New Jersey Court: State Not Responsible for Fatal Accident

State transportation officials who declined to fund a new pedestrian walkway over a southern New Jersey highway cannot be held responsible for a 2003 accident that killed a boy and injured his younger brother, a state appellate court has ruled.

The two-judge panel rejected a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the boys’ mother.

She claimed the officials were negligent for not rebuilding the walkway above Route 38 in Cherry Hill after a garbage truck brought it down in 1999.

In their ruling, the judges found the defendants had legal immunity.

The judges also found the 12- and 13-year-old boys – who didn’t cross at a light and were hit by a vehicle as they tried to run across the busy six-lane highway – were responsible for the accident.