2010 New York Code
RSS - Retirement & Social Security
Article 14 - (500 - 520) COORDINATED-ESCALATOR RETIREMENT PLAN
509 - Accidental death benefits.

§  509.  Accidental  death  benefits. a. The eligible beneficiary of a
  member in service, or a vested  member  that  dies  as  a  result  of  a
  qualifying  World  Trade  Center  condition as defined in section two of
  this chapter, shall be entitled to an accidental death  benefit  in  the
  form  of a pension equal to fifty percent of such member's final average
  salary if, upon application filed within two years after  the  death  of
  the  member,  the  head  of  the  retirement system determines that such
  member:
    1. Died before the effective date of retirement, as  the  natural  and
  proximate  result of an accident sustained in the performance of duty in
  the service upon which membership was based, and
    2. Did not cause such accident by his or her own willful negligence.
    Notwithstanding the provisions of section two hundred  forty-two,  two
  hundred forty-three or two hundred forty-four of the military law or the
  provisions  of  any other law to the contrary and solely for the purpose
  of determining eligibility for an accidental  death  benefit,  a  member
  shall  be considered to have died as the natural and proximate result of
  an accident sustained in the performance of duty  provided  such  member
  was  on the payroll in the service upon which membership is based at the
  time he or she was ordered to  active  duty,  other  than  for  training
  purposes, pursuant to Title 10 of the United States Code, with the armed
  forces  of  the  United  States and died while on such active duty on or
  after the effective date of chapter one hundred five of the laws of  two
  thousand five which added this paragraph.
    b.  If  an eligible beneficiary receiving the accidental death benefit
  hereunder becomes ineligible to continue to receive  such  benefit,  the
  benefit  shall  be continued for all other members of the eligible class
  of beneficiaries and, if none, to each successive class, if any,  during
  their eligibility therefor.
    c. If the aggregate benefits under the provisions of this section have
  not  exceeded  the amount of the ordinary lump sum death benefit because
  of the absence of eligible beneficiaries or because those  beneficiaries
  formerly  eligible  are  no  longer  eligible  for  payments pursuant to
  section five hundred one, then the difference between  the  amounts,  if
  any,  paid  under  this  section and the amount of the ordinary lump sum
  death benefit shall be paid to:
    1. The last eligible beneficiary or beneficiaries, if  surviving,  who
  were receiving pension payments hereunder or, if none
    2.  The  distributees  of  the  member,  if  there  were  no  eligible
  beneficiaries at the  member's  death,  or  the  persons  who  would  be
  distributees  of  the  member had he died intestate on the date that the
  last eligible beneficiary died or became ineligible.