EIGHT YEAR-OLD CHILD WALKING WITH MOTHER, KILLED BY TOW TRUCK

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Bronx Accident Lawyer)

In the early morning of Friday, July 30, 2010, Bronx resident Maxmilio Mendez, age 7, was walking with his mother in East Harlem. At about 9:00 AM, as mother and son crossed Second Avenue between 124th and 125th Streets, they were struck by a yellow Metropolitan Transit Authority tow truck. The truck was driving onto a ramp for the TriBorough (now Robert F. Kennedy) Bridge, and apparently ran over the boy's legs.

Young Maxmilio was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he passed away.

Reportedly, mother and son were heading to a local pool. An MTA spokesperson said that at the time of the accident the tow truck driver was responding to a call. He remained at the scene after the fatal accident.

The tow truck driver tested negative for alcohol. Police do not expect to bring charges against the driver, who remained on the scene.

Comment: Interestingly, to brnig a lawsuit aganist the MTA for its driver's negligence, the deceased child's family faces a shortened time period to sue (called the "statute of limitations"). Under New York State's Public Authorities Law, the time limit to sue is one year and 30 days after the accident (which in New York's "normal" negligence cases is three years).

But beware of trying to do this without skilled counsel, for before you can bring a lawsuit, you must correctly serve and file a carefully considered and properly worded Notice of Claim against the MTA - within a really, really short time period. Many inexperienced lawyers who don't know quite what they're doing mess this up and kill the client's claim; leaving the client, perhaps, with only a nasty little professional malpractice claim against the lawyer who got it wrong. And no lawyer enjoys suing another. Best to hire a knowledgeable lawyer who does it once and gets it right.