There are two appeals or two cases before the court.
On 24 May 1975, a family were riding in their station wagon but had to stop at the side of the Southern State Parkway in Nassau County due to mechanical difficulties. The father and driver, alighted from the vehicle, went around to the rear, and leaned inside the open tailgate window. The wife remained seated in the front passenger seat, and their daughter was in the rear seat. At this point, the station wagon was struck in the rear by an automobile owned by defendant-one and driven by defendant-two. The father was seriously injured in the car accidentwhen he was pinned between the two vehicles. The mother and daughter were thrown about the station wagon by the force of the impact but suffered less serious physical injuries than the father. Although neither mother nor daughter actually saw the car strike their station wagon as they were facing forward or to the side, both were instantly aware of the impact and the fact that the father must have been injured and each thereafter immediately observed their seriously injured husband and father.
While on 3 June 1978, a father and a mother were riding with their two infant daughters in the family car along a roadway in the Mid-Westchester Mall in Cortlandt, New York. A New York Injury Lawyer the father was driving the vehicle, his wife, was in the front passenger seat with their one-year-old daughter in her lap, and their other four-year-old daughter was also seated in the car. Their car was struck by an automobile owned by another defendant-one and driven by another defendant-two, allegedly, in a reckless manner and at an excessive speed (car accident or auto accident). The mother suffered a fractured clavicle in the collision, the father sustained a broken finger, and the four-year-old daughter suffered abdominal injuries. Their one-year-old daughter died a few hours after the accident as a result of her various, severe injuries, alleged in the complaint to have been observed by plaintiffs.