition of the hornbook on Torts (1941) that the traditional common law rule was that the possessor of land was under no affirmative duty to make safe dangerous conditions on the land that were natural in origin. Prosser went on to say, however, that there “were indications of the development of a different rule as to urban land.”  Today, after many developments in the law of negligence and nuisance, coupled with statutory enactments and changes in the law of immunity, there are significant liability risks to the City for injuries caused by trees. (more…)