2023 New York Laws › RSS - Retirement and Social Security › Article 15 - Coordinated Retirement Plan › 607 - Accidental Death Benefits.

§  607.  Accidental  death  benefits. a. The eligible beneficiary of a
  member in service, or of a vested member who  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 wages earned
  during his or her last year of actual service or his or her annual  wage
  rate  if he or she was credited with less than one year of service since
  last becoming a member, if, upon application  filed  within  five  years
  after  the  death  of  the  member,  the  head  of the retirement system
  determines  that  such  member  died  before  the  effective   date   of
  retirement,  as  the  natural  and  proximate  result of an accident not
  caused by his or her own willful negligence sustained in the performance
  of his or her duties in active service and while actually  a  member  of
  the retirement system.
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 pursuant to Title 10 of the
  United States Code, with the armed forces of the  United  States  or  to
  service  in the uniformed services pursuant to Chapter 43 of Title 38 of
  the United States Code and died while on such active duty or service  in
  the uniformed services on or after June fourteenth, two thousand five.
Provided,  however,  the  head  of  the  retirement system in its sole
  discretion may accept an application for  an  accidental  death  benefit
  after  the  expiration  of the applicable filing period, where, but only
  where, an ordinary death benefit has not been previously paid.
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 six hundred one of this article, 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 or she died intestate on the date that
  the last eligible beneficiary died or became ineligible.