New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog
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Children are not Bargaining Chips
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Motor vehicle accident injuries in NYC at their highest in May
5,569 people suffered personal injury in 20,551 traffic accidents in New York City last May. Among them were 2,534 motorists, 1,755 passengers, 430 cyclists and 850 pedestrians.
While looking at past statistics, we notice a seasonal factor that causes the number of crash injuries to always increase during the month of May compared to the previous months of February, March and April. Last May the auto accident injuries in New York City increased to a record number.
In May 2013, before Vision Zero, 4,988 people suffered injuries in NYC crashes. Then the Vision Zero program started and the number of crash injuries declined to 4,621 in May 2014. It increased again slightly to 4,788 in May 2015 but stayed below the Pre-Vision Zero number of injuries recorded in May 2013. In May 2016, it peaked above 5000 and never went back below that level for the last 3 years. 5,415 crash injuries were recorded in May 2016 and 5,314 in May 2017.
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Ben Rubinowitz to speak at the “Winning Cases in Federal Court” Seminar organized by the New York County Lawyers Association
Our managing partner, New York Personal Injury Lawyer Ben Rubinowitz, will be a faculty member at the”Winning Cases in Federal Court” Program that will take place on two consecutive Thursday evenings, July 12 and 19, at NYCLA’s offices in New York.
During this seminar, participants will learn what they need to know to practice in federal court. The program is co-chaired by Joel M. Silverstein and by Hon. Sydney Stein.
On the first evening which covers Trial related subjects, Judge Stein will provide a “view from the bench” after each topic presentation.
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In depth investigation into the dangerous world of Sanitation Salvage
Sanitation Salvage, one of the biggest New York trash haulers has a history of fatal accidents. The company was all over the news recently after one of their truck drivers killed two people in less than 6 months and lied about one of the person he killed pretending it was a homeless man while it was an off-the book worker.
Propublica and Voice of America took an in depth look at how the company is running its business and they recently published the result of their investigation.
Ruthless brothers
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Study finds Unions help prevent workplace fatalities
94.7% of the 38 construction workers who died on the job in New York State in 2016 were non unionized. In New York City 93.8% of them were non unionized. These number speak for themselves. The strength of the unions and labor movement has been on the decline for years and suffered another severe blow when the US Supreme Court barred public-employee contracts from requiring workers to pay union dues. Unions not only protect workers’ income but also workers health.
A new study analyzed occupational fatalities from 1992 to 2016 and found that 7,300 workplace fatalities could have been avoided if union membership had not been undercut by right to work laws. The author of the study, Michael Zorobod, is a a PhD candidate at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences. Zorobod demonstrated that the uptick in workplace fatalities that started in 2013 is correlated to the increased number of States who adopted right to work laws. In 2000, right to work laws were statutes in 20 States. Now they are statues in 28 States.
Read more in Fair Warning
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No charge for hit and run driver who killed a 4 year old pedestrian and injured her mother on a Brooklyn sidewalk
A young pedestrian was killed and her mother was injured in a car accident in Brooklyn, NYC, on Sunday afternoon.
A 4 year-old girl was riding her mini scooter on the sidewalk of Wyckoff Ave near Hart Street while her mother was walking close by. At one point the little girl lost a shoe. She picked it up, then the mother bent to help her. As the mother was helping her daughter, a car parked at a laundromat just next to them backed up, hit them both and continued on its way. The little girl died at the scene of the accident. Her mother survived but was injured.
The car driver and two passengers were stopped by the police two blocks away. It is not clear if the driver realized than she ran over the mother and her daughter. Residents have been complaining for a long time about the dangerous parking lot of the laundromat. In order to park or to leave the parking space, drivers have to cross the sidewalk.
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Let’s Keep Families Together
F
or 100 years, we at Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf have had the privilege of representing individuals and families whose lives were torn apart in an instant because of another person’s negligent conduct.
Through our clients’ lives we see the unimaginable: pain on parents’ faces as they struggle to accept that their child is dead; pain on a child’s face when the child realizes that their Mom or Dad will not be coming home; someone trying to learn to walk again after suffering a devastating spinal cord injury; spouses realizing that their partner in life is not the same after suffering a life changing injury. At our firm we work tirelessly to right these wrongs that result in families being torn apart. Our work is motivated by the fact that every day we witness firsthand what happens to families when a loved one is injured or lost. We know our clients would do anything to make their families whole again. We know there is nothing more important to them than their health and the health, safety and well being of their family and friends.
That is why we feel obligated to speak out against the policy recently implemented by the government of separating families who seek shelter and a better life in the United States. The fact that our government is intentionally separating children from their parents and purposefully causing unbearable suffering goes against everything that we stand for. The harm that occurs when a family is torn apart, whether through negligent or intentional conduct, is irreparable. This unconscionable policy must come to an end.
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History of neglect at VA nursing homes uncovered
For years, the VA has been hiding statistics on the quality of care at its nursing homes because it didn’t want the public to know how bad it was. Recently, pressed by the Boston Globe and US Today the VA finally made its data public and it is scary.
Among the 133 VA nursing homes located all over the US, 60 (almost half of them) received one star out of five for their quality of care. Pennsylvania has five of these facilities. Texas and California both have four of them. Only two facilities received five stars: Castle Point, NY and Carrollton, GA.
Families had no access to nursing home ranking and information
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Woman suffers serious leg injury in NY building collapse
A woman was seriously injured in a building collapse in Poughkeepsie yesterday afternoon around 4:00 pm. It took four hours for the firefighters to be able to secure the building and rescue 43-year old Rotanya Hargorve who was trapped in heavy debris. The woman suffered very bad leg injuries and had to be brought out of the accident scene on a stretcher. She was transported to the hospital to be treated.
At the time of the accident, Rotanya was working in a boutique in the building next to the vacant 7-story building near the corner of Canon Street and Academy Street in Poughkeepsie. When the tall building started to collapse, heavy debris fell onto the adjacent 3-story building and caused the roof to cave in. Debris and brick crashed through the building and fell onto Rotanya who was working in the boutique on the first floor located at 15 Academy.
Authorities believe that the collapse was caused by a heavy storm that had just made its way through the area and produced winds exceeding 60 mph. Located a 19 Academy Street, the vacant building was built in 1911 by Manning Cleveland, a businessman who was planning to bring skyscrapers to Poughkeepsie. It was recently sold to Pok 23 Acad and Pok Acad, limited liability companies with New York city addresses. The limited liabilities companies also own the next 2 vacant adjacent buildings located on Academy 21 and Academy 23.
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52 people killed so far in fire accidents in New York City in 2018
Two elderly women died in separate fire accidents in Queens on Monday. The first accident occurred early morning Monday around 2:10 am in the Rockaways, Queens. A fire caused by careless smoking quickly spread through the 15th floor of a high rise apartment located at 7-11 Seagirt Ave. There was no smoke alarm in the house. The 71 year old woman who was living in the apartment died in the fire.
Later on during the day another fire caused by an electrical extension killed 82 year old Audrey Hebling. The woman was found unconscious in the kitchen of her house located at 252nd Street between 87th Road and 87th Drive in Bellrose Manor. Again there was no smoke alarm in the house.
Last week-end the FDNY also had to battle a massive blaze in Staten Island during which 20 of them got injured, including 4 seriously. The fire that destroyed several properties on Steinway Ave was sparked by a kid who was playing with a lighter.
