A woman who was critically injured and whose mother was killed by a driver being chased by police officers in 2024 says in a new lawsuit that an aggressive NYPD car chase policy at the time was the cause of the tragedy.

Brooklyn resident Jessica Vidal filed the federal lawsuit against the city and the officers involved in the chase earlier this week. She’s seeking unspecified damages.

The lawsuit details the crash that killed her mother, Juanita Vidal, and left Jessica Vidal with a collapsed lung and multiple broken ribs. The lawsuit also delves into the lengthy history of deadly crashes in the city caused by police pursuits. The lawsuit claims that under Mayor Eric Adams, the NYPD adopted an aggressive pursuit policy that put members of the public at risk.

A spokesperson for the city's Law Department said the death was a tragic loss and said they would review the claims. The NYPD did not comment on the lawsuit. Jessica Vidal and her attorney also did not respond to requests for comment.

In January 2025, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch reined in the department’s pursuit policy, acknowledging many of them are unnecessary because police can utilize other technology to catch suspects.

When she announced changes to vehicle pursuit policy, Tisch said 67% of the chases in 2024 were the result of a driver fleeing a traffic stop. Under the new policy, many of those chases are now banned and pursuits are limited to the most serious and violent crimes.

Richard Esposito, a longtime police analyst and former NYPD deputy commissioner, said chases in a place like Brooklyn are particularly risky.

“Police pursuits in a densely populated urban environment are one of the most dangerous and high-risk forms of policing, for the officers, for innocent bystanders, for the suspect,” he said.

“That’s why Commissioner Jessica Tisch changed the policies.”

Family tragedy

On the day of the crash in 2024, Jessica Vidal was walking with her 71-year-old mother on Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick at about 5 p.m., according to the lawsuit.

Blocks away, NYPD officers pulled over 27-year-old Robert Matthews for not stopping at a stop sign, the lawsuit states. During the traffic stop, Matthews sped away from the scene and three officers in an NYPD vehicle drove after him.

For eight blocks, Matthews swerved through traffic on the busy streets, running stop signs and red lights at high speeds. The officers followed, but did not turn on their car’s siren or try to alert the public of the danger, the lawsuit states.

When Matthews reached the intersection of Eldert Street and Knickerbocker Avenue, his Mazda Cx-5 slammed into the Vidals, the lawsuit states. Matthews later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

The suit notes that the judge who sentenced Matthews rejected the prosecution’s request for a stiffer sentence because the officers chasing him “bore significant responsibility for the collision.”

‘Notoriously deadly’

The collision that killed Juanita Vidal was just one example of a tragic crash as the number of vehicle chases by NYPD officers increased sharply during the Adams administration, the lawsuit states.

NYPD policymakers implemented a more aggressive approach, the lawsuit states, noting that then-Chief of Department John Chell said at a 2023 press conference that "people thinking they can take off on us, those days are over."

During the first three years of the Adams administration, pursuits caused 799 crashes, which exceeded the total number of such crashes recorded in the prior seven years, the lawsuit notes, citing reporting from The City Reporter.

In the first nine months of 2024, vehicle pursuits by the NYPD shot up more than 47% compared to the same period the year before, the lawsuit states. At the same time, the pursuits resulted in crashes about 25% of the time, according to a statement by the NYPD.

The Adams administration enacted the aggressive chase policy despite the dangers associated with police pursuits being well known, the suit adds. It cites press reports that show police pursuits resulted in thousands of deaths across the country between 2017 and 2022.

It also highlights a number of high-profile deaths in the city that were the result of police pursuits, including the 2021 death of a 3-month-old in Brooklyn who was struck by a driver attempting to flee a traffic stop.

Jessica Vidal claims the actions by the officers that day constitute excessive force and violated her constitutional rights. She’s seeking damages to be determined at trial, according to the lawsuit.