Step on a crack, break the city’s back.
Seven New Yorkers have filed claims totalling $27 million against the city and the MTA for injuries caused by cracked sidewalks on a 14-block span of the Upper East Side, where construction of the Second Avenue Subway is under way.
The stretch from 87th Street to 101st drew one of the biggest clusters of trip-and-fall claims filed with the city Comptroller’s Office last year, a review of agency documents showed.
George Behoyos was biking on Second near 95th Street when he came upon a construction site “set up in an obstructive and unsafe way.”
He was hit by a cab and lost his spleen, his $5 million suit says. He also suffered a collapsed lung, a bruised kidney and postsurgery pneumonia.
Elizabeth Bengelsdorf was crossing Second at 87th Street when a missing curb caused her to trip, fracturing an elbow, her $5 million notice of claim says.
Javier Germidio was driving on Second and 87th last December when he hit an unguarded trench, according to his $2 million suit, which adds that he suffered facial lacerations and “emotional anguish.”
Not that New Yorkers who file hefty notices are guaranteed big paydays. The city paid out $34.9 million to cover 2,286 sidewalk claims last year, down from $39.8 million in 2009.
The MTA broke ground on the Second Avenue line in 2007. The first phase — stretching from 63rd and Third Avenue to 105th and Second — is slated for completion in 2016.
“Second Avenue cannot become a hazard zone for the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who navigate it daily,” Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said.
The MTA and the city Transportation Department did not return calls for comment.