NYPD and the city Law Department are fighting a lawsuit filed by the family of a Brooklyn man who was killed in a crosswalk by an on-duty officer, on the grounds that the victim behaved recklessly by crossing the street. Felix Coss was crossing Broadway at Hooper Street in Williamsburg, in a crosswalk with the signal, on the afternoon of July 6, 2013, when Officer Paula Medrano of the 90th Precinct struck him with a marked police van while turning left. Coss, a 61-year-old veteran Spanish teacher, suffered severe head injuries and died that night at Bellevue Hospital. Video of the crash shows Medrano stopped at the Hooper Street crosswalk on the north side of the intersection as Coss, approaching from the south, stops for the signal. When the light changes, Coss enters the Broadway crosswalk, still facing Medrano, as Medrano accelerates into the intersection and turns left, driving directly into Coss and knocking him to the asphalt. The NYPD crash report says Medrano “had the green light,” but does not indicate Coss was crossing with the walk signal and had the right of way. The city’s response to the suit says Coss “knew or should have known in the exercise of due/reasonable care of the risks and dangers incident to engaging in the activity alleged.” From the city’s court filing: Plantiff(s) voluntarily performed and engaged in the alleged activity and assumed the risk of the injuries and/or damages claimed. Plaintiff(s) failed to use all required, proper, appropriate and reasonable safety devices and/or equipment and failed to take all proper, appropriate and reasonable steps to assure his/her/their safety … Plaintiff(s)’ implied assumption of risk caused or contributed, in whole or in part [sic] to his/her/their injuries. http://www.streetsblog.org/2016/03/...in-crosswalk-assumed-risk-by-crossing-street/
Geez! It looks like the guy was sitting there waiting to run the guy down. What the hell was the driver doing?
She was on her phone. I can imagine the result of this had a beat cop been the one crossing and a civilian driving the van. Unfortunate the same standards don't apply to everyone.
The NYPD has to be the worst police department in the country. LAPD gets so much shit, and somehow NYPD gets away with straight up murder.
I was hit almost exactly like this last year but I was in a golf cart on security patrol and a guy on his phone turned left into my cart with the flashing orange light and everything. Like he didnt see me at all. The he pulls over and checks his car for damage instead of seeing if I was alright. I got a decent pay day, not gonna lie.
So they're saying that NYC has wasted millions of dollars over the years buying paint for crosswalks that don't mean anything? And the big winners in this deal are the attorneys making this ridiculous argument. Pay the man's family already!
The "assumption of risk" language is just legal boiler-plate. They put it in there in case they can find a witness who says the victim was jay-walking, or texting, or intoxicated.
I tried desperately to get those but all the other fat guys were worried about looking foolish, I thought the comedic gold would be worth it, but ive never taken myself very seriously.
I've met the inventor a bunch of times, he is alive and well. He has a weird obsession with denim though.
I believe that the guy who died, Jim Heselden, was the owner of the company, not the inventor. The invvenror, Dean "Don't all me Chris" Kamen is still alive.
http://www.popsugar.com/news/Brooklyn-Mailman-Glen-Grays-Arrested-Police-40696663 I think the NYPD is doubling down and saying fuck it. Do whatever they want it seems.
Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds
