New Jersey Legal Issues Blog

Crosswalks can be dangerous hazards, both for pedestrians and drivers, especially in urban areas such as Elizabeth, New Jersey. In 2015, a grandmother was attempting to cross a street in Elizabeth while carrying her two-year-old granddaughter and four-year-old grandson. The three stepped in front of a United States Postal Service truck with tragic consequences.

The grandmother was attempting to cross Rahway Avenue, a major thoroughfare in Elizabeth. She was carrying her granddaughter and guiding her grandson by holding his hand. A mail truck turning into Rahway Avenue struck the three while they were in the crosswalk. The granddaughter was killed, and the grandmother and grandson suffered injuries.

Many newspaper reports on traffic accidents in New Jersey describe the chronology of the accident in great detail, but many such reports end with the words, "The cause of the accident is under investigation." What is being investigated? Who is doing the investigation? Why is the investigation still underway? The answers to these questions depend upon the number of vehicles involved, where the accident happened, how many people were injured or killed and which police department has jurisdiction.

Most police departments in New Jersey have departments that specialize in investigating accidents and determining their cause. A number of private engineering firms are also trained in accident investigation, and they provide services to police departments that do not have an independent accident investigation unit and to attorneys who may be representing parties seeking damages. All these entities refer to what they do as "accident reconstruction." Reconstructing a motor vehicle accident involves a careful study of the scene, preservation of evidence, evaluation of weather conditions and application of scientific principles.

Personal injury law in New Jersey and elsewhere is based on the concept of "negligence." The law expects people to use reasonable care in their daily activities. A person who fails to use reasonable care is deemed to have been negligent, and that person is liable for the damages caused by their negligent act or omission. But what happens if both parties are negligent? Prior to the 1950s, a person whose negligence contributed to a motor vehicle accident could not recover damages from any other negligent person, even if the second person's negligence far exceeded that of the plaintiff.

In the mid-1950s, state legislatures began to revise this rule -- called contributory negligence -- because of its often harsh and unfair effect. New Jersey enacted a law that requires comparing the degree of negligence of each party at fault for the accident and awarding damages to the parties whose fault was less than the other parties. The new rule is often referred to as comparative fault.

State troopers in New Jersey witness a great many fatal traffic accidents in their careers, and most of them develop emotional shields to protect their sanity. Occasionally, however, the circumstances of a particular accident pierce this shield and haunt a trooper's memories for a long time. A motor vehicle accident on I-78 in Berks County had that effect on several troopers that were at the scene.

A young couple was traveling to Pittsburgh, the man's home town, for their wedding ceremony when they slowed for heavy traffic. Unhappily, a tractor-trailer immediately behind them did not slow down. The big rig struck the couple's car and pushed into four other semis that were stopped on the freeway. One trooper said that fire erupted immediately erupted in two of the tractor-trailers and the victims' car. The trooper said that the victims had no chance to escape their burning car. Both were killed in the collision.