New Jersey Legal Issues Blog

If you are at someone’s home or business when you sustain an injury, you may be able to seek financial compensation if certain circumstances are present. Many people refer to these injuries as “slip-and-fall” cases, but you can hurt yourself many ways on both public and private property.

Recently, ABC reported that a man in Woodbridge was attempting litigation by faking a fall inside someone’s business. He mistakenly believed that all he had to do was fall down and he could hold the owner liable. What he failed to realize was that the process is quite a bit more complicated than that.

Bobcats are small versions of larger front-end loaders, and they are familiar sights whenever heavy lifting is required in small spaces. The handy little vehicles generally do not travel on highways in New Jersey, and they are seldom involved in motor vehicle accidents. A tragic exception occurred on March 4, 2019, when a Bobcat was being used to remove snow from a footbridge on Route 208 in Passaic County.

A Hawthorne Borough public works employee was using a Bobcat to clear snow from a pedestrian overpass over Route 208. While the Bobcat was on the bridge, a portion of its floor underneath the Bobcat collapsed, causing the Bobcat to plunge onto the highway below. The Bobcat struck a van that was heading north on Route 208. The operator of the Bobcat was seriously injured in the fall. According to news photographs, the Bobcat struck the van on the passenger side and nearly crushed the vehicle. The front seat passenger in the van was badly injured. The driver of the van also suffered injuries, but he was treated and released from a local hospital.

Trucks traveling on interstate highways often appear to be invulnerable to people who are driving sedans and SUVs. These trucks travel at high speeds, and their size makes them seem impervious to harm in a collision. Unfortunately, when trucks collide with other trucks, they yield to the same laws of physics that govern all traffic accidents. A recent accident on I-95 near Teaneck, New Jersey, shows how one large truck can seriously damage another large truck and cause fatal results.

According to police and news reports, a box truck owned by a firm based in New York slammed into the rear end of a tractor-trailer operated by ShopRite. When police arrived, the cab of the box truck was pinned under the rear end of the big rig. Firefighters from Hackensack and Teaneck were able to remove the driver from the box truck, but he had already died. Police said that the front of the box truck was crumpled and that the windshield was shattered.

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.