Long Island Sun Glare
Accident Lawyer

Legal Analysis

Sun Glare Is Not a Defense — It Is Evidence of Negligence

The most common argument raised by insurance defense attorneys in sun glare crash cases is that the blinding sun made the accident unavoidable. This argument fails under New York law. Vehicle and Traffic Law §1180(a) requires that no person drive a motor vehicle at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the existing conditions and having regard to the actual and potential hazards then existing. Sun glare is an existing condition — not an unforeseeable event.

Every driver on Long Island who commutes eastbound in the morning or westbound in the evening on the LIE, the Southern State Parkway, Sunrise Highway, the Northern State Parkway, or any east-west arterial knows that the sun will be low and directly in their line of sight during peak glare hours. This is not a surprise. It happens every day at predictable times that can be calculated to the minute from astronomical data. A driver who sets out in the direction of the rising or setting sun — during the exact window when glare is known to be most severe — and who proceeds at normal highway speed without slowing, without increasing following distance, without using their sun visor, and without taking any precaution whatsoever, has made a deliberate choice to drive in an unsafe manner. That choice is negligence.

VTL §1180(e) reinforces this principle by specifically requiring drivers to reduce speed when visibility is impaired by weather, atmospheric conditions, or other factors. Sun glare falls squarely within reduced-visibility conditions under this provision. A violation of VTL §1180(e) supports a negligence per se argument in civil litigation — the statutory violation is itself evidence that the driver failed to meet the standard of care. Combined with EDR data showing no pre-impact braking, sunrise records confirming known glare conditions, and dashcam footage showing no evasive action, the case against a sun-glare defendant is frequently overwhelming. For more on how courts analyze driver negligence in car accident cases on Long Island, see our car accident lawyer page.

The appropriate legal standard is clear: when a driver knows that sun glare will severely impair their visibility, their options under New York law are to slow to a speed at which they can stop within the range of their adjusted visibility, increase their following distance substantially to provide reaction time, use every available sun management tool (visor, sunglasses, route adjustment), or pull over safely and wait for conditions to improve. A driver who does none of these things and crashes is not the victim of an unforeseeable act of God. They are a negligent driver whose conduct caused a preventable accident.

Long Island’s Most Dangerous Sun Glare Roads and Times

Long Island’s road network is dominated by east-west oriented highways and arterials — the Long Island Expressway (I-495), the Southern State Parkway, Sunrise Highway (Route 27), the Northern State Parkway, the Bethpage State Parkway, Hempstead Turnpike, and dozens of surface roads that run the length of Nassau and Suffolk counties. These roads are built on the same axis as the sun’s path across the sky.

Morning eastbound commuters on the LIE, Southern State, and Sunrise Highway drive directly into the rising sun. During the autumn and spring months — when the sun rises at angles most directly aligned with east-west roads — glare conditions are at their worst. The hours between approximately 7:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. represent peak morning glare windows on these roads. Eastbound travel in this window on a clear morning can produce glare so severe that drivers cannot see vehicles stopped in front of them, traffic signals, or pedestrians in crosswalks.

Evening westbound commuters face the same conditions in reverse. The western-facing commute home on the LIE, Southern State, and Sunrise Highway between approximately 4:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. — earlier in the winter months — puts the setting sun directly in drivers’ windshields. This is historically one of the highest-crash windows on Long Island’s highways. The combination of commuter volume, highway speed, and blinding low-angle sun creates dangerous conditions that every experienced Long Island driver knows about and that VTL §1180 specifically requires drivers to account for.

Seasonal considerations are significant. At the spring and autumn equinoxes, the sun rises and sets nearly due east and west, creating the most severe alignment of glare with Long Island’s east-west road network. In summer, the sun rises and sets at northerly angles that reduce direct east-west glare. In winter, shorter daylight hours and lower sun angles mean that both the morning commute east and the afternoon commute west may occur during peak glare windows simultaneously. Insurance defense attorneys will sometimes argue that conditions vary by season to reduce the foreseeability argument — our firm uses NOAA astronomical data to refute this and document exactly what the sun angle was at the precise time and location of any given crash.

Rear-end crashes are the most common sun glare accident pattern on Long Island highways. A driver blinded by glare fails to see that traffic ahead has slowed or stopped and strikes the lead vehicle at or near highway speed. These are among the most serious crashes on Long Island roads and frequently result in injuries that satisfy the Insurance Law §5102(d) serious injury threshold. For a broader overview of rear-end crash claims on Long Island, see our rear-end accident lawyer page. For a broader overview of weather and visibility crash claims generally, see our weather accident lawyer page.

What Damages Can You Recover?

Victims of sun glare accidents on Long Island may recover two categories of damages in a personal injury lawsuit: economic damages and non-economic damages.

Economic damages cover measurable financial losses including past and future medical expenses (emergency care, surgery, hospitalization, physical therapy, medication, assistive devices, and projected future treatment costs); past and future lost wages and lost earning capacity; property damage to your vehicle; and out-of-pocket expenses related to the accident and your recovery. Economic damages are calculated from documented losses and expert projections of future costs.

Non-economic damages compensate for human losses that are not reducible to a receipt: pain and suffering, physical disability, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress, and loss of consortium for spouses. These damages are not capped in New York personal injury cases but require satisfaction of the serious injury threshold.

New York’s no-fault insurance system requires injury victims to first pursue benefits through their own Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage for medical expenses and lost wages regardless of fault. A tort lawsuit against the at-fault driver for non-economic damages requires proof of a “serious injury” as defined by Insurance Law §5102(d). Qualifying categories include a fracture; significant disfigurement; permanent loss of use of a body organ or member; permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member; significant limitation of use of a body function or system; and the 90/180-day category (inability to perform substantially all customary daily activities for 90 of the first 180 days post-accident).

Sun glare crashes on Long Island highways — which typically occur at or near highway speed with little or no warning and no pre-impact braking by the at-fault driver — regularly produce high-energy impacts with serious injury outcomes. Herniated and bulging discs at C4-C5, C5-C6, L4-L5, and L5-S1, vertebral fractures, traumatic brain injuries, and torn ligaments are all common outcomes in these unbraked highway impacts. Our firm works with treating physicians and independent medical experts to document injuries in terms that directly address each statutory threshold category.

Under CPLR §1411, New York’s comparative negligence rule, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault but you are not barred from recovering even if you were partially at fault. The defense will attempt to argue that you were also operating in glare conditions and should have taken precautions yourself. Our firm builds the factual record to demonstrate the difference between a driver who exercises reasonable care in glare conditions and one who proceeds at full speed without adjustment — and to accurately allocate fault. For a full overview of how no-fault and the serious injury threshold apply across car accident cases on Long Island, see our car accident lawyer page.