My child was struck by a car while walking home from school. Shouldn’t the City also be responsible for the accident? The driver of the car that struck my child is already responsible. But the City failed to provide crossing guards so children can get home safely.
The answer really lies with the details of the accident if the City is negligent. The lead case with crossing guard accidents is probably Florence v Goldberg, 44 NY2d 189 (1978). This was a 1978 case in which a jury found the City responsible. The City failed to replace a civilian crossing guard assigned to a busy Brooklyn intersection who called in sick. A car struck the 6 year old child walking home. A crossing guard protected the intersection for the first two weeks of school. The plaintiff’s mother accompanied the plaintiff for the first two weeks of school. She then accepted a job after two weeks. She relied on the crossing guard to help her child get home safely.
Special Duty
The Court found that the crossing guard created a special duty of the police to insure a car would not strike the child. There is no general duty to insure citizens are never the victims of accidents or crimes. Municipalities have limited resources so they are not responsible for every act violating its citizens. A mugging victim cannot claim the City should have had more of a police presence to prevent a crime from occurring.
So if an adult was struck in that busy Brooklyn intersection, there would be no claim because there was no special relationship between the victim and the police force. Similarly, if the young victim in the Florence case was injured by a robber who beat the child up or by a friend who pushed him down, there would be no claim. The civilian crossing guard was only there to insure safety against cars in the intersection, not against all tragedies that can occur on a City street. The crossing guard created a special duty to prevent a car from striking a child.
The original question never states if crossing guards normally policed the intersection. If the intersection in question never had a crossing guard to begin with, then the City would not be responsible because no special duty existed between the City and your child.
By James Santner, Esq.
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