Van Wyck Expressway · Highway work zone injuries · Queens & Brooklyn
4 min read · or just read the summaryThe Van Wyck opened in 1950. It has been under construction, more or less continuously, ever since. Your father sat in traffic on this road while somebody fixed it. Now you are the one fixing it.
Here is the part that is not funny. If you got hurt out there, the clock on your claim may be 90 days — not three years. And nobody on that job site is going to tell you.
- Free consultation
- No fee unless we win
- Nou pale Kreyòl ayisyen
- Your papers are not the issue
- The Van Wyck is a State job. That means a claim against the State, in a separate court, with a 90-day clock.
- You cannot sue your boss. You can go after the State and the contractor. That is where the real money is.
- Comp pays nothing for pain. Not a dollar. The second claim is the only place that comes from.
- Struck by a vehicle? That may be a third claim, against the driver.
- Fell from a bridge deck or an overpass? A special New York law puts that on the owner and contractor, even if you made a mistake.
- Papers are not the issue. Cash pay is not the issue either.
- First week
- The 90-day problem
- Who owns your stretch
- Your three claims
- Struck-by
- Cash pay / no papers
- Kreyòl
- FAQ
- Talk to me
I am Koenig Pierre, an injury lawyer in Brooklyn. A lot of the men who call me work the Queens jobs — the Van Wyck widening, the JFK work, the bridges over Hillside and Rockaway.
The State has spent about $1.2 billion on this corridor and kept roughly 450 people working on it. Good money. Hard road. And a job where getting hurt costs you more than it should, because almost nobody out there knows the deadline is different.
Three years is what people think they have. On this job it can be twelve weeks.
Start here
What to do this week
Report it in writing today. Get a copy of the incident report. See a doctor and say it happened at work. Take pictures before anything gets fixed. Write down which contract you were on. File your C-3 yourself. Say nothing recorded to any insurance company.
Take pictures before it disappears
The ladder. The hole. The barrier that was not there. The truck that backed into you. On a job this size, things get repaired or hauled off in a day. If you are in a hospital bed, ask a man on your crew to do it before he leaves shift.
Put the report in writing
Telling the super on the shoulder of the road is not a report. Text it or email it so there is a date on it, and ask for a copy of the accident report. You have 30 days to give written notice. Screenshot what you send.
Write down which contract you were on
This is the Van Wyck-specific one. The State runs this program as four separate projects with different contractors. "I work on the Van Wyck" is not enough. Which contract? Which company signs your check? Who is the general contractor on that stretch? Write it down tonight.
Tell the doctor how it happened
Not just where it hurts. Say you were struck, or you fell, and from what height, and onto what. A chart that says "back pain" is worth less than one that says "struck by backing dump truck in active work zone."
File the C-3 yourself
Your company filing something is not you filing a claim. The C-3 form is free and goes straight to the Board. Here is the State's step-by-step guide.
Do not give a recorded statement
Somebody friendly calls within a week. They are not calling to see how you are. Read what a recorded statement really is first.
Copy this. Send it today.
I am reporting a work injury. On [DATE] at approximately [TIME], while working on the Van Wyck Expressway project near [LOCATION / EXIT / CROSS STREET], I was injured when [WHAT HAPPENED]. My injuries include [BODY PARTS]. I am seeking medical treatment. Please confirm you received this and send me a copy of the accident report.
Text or email it so there is a date. Screenshot it. If it turns out no report was ever written, that itself helps you.
The thing that kills good cases
Ninety days, not three years
The Van Wyck belongs to the State. Claims against the State go to a different court with a much shorter clock: 90 days to file, or 90 days to file a short notice that buys you two years. Miss it and the claim against the State is usually gone, no matter how badly you were hurt.
Most people know you get three years to sue after an injury in New York. That is true — for private companies.
The Van Wyck is not a private job. It is the New York State Department of Transportation. Suing the State is its own thing, in its own court, called the Court of Claims. And the rule there is simple and brutal:
- 90 daysTo file and serve your claim — or to serve a short "notice of intention"
- 2 yearsWhat that notice buys you, if you file it in time
- 0What you get if you do neither
Ninety days is twelve weeks. That is about how long you spend in a brace, going to appointments, waiting on an MRI, arguing with the comp carrier. Men call me at month five all the time. It is the worst phone call in this job.
The service rules are strict too — papers have to go to the right office the right way. Cases get thrown out on that alone. It is not something to handle from your couch with a form off the internet.
If you got hurt on this road, find out your deadline this week. Not after the surgery.
Same road, different landlords
Who owns the stretch you were on
The Van Wyck corridor is not one owner. The highway is the State. The airport end can be the Port Authority. Local streets and overpass approaches can be the City. Rail crossings can be the MTA. Each one has its own deadline — and some are even shorter than 90 days.
You can stand on one job and be working for three different landlords in the space of a mile. This is the single most important question after a Van Wyck injury, and it is the one nobody asks.
- NY State DOTThe expressway itself, the bridge decks, the widening90 days
- Port AuthorityJFK property, airport access, AirTrain areasShorter still
- City of New YorkLocal streets, some overpass approaches, sewer tie-ins90 days
- MTA / LIRRRail crossings and adjacent rail property90 days
- Private contractorThe design-build company on your contract3 years
Notice the last line. Your claim against the private contractor may still have three years while your claim against the State dies at twelve weeks. People find out about the good claim after the better one is gone.
And remember the four contracts. NYSDOT runs this program as four separate projects. Different contractors, different insurance, different paperwork. If all you know is "I work on the Van Wyck," we start by finding out which piece.
You may have three claims, not one
Workers' comp against your employer. A claim against the State and the contractor. And if a vehicle hit you, a claim against that driver. They run at the same time. Comp is the smallest of the three.
| Claim | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Workers' comp vs. your employer | Doctors and about two-thirds of your wages, up to a weekly cap. Nothing for pain. No fault needed. |
| The State + contractor vs. the owner and GC | Full lost earnings with no cap, future medical, and pain and suffering. This is the real case. |
| The driver if a vehicle hit you | Their insurance, on top of everything above. Common in work zones. |
Comp pays your doctors. It does not pay you for your knee.
That is not a loophole. It is how the system was built a hundred years ago. Comp is quick and guaranteed, but it is small, and it ends. The claim against the owner and the contractor is where the money for the rest of your life sits.
One trap. If you win the second case, the comp insurance company gets paid back out of it, and you generally need their written OK before you settle. Settle without it and you can lose your comp benefits going forward. One phone call avoids this. See what you actually keep from a settlement.
The two ways men get hurt out here
Struck by something moving
A car comes through the cones. A dump truck backs up. A loader swings. Traffic is six feet away doing fifty and the only thing between you and it is a plastic barrel and somebody's attention.
Getting struck by vehicles and equipment is one of the leading killers of highway workers — OSHA has an entire standard set around work zones for exactly this reason. If a motorist hit you, that is a separate claim against that driver. If a contractor's own equipment hit you, that may be a claim against the contractor or the equipment owner.
Ask for the dashcam and the telematics. Most of this equipment records. That data gets overwritten. Preserve it early.
Falls from the bridges and decks
This program rebuilt nine overpass bridges between Hillside Avenue and 133rd Avenue. That means deck work, edges, forms, staging, and a lot of ways to go down.
New York has a law for that which exists in no other state. Labor Law § 240 puts falls and falling objects on the owner and the general contractor — and your own mistake generally does not cut your recovery. Not the third rung, not "you should have tied off." I explain the whole thing here: the Scaffold Law, in plain English.
Hit your head? Even without blacking out, get it checked and get it written down. Brain injuries get missed when there is a broken bone to treat.
Cash pay, 1099, no papers
None of it disqualifies you. New York protects hurt workers no matter their immigration status, and a "1099" label does not change who owes you the duty on a job site.
I get this call more than any other, and it is usually a wife or a son calling for a man who will not call himself.
On papers. New York's highest court held in Balbuena v. IDR Realty that an undocumented construction worker can still recover lost wages — the decision is in the New York Official Reports. The City says the same about comp benefits: you may qualify even if you are paid in cash or off the books.
On the 1099. Usually just a label somebody put on you. What counts is who controlled your schedule and your work. And the claim against the State and the general contractor does not run through your boss anyway.
I will not tell you every immigration situation is risk-free — that is a different area of law and it moves. I will tell you honestly where you stand and put you in front of an immigration attorney first if you need one.
If they cut your hours for reporting it, that is illegal under § 120. Write down your schedule before you reported and after. That comparison is the proof.
An Kreyòl ayisyen
Ou blese ap travay sou Van Wyck la?
- Van Wyck la se yon travay Leta. Sa vle di ou ka gen sèlman 90 jou — pa twazan — pou fè reklamasyon ou kont Leta a.
- Ou pa ka pouswiv patwon ou. Men ou ka pouswiv Leta a ak konpayi kontraktè a. Se la gwo lajan an ye.
- Asirans travay pa peye pou doulè ou. Zewo. Dezyèm reklamasyon an se sèl kote lajan sa a soti.
- Si yon machin frape ou nan zòn travay la, sa se yon lòt reklamasyon ankò — kont chofè a.
- Si ou tonbe soti sou yon pon, gen yon lwa New York (§ 240) ki mete responsablite a sou mèt la ak kontraktè a — menm si ou te fè yon erè.
- Pran foto jodi a. Lendi bagay la p ap la ankò.
- Papye ou pa yon pwoblèm. Menm si yo peye ou an kach.
Rele Koenig Pierre: 1-800-946-4616. Konsiltasyon an gratis. Ou pa peye anyen si nou pa genyen. Ou ka rele oswa ekri m an Kreyòl.
About the author
I am an injury lawyer on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn. My practice is built around people who do the physical work of this city — men from Haiti, the Caribbean, West Africa and Latin America, working the Queens highway jobs and the sites nobody explains the rules on. I work on contingency: no retainer, nothing owed unless there is a recovery. The consultation is free either way, because on a job like the Van Wyck the most useful thing I do is often the five-minute call that tells a man whether he has twelve weeks or three years.
- Admitted
- New York State
- Law school
- Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University
- Focus
- Highway and construction injuries, Court of Claims deadlines, Labor Law § 240 falls, struck-by and work zone claims
- Languages
- English · Kreyòl ayisyen · Français · Español
- Office
- 2653 Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11223 · 1-800-946-4616 · koenig@koenigpierre.com
- Serving
- Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and Nassau County
- Reviewed
Check the record
Questions people ask me
Van Wyck questions
How long do I really have?
Against the State, possibly 90 days from the day you were hurt. You either file the claim in that window or file a short notice of intention that buys you two years. Against a private contractor on the same job it is usually three years. That gap is why this page exists.
Who am I actually suing?
Not your employer — comp is the only claim there. The real case runs against the project owner and the general contractor. On the Van Wyck that is usually the State plus the design-build company on your particular contract. There are four contracts, so which stretch you were on matters.
A car came through the cones and hit me. Is that separate?
Yes, and often bigger. That is a claim against the driver and their insurance, on top of comp and on top of anything against the State or contractor. Get the police report number before you leave the hospital if you can.
Does comp pay me for the pain?
No. Not one dollar. Comp is doctors and about two-thirds of wages up to a cap. Everything else — pain, what you can't do anymore, the earnings gap for the rest of your life — only comes from the second case.
I fell off a bridge deck. Doesn't that make it my fault?
Usually not, and that surprises people. New York's Labor Law § 240 puts falls on the owner and general contractor, and your own carelessness generally does not reduce what you recover. Full explanation here.
I don't have papers. Should I call?
Yes. Comp in New York does not ask your status, and the state's highest court has held that immigration status does not bar an undocumented worker from recovering lost wages. If your situation is complicated I will say so and get you the right person first.
What does it cost?
Nothing up front. My fee comes out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery there is no fee. First call is free either way.
One call · No cost · No pressure
They will finish the Van Wyck eventually. Your deadline will not wait that long.
Tell me what happened and I will tell you straight: who owned the stretch you were on, what your real deadline is, and whether there is a case beyond the comp claim you already have.
You do not need paperwork from the company. Just what you remember and any photos. I read these myself and answer within 24 hours. Ou ka rele oswa ekri m an Kreyòl.
Confidential · No fee unless we win · 2653 Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11223