Relates to liability of the state for damages caused by reported defects and potholes if the report was made fourteen days or more before the damage occurred; establishes an interactive website for reporting defects and potholes on the state highway system and thruway.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3403
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 27, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. COMRIE, HARCKHAM, MAYER -- read twice and ordered
printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Trans-
portation
AN ACT to amend the highway law, in relation to liability of the state
for damages caused by reported defects and potholes; and to amend the
transportation law, in relation to establishing an interactive website
for reporting defects and potholes on the state highway system and
thruway
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 58 of the highway law, as amended by chapter 1110
2 of the laws of 1971, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 58. Liability of state for damages. The state shall not be liable
4 for damages suffered by any person from defects in state highways
5 between the sixteenth day of November and the last day of April except
6 when the defect found to cause the damages was reported by telephone or
7 by an online report submitted to the telephone number or website desig-
8 nated by the department to receive such reports and fourteen days have
9 elapsed from the date the initial report was submitted and the defect
10 was not repaired and, except between the first day of May and the
11 fifteenth day of November on such highways as are maintained by the
12 state under such system as the commissioner of transportation may adopt
13 pursuant to section twelve, but the liability for such damages shall
14 otherwise remain as now provided by law, notwithstanding the
15 construction or improvement and maintenance of such highways by the
16 state under this chapter; but nothing herein contained shall be
17 construed to impose on the state any liability for defects in bridges
18 over which the state has no control. Within the limits of incorporated
19 villages the state shall maintain a width of pavement equal to the width
20 of pavement constructed or improved at the expense of the state, if a
21 state highway, the location of the state's portion of such roadway with-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05200-01-5
S. 3403 2
1 in said incorporated limits to be determined by the center line of the
2 roadway as shown on the plans on file with the department of transporta-
3 tion and the state shall be liable for damages to persons or property
4 only when such damage shall occur as a result of the defective condition
5 of the portion of improved highway as above described.
6 § 2. Section 14 of the transportation law is amended by adding a new
7 subdivision 37 to read as follows:
8 37. The commissioner shall establish an interactive website by which
9 persons may report the locations of defects and potholes on the state
10 highway system and the New York state thruway and receive, at such
11 person's request, notification when repairs to the reported defect or
12 pothole have been completed. The commissioner shall also post the
13 locations of each reported defect or pothole on such interactive website
14 until such time as such defect or pothole is repaired.
15 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
16 it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amend-
17 ment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implemen-
18 tation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and
19 completed on or before such effective date.
