You never saw the ice until you were on the ground. Maybe it coated a store’s sidewalk the morning after a storm, or it flew off the roof of the car ahead of you on I-280. Now the insurance company calls it an act of nature. New Jersey law can hold drivers, businesses, and some public entities responsible for winter weather injuries, and a claim against a town or the state starts with a 90-day notice deadline. A New Jersey personal injury attorney at Bendit Weinstock can identify who is responsible and which deadline applies to you.
Who Can Be Responsible for a Winter Weather Injury
A winter injury claim starts with one question: who controlled the road, the vehicle, the walkway, or where you were hurt? In New Jersey, the answer points to one or more of these parties:
- A driver who lost control on a slick road while going too fast for the conditions
- A driver who pulled out without clearing snow or ice off the vehicle
- A business or other commercial property owner whose sidewalk stayed icy after a storm ended
- A town, county, or state agency responsible for a road, sidewalk, or public building, under stricter rules that protect public entities
Each party faces a different legal test. Snow and ice may have caused the hazard, but that does not settle who was responsible for your injury. What matters is what the driver, property owner, or public agency was required to do, and whether they failed to do it.
Car Crashes on Icy New Jersey Roads
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration counted 320 fatal crashes and an estimated 22,293 injury crashes nationwide in 2023 that happened in snow or sleet conditions.
New Jersey’s speed law tells every driver to slow down for bad weather. It requires “an appropriate reduced speed” when a special hazard exists “by reason of weather or highway conditions,” so an icy road can require a driver to go slower than the posted limit.
Expect the other driver’s insurer to blame the ice. A negligence claim requires proof that the other driver owed you a duty of care, breached it, caused your injury through that breach, and left you with actual damages. An insurer that blames the ice is disputing the middle two: whether the driver acted reasonably for the conditions, and whether that conduct caused the crash.
Your auto policy matters too. New Jersey’s no-fault law requires standard auto policies to carry personal injury protection (PIP). PIP pays medical expense benefits to the policyholder and relatives in the household regardless of fault, including when one of them is hit as a pedestrian by a car or by an object that flies off one.
New Jersey’s lawsuit limitation statute makes the “limitation on lawsuit” option apply automatically when the policyholder never chose an option in writing. Under that option, you generally can sue for pain and suffering only if the crash caused death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement or scarring, a displaced fracture, loss of a fetus, or a permanent injury. The statute calls an injury permanent when the body part or organ has not healed to function normally and will not heal with further treatment. After a car accident, check which option your policy lists.
Snow and Ice That Fly Off Another Vehicle
New Jersey’s snow and ice removal law requires every driver to make all reasonable efforts to remove accumulated ice and snow from the hood, trunk, windshield, windows, and roof before driving, along with a truck cab and trailer top. The state’s highway safety office runs a campaign reminding drivers to clear ice and snow before they go.
Apart from a few narrow exceptions, a driver who skips this step faces a fine of $25 to $75, even if nothing falls off. That duty and fine do not apply to a driver operating during a snow or ice storm that began and continued for the whole trip. The higher fines carry no storm exception. When snow or ice comes loose from a moving vehicle and strikes another vehicle or a pedestrian, causing injury or property damage, the fine is $200 to $1,000 for a noncommercial driver and $500 to $1,500 for a commercial vehicle.
Those fines go to a state safety fund, so compensation for your injuries comes through an insurance claim or an injury lawsuit.
Falls on Commercial Property During and After a Storm
In Pareja v. Princeton International Properties, decided in 2021, the New Jersey Supreme Court confirmed that commercial property owners must keep the public sidewalks next to their property in reasonably good condition, including removing or reducing snow and ice. The same decision adopted the ongoing storm rule: a commercial owner has no duty to clear snow and ice until the storm ends, and the duty begins within a reasonable time afterward. The opinion noted that this sidewalk liability has not been extended to residential landowners. That limit concerns public sidewalks next to homes. A tenant hurt on a landlord’s walkway or parking area raises a separate question. The court recognized two unusual circumstances that can create a duty during a storm:
- The owner’s conduct made the danger to pedestrians and visitors worse
- The danger existed before the storm, such as snow or ice left from an earlier storm that had already ended
A jury can still decide disputed facts, such as when the storm actually ended and whether the ice came from an earlier storm.
In July 2026, the state Supreme Court made clear in Gallardo v. Walmart that the first exception requires unusual circumstances, and that an ordinary salting effort that fails does not qualify. Walmart’s contractor salted a store parking lot during a storm without treating it beforehand, and a woman fell there. With no more than a trace to one-tenth of an inch of accumulation, that salting was not an unusual circumstance, so Walmart owed no snow removal duty during the storm.
For an injured person, the storm timeline is the key evidence: weather reports, time-stamped photos, and snow removal logs. A slip and fall claim depends on saving them early.
Claims Against a Town, County, or the State
Public entities follow the stricter rules of the New Jersey Tort Claims Act. Under the act’s weather provision, neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable for an injury “caused solely by the effect on the use of streets and highways of weather conditions.” When weather alone caused a crash on a public road, the town, county, or state is not liable.
Courts also generally shield public entities from claims arising from their snow and ice removal, even on sidewalks and parking lots. For other dangerous conditions of public property, the act’s dangerous-condition section adds a further requirement: the entity is not liable if its action, or its failure to act, was not “palpably unreasonable,” a harder standard to meet than ordinary carelessness.
Under the act’s notice rules, you must present a notice of claim to the public entity within 90 days after the claim accrues (the legal term for when the deadline starts running). A judge can allow late notice up to one year after accrual, but only for extraordinary circumstances and only if the entity was not substantially prejudiced. You can file suit six months after the entity receives the notice, and no suit may be filed later than two years after the claim accrues. Different timing applies to minors and to people who are mentally incapacitated.
Shared Fault and the Two-Year Deadline
Expect an insurer to argue that you should have seen the ice or driven more slowly. New Jersey’s comparative negligence statute answers that argument: your share of the fault does not bar recovery if it is not greater than the fault of the person you sue, or the combined fault of everyone you sue. Your award is reduced by your percentage. A person found 20% at fault recovers 80% of the damages, and a person found more than 50% at fault recovers nothing.
New Jersey’s general deadline for an injury lawsuit is two years after the claim accrues. The Tort Claims Act notice rule above comes much sooner.
Talk With a New Jersey Personal Injury Attorney About Your Winter Accident
Founded in 1957, Bendit Weinstock represents people in New Jersey hurt in car crashes and falls. Our trial-ready attorneys work to identify all potentially responsible parties, and we review contracts, leases, and maintenance agreements to determine who controlled the place where you were hurt. Contact us to schedule a free case evaluation.