A new personal injury lawsuit filed in Ocean County Superior Court accuses the Township of Lakewood and the County of Ocean of creating a dangerously defective pedestrian crossing that allegedly left a child with severe and permanent injuries after she was struck by a vehicle.
The suit was brought by Yechezkel Leiman and Deena Leiman, the child’s parents, and is being prosecuted by plaintiffs’ attorney Margo R. Zemel, Esq. of Newark.
According to the complaint, the child was lawfully walking in the marked crosswalk at the intersection of River Avenue and Cross Street when she was struck by an automobile. The lawsuit alleges the collision was not a freak accident, but the predictable result of years of governmental neglect, unsafe roadway design, and a pedestrian-hostile environment at the intersection.
The complaint paints a damning picture of systemic failures by both the Township and County. It alleges that Lakewood and Ocean County were legally obligated to reduce pedestrian accidents and to provide safe, unobstructed pedestrian access and egress, particularly at known crossings. Instead, the suit claims, officials allowed hazardous conditions to persist, failed to ensure drivers properly yielded to pedestrians, and permitted roadway configurations that pushed pedestrians out of clear sightlines and directly into danger.
The lawsuit further alleges negligent design, architecture, construction, maintenance oversight, and traffic analysis of the roadway and intersection. According to the filing, officials either knew or should have known that the crosswalk posed a serious hazard, yet failed to regularly inspect the site or correct engineering defects that could have prevented the collision altogether.
As a result of these alleged failures, the child suffered severe and permanent injuries, along with significant pain, emotional trauma, and nervous shock. The complaint states that the injuries have already required extensive medical treatment and will continue to demand substantial medical care and related expenses well into the future.
The parents are also seeking damages for the enormous financial burden imposed by their child’s injuries, as well as for the profound disruption to their family life caused by what they describe as entirely preventable government negligence.
This lawsuit lands amid a shifting legal landscape for public-entity liability. It comes on the heels of a recent ruling - previously reported here on FAA News - holding that lawsuits against Lakewood Township and Ocean County over dangerous roadway conditions may proceed, rejecting efforts to dismiss similar claims at the outset. That decision has opened the door for heightened scrutiny of municipal and county roadway safety practices, particularly where pedestrian injuries are involved.
With jury demands filed and damages alleged to reach into the millions, the case is poised to become another high-profile test of whether local governments can be held accountable for dangerous road designs that critics say put pedestrians - especially children - at grave risk.
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2 comments:
What about all the other countless DANGEROUS cross walks around the county.
Whitesville Road in TR for one, has quite a few such crosswalks. Cars RAELY stop, zooming by at 50mph, unchecked. All have warning signs which are rarely heeded by motorists.
What about countyline and poplar or crocus st
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