My son was injured in a sledding accident. He and his friends were sledding down the side of a hill in a City of New York park. The bottom of the hill is next to a street. So when my son went down the hill, he ended up in the street and was struck by a car. What are my son’s claims?
No-Fault Claim
As explained in an earlier post, you will have to file a no-fault application within 30 days of the accident with the insurance company who wrote the policy covering the car that struck your son. No-fault benefits are like a health insurance rider attached to a car insurance policy. The carrier will pay for your son’s medical expenses.
Personal Injury Claim Against the Driver
Depending upon how the accident occurred, your son may have a claim for personal injuries against the driver. As explained in a prior post, the driver has a duty to see what there is to be seen and to avoid hitting pedestrians. One issue would be if the driver was traveling too fast. Another issue is if the driver had enough time to avoid the accident. Those questions would have to be answered during litigation at a deposition.
Municipal Liability for Sledding
There might also be a claim against the City of New York who owned the park with the hill next to city street. But there are a number of issues that your son’s claim would have to face. This brings up the complex issue of municipal liability for negligent supervision at a park for sledding.
Liability for Recreational Use
The first issue may be the immunity granted to land owners when their property is being used for recreational purposes. In a prior post, I discussed qualified immunity for recreational use of land. General Obligations Law § 9-103 grants immunity for land owners when an accident occurs on their land during recreational use. The only way a land owner would be responsible is if the land owner engaged in some willful conduct. The owner must purposely conceal some defect to be held liable. Accordingly, municipal liability for sledding incidents is sometimes limited by this statute.
The City would try to use this statute as a shield to avoid liability. That particular defense would not likely be successful. If this is a park within the confines of the City, it is not likely that the City exercised no control over the park. And, if the City did exercise control over the park, this defense found in the General Obligation Law would not be available. Sena v Town of Greenfield, 91 NY2d 611, 673 NYS2d 984 (1998). But, as with the claim against the driver, you would need more information through discovery to find out if the City could use this defense.
Assumption of Risk
The second issue you may face would be a defense of assumption of risk as discussed in a prior post. Essentially, the defense states that if a person engages in a known risky behavior, then that person is responsible for their own injuries. There are a number of factors such as age of the injured person to consider. As with the first two issues, there are not enough details to determine if this is a viable defense. But see Reyes v City of New York, 239 AD3d 491 (1st Dept. 2025).
Liability for Lack of Supervision
Finally, the last issue to consider is not a defense to your son’s claim, but the theory of recovery against the City of New York. Your son would make a claim against the City for negligent supervision of the park. Benjamin by Benjamin v New York, 64 NY2d 44, 484 NYS2d 525 (1984) . Unlike a case for negligent supervision at a school, the City would only be liable for negligent supervision at a park if the activity was “ultrahazardous and criminal” and the City had notice of this activity. See Benjamin, Id.
So as with the above issues, you would need discovery from the City to determine what (if any) notice the City had of sledders at this location. A jury would decide if sledding on this hill near the street was foreseeable and that a child would end up in the street. And finally, a jury would have to decide what was reasonable for the City to do to prevent this accident from happening.
I do not have a specific answer to all of your questions. But these are the issues you would face during your son’s litigation with all of the parties. In summary, municipal liability for sledding is a complex area in New York law.
By James Santner, Esq.