THE CITY DID NOT DEMONSTRATE THE ABSENCE OF A LEFT TURN TRAFFIC SIGNAL WAS BASED ON A STUDY FINDING THE SIGNAL WAS NOT WARRANTED; THEREFORE THE CITY DID NOT DEMONSTRATE IT WAS ENTITLED TO IMMUNITY IN THIS HIGHWAY-PLANNING ACTION BY A PEDESTRIAN WHO WAS STRUCK BY A VEHICLE MAKING A LEFT TURN (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the city’s motion for summary judgment in this pedestrian-vehicle accident case should not have been granted. Plaintiff was crossing the street in the crosswalk with the pedestrian light in her favor when she was struck by a car making a left turn. There was a left turn lane but no left turn traffic signal. The city did not demonstrate the design of the traffic light was based upon a study which considered whether a left turn signal was warranted:

… [I]n the field of traffic design engineering, the State is accorded a qualified immunity from liability arising out of a highway planning decision” … . Under the doctrine of qualified immunity, a governmental entity may not be held liable for a highway safety planning decision unless its study of a traffic condition is plainly inadequate, or there is no reasonable basis for its traffic plan … . Immunity will apply only “where a duly authorized public planning body has entertained and passed on the very same question of risk as would ordinarily go to the jury” … .

Here, the City failed to establish that the design of the subject traffic signal, including the determination that no left-turn signal was warranted, was based on a study which entertained and passed on the very same question of risk that the plaintiff would put to a jury … . Rosado v City of New Rochelle, 2021 NY Slip Op 04675, Second Dept 8-11-21