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Car Accident Lawyer in Forest Hills
My office sits on Metropolitan Avenue, three blocks from the Queens Boulevard crossings I have litigated for twenty-two years. If you were hurt at 71st Avenue or anywhere along the Forest Hills stretch, the no-fault clock is running. Call 718-261-0546.
Where Forest Hills car accidents happen
The Queens Boulevard corridor is the dominant injury map in this neighborhood. The intersection at 71st Avenue and Queens Boulevard is one of the most chronically dangerous pedestrian crossings in NYC, with wide turning lanes and signal phases that pull drivers across the crosswalk while the walk signal is still up. The 75th Avenue crossing is nearly identical, and the Continental Avenue intersection adds a heavy retail-foot-traffic layer pulled in from the Austin Street commercial spine.
The Boulevard was historically called the Boulevard of Death. Vision Zero engineering work has helped, but the high-injury network designation from NYC DOT still covers most of the corridor through Forest Hills. I see consistent patterns: left-turning vehicles striking pedestrians in the crosswalk, rear-end chains during the rush-hour bottleneck west of 71st, and sideswipes where the four-lane and six-lane sections transition.
Off the Boulevard, the 108th Street commercial strip near 63rd Drive produces a different pattern. Dense Bukharian foot traffic, double-parked delivery vehicles, and tight sightlines drive low-speed pedestrian strikes. Yellowstone Boulevard at Queens Boulevard is the third concentration, particularly southbound at the merge.
NY no-fault basics for Forest Hills drivers
New York is a no-fault state. Your own auto insurance policy includes Personal Injury Protection benefits under Insurance Law § 5103, which covers your initial medical bills and a portion of lost wages regardless of who caused the crash. The cap is $50,000 per person. To recover anything beyond that, pain and suffering, future medical care, lost earnings above the wage cap, you have to clear the serious-injury threshold.
That threshold lives in NY Insurance Law § 5102(d). It defines nine categories: death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement, fracture, loss of a fetus, permanent loss of use of a body organ or member, permanent consequential limitation, significant limitation of use, or a 90/180 limitation. Insurance Law § 5104 is the gateway statute that bars lawsuits for non-economic loss unless one of those categories is met.
The trap that catches most Forest Hills drivers is the 30-day no-fault filing deadline. Form NF-2 has to be submitted to your carrier within 30 days of the accident. Miss it and you can lose PIP entirely.
What to do after a car accident in Forest Hills
- Get medical attention immediately. Forest Hills Hospital on 102nd Street is the nearest emergency room and accepts no-fault. Tell the intake nurse this is an auto accident so the billing routes correctly.
- Photograph the vehicles, the intersection, the signal phases if visible, and any visible injuries. Get a copy of the police report. The NY MV-104A is the standard accident report.
- Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance company, including your own carrier's adverse adjuster. Politely refer them to your attorney.
- Call my office at 718-261-0546. Ambulance routes typically run from Queens Boulevard crashes north on 108th Street to Forest Hills Hospital, so emergency intake usually beats you to the building.
Cases I take
- Rear-end collisions on Queens Boulevard and the LIE
- T-bone and intersection collisions at 71st Avenue, 75th Avenue, Continental Avenue
- Hit-and-run cases (UM/UIM coverage on your own policy applies)
- Uber and Lyft passenger injuries
- Pedestrian struck cases on Austin Street and along the Boulevard
- Multi-vehicle crashes where comparative fault is contested
- No-fault threshold disputes where the insurance carrier denies the 90/180 category
Talk to Nick
Call 718-261-0546. Free consultation. No fee unless we recover. Office: 102-11 Metropolitan Ave, Forest Hills. Spanish line: 718-261-0546. Tenemos servicios completos en español.
Prior Results | Practice Areas
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.