New York City Taxi Accident Lawyer

You may have seen very little of what happened. You could have been facing away from traffic when the collision occurred, paying the fare when the cab moved, or stepping out when you fell. Tell us what you remember without trying to fill in the gaps. Witnesses, video, vehicle damage, and taxi records may help explain what you could not see.

We represent passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists injured in yellow cab and green taxi accidents throughout New York City. Your claim should address the event that injured you, whether it was a collision, unsafe maneuver, opening door, or dangerous pickup or drop-off.

If the driver left without providing information, keep the time, location, receipt, app record, or payment details you have. They may help identify the cab. You do not need the driver’s agreement that something went wrong before asking us to review the incident.

Our New York City car accident guide explains the broader questions of fault, insurance, and recovery. Taxi cases also require attention to the passenger’s position, the way the trip was handled, and the records connecting the ride to the responsible people and businesses.

Sudden Stops and Impacts Inside the Cab

A hard stop or sharp turn can send a passenger into a partition, seatback, window, or door without leaving visible damage outside the taxi. Where you were sitting, whether a restraint was available, what you struck, and how the cab moved can help explain the injury. Photographs of the interior may be useful even when the vehicles appear undamaged.

City driving sometimes requires abrupt braking, so a stop alone does not establish negligence. The events leading up to it matter. Speeding, following too closely, or looking at a screen may leave a driver unable to respond safely. Another motorist may have forced the maneuver. Your account, witness observations, and available footage can help establish why the movement occurred.

Pulling Away Before a Passenger Is Clear

A taxi may begin moving while someone is still entering, stepping out, or freeing clothing or a bag caught in a door. Someone retrieving luggage from the trunk can also be injured if the driver pulls away too soon.

Tell us where you were and what was said before the vehicle moved. Whether the driver could see you, knew you were still beside the cab, or had been asked to wait can help establish responsibility.

Unsafe Drop-Off Locations

At a crowded hotel entrance, hospital, or station curb, the stopping point can determine whether a passenger reaches the sidewalk safely or steps into a bicycle lane, moving traffic, or an unsafe surface. Visible hazards, available space, and a passenger’s known need for assistance deserve attention.

The driver’s responsibility depends on how the stop contributed to the injury. An unrelated sidewalk defect raises different questions from a passenger being discharged into traffic or concealed from another driver by the cab’s position. In O’Connor v. Ronnie Cab Corp., a New York appellate court allowed claims to continue where disputed evidence raised the question of whether a stopped taxi obstructed another driver’s view of a departing passenger. That decision illustrates why the location and manner of discharge can matter even after the passenger has left the vehicle.

Wheelchair Ramps and Securement

An accessible-taxi injury may involve a ramp problem, inadequate assistance, or a wheelchair moving during braking. TLC’s accessible-taxi rules address assistance entering and exiting and securing the passenger and mobility device.

The equipment’s condition and the way it was used both matter. A companion’s observations, photographs, and an examination of the ramp or securement system may help explain why the passenger fell or moved during the trip.

New York’s vehicle-door law prohibits opening a door toward moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe and does not interfere with traffic. That duty applies to passengers as well as drivers. In a dooring case, the person who opened the door may be responsible, and the driver’s stopping position or other conduct may also have contributed.

TLC’s cyclist-awareness rule adopted in September 2025 requires warnings inside both rear passenger doors of yellow and green taxis. Photographs can preserve whether those warnings were present. A missing warning is one part of the evidence; the claim still needs to explain how the injury occurred.

Other taxi movements can create different conflicts:

• Crossing a bicycle lane: A cab turns across a cyclist’s path to reach a pickup, driveway, or intersection.
• Pulling away from the curb: The driver enters a travel lane while a cyclist or vehicle is alongside the taxi.
• Turning through a crosswalk: A driver watching for a fare or destination fails to observe someone crossing.
• Backing or repositioning: A taxi reverses toward a waiting passenger or moves within a crowded pickup area.
• Blocking sightlines: A stopped cab prevents a pedestrian and an approaching driver from seeing one another.
• Forcing an evasive maneuver: A cyclist falls or another vehicle crashes while avoiding the taxi, even without contact.

When there is no contact, witnesses and video can be especially useful in connecting the taxi’s movement to the injury. For someone struck while walking, our pedestrian accident attorneys also examine crossing signals, visibility, and the driver’s opportunity to respond.

TLC’s fatigued-driving guidance explains the general limits: 10 hours transporting passengers in a 24-hour period and 60 hours during a Monday-through-Sunday week. Trip information is used to calculate passenger time.

Under Rule 80-14(f), time between trips is excluded. The daily count resets after at least eight consecutive hours without transporting passengers for hire. The rule also provides a defense when a single trip begins before a limit and ends after it.

A driver may stay within those recorded limits while spending additional hours behind the wheel without a passenger. An eight-hour gap between fares also does not establish eight hours of sleep. When fatigue may have contributed to a crash, the investigation should account for work and rest rather than treating every unoccupied interval as a break.

Trip histories across vehicles or services, shift and lease records, available location information, and testimony can help reconstruct the driver’s day. Passenger observations may add context: repeated lane drifting, missed signals, difficulty staying alert, or something the driver said about being tired. Those facts need to be connected to the crash; a long shift alone does not prove its cause.

Distraction presents a separate issue. TLC’s electronic-device restrictions include hands-free as well as handheld use, subject to the applicable exceptions. Tell us if you heard a conversation or saw the driver repeatedly looking at or operating a device, even if that detail does not appear in the police report.

The taxi driver and another motorist may give conflicting accounts. As a passenger, you do not have to decide which account is correct. Evidence may show that one driver caused the collision or that both contributed. Where the facts support it, a claim can address more than one party’s responsibility.

Ownership is especially important. New York Vehicle and Traffic Law § 388 can make a vehicle owner responsible for negligence by someone using the vehicle with permission. Calling the driver an independent contractor does not settle that question. We examine the title, operating arrangements, lease, and any applicable federal leasing protections.

A fleet or management business may have responsibility for its own unsafe maintenance or other negligent conduct. Faulty repair work or defective equipment may involve a repair shop or manufacturer. A medallion connection or business name is a starting point, not proof that every business associated with the cab is liable.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission licenses and regulates taxis. It does not become the cab’s insurer or become responsible for ordinary driver negligence simply because it issued a license. A claim against the City or another public entity requires a separate legal basis and may involve special notice requirements.

Yellow-taxi trip-record requirements include medallion and driver identification, pickup and drop-off information, mileage, fare, and payment method. Those details may help locate a trip or distinguish between drivers who used the same cab during different shifts.

A trip record is not a recording of the accident. It may place the cab near the scene without showing whether a passenger had finished stepping out or whether a cyclist was visible. Other evidence can answer those questions:

• Trip identification: Receipts, app confirmations, card transactions, and messages sent during or about the ride.
• The movement that caused the injury: Available interior or dashcam footage, nearby building cameras, witness accounts, and photographs of the taxi’s position.
• Equipment condition: Inspection and repair records, along with an examination of doors, restraints, ramps, brakes, or wheelchair securement systems.
• Fatigue or distraction: Relevant work and trip histories, passenger observations, and information obtainable through the legal process.

Footage may be overwritten, and equipment may be repaired before anyone examines it. Preservation requests should reach the people or businesses holding the relevant material, which may include the owner, fleet, technology provider, or a nearby building. Not every cab or street camera records usable footage, so locating other evidence remains important.

Keep original photos, recordings, and messages. When speaking with medical providers, describe the actual impact or movement that hurt you. Being thrown into a partition and falling as a cab pulls away are different events, even if both are initially described as a motor-vehicle accident.

Where the No-Fault Claim Begins

For a passenger injured in a New York taxi, the no-fault claim generally goes to the taxi’s insurer, even if another driver caused the crash. A pedestrian struck by the taxi generally applies to that vehicle’s insurer. An injured taxi passenger does not ordinarily need to own a car to qualify.

Tell your medical providers that the injury involved a motor vehicle and supply the claim information when available. Work-related injuries and some other circumstances require coordination with additional benefits. No-fault does not pay compensation for pain and suffering.

If you were not given insurance details, TLC publishes vehicle-insurance information that may help identify an insurer. TLC cautions that its records may not reflect the most current coverage. The insurer and policy dates still need to be confirmed for your accident.

The Taxi’s Required Insurance

TLC’s insurance chart updated March 3, 2026 lists these minimums for medallion taxis seating one to seven passengers:

• $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence in bodily-injury liability coverage.
• $100,000 in personal injury protection, or PIP.
• $10,000 in property-damage coverage.

Older references to $200,000 in required taxi PIP coverage may predate TLC’s September 2025 insurance amendment. Your claim depends on the policy in force for the accident. Regulatory minimums do not guarantee payment, establish every applicable policy, or determine what your injuries are worth.

When Several People Are Injured

The per-occurrence liability limit may have to cover several injured people. It is not a separate amount available in full to each passenger or pedestrian. Other responsible parties and additional applicable coverage may therefore be important.

Before accepting a settlement, consider the available coverage alongside your treatment, lost income, and likely future needs. An early offer may arrive before you know whether you will need further care or be able to return to the same work.

We consider treatment, rehabilitation, lost earnings, reduced earning capacity, and necessary assistance, along with recoverable pain and suffering, physical limitations, scarring, and lost enjoyment of daily activities. Your records should explain what you could do before the accident, what has changed, and what your providers expect from your recovery. The calculation also needs to account for benefits already paid and avoid recovering the same loss twice.

For claims governed by New York’s no-fault law, pain-and-suffering compensation generally requires an injury that meets the law’s serious-injury definition. A fracture is one category. Others address significant disfigurement and specified permanent or significant limitations. Medical findings showing the extent of a limitation and its connection to the accident can be essential.

Missing work matters, but it does not by itself establish that threshold. New York’s 2026 amendment removed the former “90/180-day” category involving a qualifying nonpermanent impairment of daily activities. Part EE of the law signed May 26, 2026 applies to actions and proceedings commenced on or after that date. Cases already pending before then require analysis under the rules applicable to them.

Be candid about earlier injuries and treatment. A preexisting neck or back condition does not prevent recovery for additional harm caused by this accident. Earlier records can establish your prior condition, while subsequent examinations help document an aggravation or new injury. An old diagnosis should not replace a careful assessment of what the taxi accident changed.

1. Get to safety and obtain medical care. Call 911 for an injury emergency. Explain how you were hurt, report your symptoms accurately, and follow medical advice.
2. Identify the taxi and driver. If possible, photograph the plate, medallion or vehicle license number, and driver information. Save the receipt or app confirmation.
3. Preserve the scene and witnesses. Note the time, exact location, cab position, nearby crosswalk or bicycle lane, and witness contact information. Photograph relevant doors, restraints, ramps, or damage when safe.
4. Keep the records that follow. Save medical paperwork, expenses, missed-work information, insurance correspondence, and communications about the trip.
5. Address claim deadlines promptly. A police report or TLC complaint does not replace the notices and paperwork required for benefits or a lawsuit.

The New York Department of Financial Services explains that written no-fault notice generally must be submitted within 30 days of the accident. Medical bills generally must be submitted within 45 days of treatment, and lost-earnings claims within 90 days of the loss. If time has already passed, seek help promptly. A delayed submission may require a documented justification; have the circumstances reviewed before assuming benefits are unavailable.

Most negligence-based injury lawsuits against private parties have a three-year limitations period. Wrongful-death claims generally have a two-year period, and claims involving public entities can require a notice of claim within 90 days. Exceptions and different procedures may apply. The deadline for a lawsuit is separate from the earlier requirements for insurance benefits.