Condado de Bergen / Garfield / Accidentes de Camión

Garfield Truck Accident Lawyer Condado de Bergen, New Jersey

If you were hurt in Hackensack, James Vasquez fights to get you every dollar you are owed. He has represented Bergen County's injured since 2004, and he knows this county seat's I-80, Route 4 and Route 17 corridors, its historic Hackensack River bridges, and the streets around Main Street and Hackensack University Medical Center.

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Car Accidents in Hackensack

The duty owed to people working beside traffic

$500 Million

Recovered for New Jersey Families

22 Yrs

Serving New Jersey

Tow operators, recovery crews, highway maintenance workers and sanitation crews stand a few feet from moving traffic as a condition of the job. The law recognises that and imposes an obligation on everybody passing them.

New Jersey's move over law requires an operator approaching a stationary authorised emergency vehicle displaying flashing red or blue lights to proceed with due caution and either make a lane change into a lane not adjacent to it, where that is possible in the existing safety and traffic conditions, or where a lane change is impossible, prohibited or unsafe, reduce speed to a reasonable and proper speed for the conditions, which the statute specifies must be less than the posted speed limit, and be prepared to stop. The same obligations apply to a stationary tow truck displaying a flashing amber light, to a highway maintenance or emergency service vehicle operated by the State, an authority, a county or a municipality and displaying flashing yellow, amber or red lights, and to a sanitation vehicle displaying a flashing amber warning light. It is not limited to police and ambulances, which is the assumption most drivers make. For somebody struck while working, the important point is that this is a statutory duty rather than a courtesy. A failure to move over may be evidence of negligence where a first responder, tow operator, highway maintenance worker, emergency service worker or sanitation worker is injured or killed by a driver who did not comply. James Vasquez has handled New Jersey injury claims since 2004.

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Injuries we handle

Commercial vehicle claims we handle in Bergen County

Roadside work produces a category of collision with its own rules.

yes Accident Facts

Where Garfield roadside incidents happen

A dense city with a highway across it and river crossings on three sides.

The Passaic River crossings

Bridge approaches where there is no shoulder to work from and a disabled vehicle cannot be moved clear of traffic.

What to establish: whether a lane change was actually available, since the statute requires a reduction below the speed limit where it is not.

Outwater Lane and Passaic Street

Routes worked by sanitation crews at fixed times, with workers moving repeatedly between the vehicle and the kerb.

What to establish: the flashing amber warning light on the vehicle, which is the trigger the statute names for sanitation vehicles.

Anywhere with a single lane each way

Streets where a lane change is simply unavailable and the only compliance route is slowing well below the limit.

What to establish: that the obligation does not disappear because moving over was impossible. The statute prescribes what to do instead.

Route 46

Through traffic at highway speeds with narrow shoulders, where a recovery operation puts a person a few feet from moving vehicles.

What to establish: whether the lights were displayed and what the approaching driver did, because the duty is triggered by the flashing light rather than by the type of vehicle.

Midland Avenue and River Drive

Streets carrying steady traffic where utility crews, sanitation vehicles and tow operators work alongside moving lanes throughout the day.

What to establish: that the duty is not limited to emergency vehicles, since maintenance, utility and sanitation vehicles are expressly covered.

Palisade Avenue and the station approaches

Concentrated traffic at predictable hours, where a stopped vehicle with lights on becomes an obstruction people drive around rather than slow for.

What to establish: the speed of the passing vehicle, which the statute requires to be below the posted limit where no lane change was possible.

In each of these the lights on the stationary vehicle are the fact that engages the duty, and photographs from the scene establish them.

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What The Law Requires

Four things about the move over duty

Confirm current penalties, because the provision has been amended more than once.

Flashing lights on a stationary vehicle

Red or blue on an authorised emergency vehicle, amber on a tow truck, yellow, amber or red on a maintenance or emergency service vehicle, and amber on a sanitation vehicle.

Change lanes

Into a lane not adjacent to the stationary vehicle, where that is possible in the existing safety and traffic conditions.

Slow below the limit

Where a lane change is impossible, prohibited or unsafe, reduce speed to a reasonable and proper speed for the conditions, which the statute says must be less than the posted limit, and be prepared to stop.

It is not a courtesy

It is a statutory duty. Failing it may be evidence of negligence where a roadside worker is injured or killed as a result.

The obligation covers tow trucks, maintenance vehicles and sanitation trucks as well as police and ambulances, which is the part drivers most often get wrong. For how commercial vehicle claims work statewide, see the truck accident practice area page.

If You Were Working

Two claims usually run at once

A worker struck at the roadside is frequently entitled to pursue both.

Workers compensation, and what it does not cover

Where you were working when struck, compensation covers authorised medical treatment and partial wage replacement without any need to prove fault, and it bars suing your employer. What it does not provide is compensation for pain and suffering, and it does not touch the driver who hit you. It also creates a reimbursement interest, so what your employer's carrier paid may be repaid from any recovery against that driver. That interaction should be understood at the start rather than discovered at settlement.

The claim against the driver

This is the claim that reaches everything compensation does not, and the move over duty is central to it. Where the stationary vehicle displayed the required lights and the approaching driver neither changed lanes nor slowed below the posted limit, that is a departure from a specific statutory obligation rather than a general assertion of carelessness. Photographs, dash and body camera footage, and the accounts of colleagues on scene establish it.

Know Before You Call

Three rules about roadside work

Confirm current penalty provisions, which have been the subject of amendment.

N.J.S.A. 39:4-92.2

The move over duty

An operator approaching a stationary authorised emergency vehicle displaying flashing red or blue lights must approach with due caution and change into a lane not adjacent to it where possible, or where that is impossible, prohibited or unsafe, reduce speed to a reasonable and proper speed for the conditions which shall be less than the posted speed limit, and be prepared to stop.

Who Is Covered

Beyond police and ambulances

The same obligations apply to a stationary tow truck displaying a flashing amber light, a highway maintenance or emergency service vehicle operated by the State, an authority, a county or a municipality displaying flashing yellow, amber or red lights, and a sanitation vehicle displaying a flashing amber warning light.

Penalties And Evidence

A fine, and something more useful

Violations carry a fine in the range of one hundred to five hundred dollars, and the position on motor vehicle points has been amended and should be confirmed. For an injured worker the more significant consequence is that a failure to move over may be evidence of negligence in a civil claim.

Workers compensation liens, the two year filing deadline and the shorter notice required where a public entity is involved are covered on the truck accident practice area page and the Garfield personal injury page.

What to secure

The lights and the approach are what the duty turns on.

Establish that the lights were displayed

Photographs of the stationary vehicle, and the accounts of anyone on scene. The flashing light is what engages the obligation.

Secure any footage immediately

Tow trucks, maintenance vehicles and responders increasingly carry cameras, and so do nearby premises. All of it cycles quickly.

Record whether a lane was available

If a lane change was possible and was not made, that is one breach. If it was not possible, the duty was to slow below the limit instead.

Report it as a work injury as well

Where you were working, the compensation claim runs alongside the claim against the driver and has its own reporting requirements.

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James Vasquez

Antes de que James Vasquez representara a su primera persona lesionada, se sentaba al otro lado de la mesa. Como exfiscal y abogado de defensa de aseguradoras, pasó años aprendiendo exactamente cómo se ganan y se pierden estos casos.

Ahora lo usa a su favor. Cuando los ajustadores y los abogados contrarios se enfrentan a James, se enfrentan a alguien que ha leído su manual, ha litigado en sus tribunales y sabe con precisión dónde se quiebran sus argumentos.

Con sede en Clifton y sirviendo a los condados de Passaic, Morris y Essex, su firma le brinda a cada cliente la atención personal de James, respaldada por un equipo que conoce su expediente a fondo.