Being hurt in an accident can have a serious impact on a person’s life. Besides the cost of having to go to the hospital for medical attention, people often have to take time off work to recover from accidents. Depending on the severity of a person’s injuries, he or she may have to adjust to a dramatically new lifestyle or deal with the consequences of ongoing pain from neck or back injuries. One thing that victims of a car accident in New York should not have to expect is to get a bill for the damage to a negligent driver’s car.
This was unfortunately the case in a recent accident in New York. The crash was between a bicyclist and an unmarked police car. As is often the case in these types of accidents, the person on the bike suffered the brunt of the damage.
Reports indicate that the 31-year-old man from Brooklyn was riding his bike and traveling in the bike lane before he signaled that he was making a left turn. Even though he was complying with traffic laws and biking responsibly, the officer’s car still hit him.
Four months after the accident, the man received a shocking piece of mail. To add insult to his injuries, the NYPD sent a bill to the victim for dents in the officer’s car caused by the impact of hitting the bicyclist. The city was requesting that the man cough up $1,263 to repair the damage to the officer’s car. Not surprisingly, the victim had a serious problem with paying for damage that was caused by the negligent driver.
After being questioned about the bill by The New York Post, the city quickly abandoned their attempt to collect the money. Unfortunately, this was not the first time that the NYPD tried to collect money from victims for an accident they caused. In other cases, victims have filed a lawsuit against the department for medical bills, hospital expenses and other financial damages that often result in these types of accidents with negligent drivers.
Source: The Huffington Post, Justin Johnsen
