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Parents Sue Due to Lack of Sidewalk Safety When Boy is Hit By Truck

When a middle school student was stuck by a truck, his parents filed a lawsuit against the truck driver as well as the school district, the town and the county. The boy was crossing the street outside his school, Seven Bridges Middle School, and was struck and suffered serious head injuries from the accident.
The lawsuit argues that the lack of a crossing guard and a crosswalk led to the accident. This lack made the intersection unsafe according to the lawsuit. Turner Williams, 14, suffered a traumatic brain injury and a fractured skull in the accident. After 13 days in the hospital, the teen received rehabilitative care.
The May accident led to a November lawsuit filed in the state Supreme Court in White Plains. The suit alleges that the governments of the Town of New Castle  and Westchester County had a responsibility to provide a safe route for students outside the school. The lack of a crosswalk and no traffic-control device was a negligence that led to the accident, the suit states.
Outside the school on Seven Bridges Road, there is no sidewalk for students to get to and from the school. According to the suit, the school had an obligation to provide a way for children to access the school as many of them lived nearby and walked. The children and parents were never warned not to walk to school.
No matter who is responsible for the tragic accident, the case raises some important issues. Should every student be given a safe way to walk to school, or are there streets that are simply not safe for students to walk? To help address this issue, five Westchester school districts have come together to create the Safe Routes to School program. This program gives grants that will improve the safety of school access. By improving the infrastructure and given student walking safety training, the districts hope to avoid any future accidents.
However, many Chappaqua schools, and others located in the northern suburbs, are accessed by narrow streets that date back to colonial times. These narrow roads are now major, traffic-heavy roads that simply aren’t safe to walk. Williams’ parents filed their notice of claim after the 90-day deadline. However, they have asked for late-filing permission. This motion is opposed by the town. The town’s argument is that the county owns Seven Bridges Road, and that the town had no responsibility in installing traffic-controlling devices, and in fact had no power to do so.
Motions have been filed by the school district and by the county in an attempt to have the court dismiss the case. The January filing states that the lawsuit has not established any negligence, partially because the Williams family never told the county about the dangerous road conditions. And because the town is the government entity with the power to install a crosswalk on the road, the county has no responsibility.
When the accident occurred, the Seven Bridges traffic was hectic, and the entrance was blocked by vehicles. Just before 8 a.m., Williams reached the road where truck driver Louis Gonzalez was driving. Williams was wearing earphones and ran into the road from behind a stopped SUV. He was stuck by the truck and hit both a stone wall and a guide rail that were located on the roadside. Police determined that Gonzalez was not speeding and was not responsible for the accident.

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