Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Pedestrian Accidents

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accident sceneA 6 year old pedestrian was seriously injured in a car accident in Brooklyn, NYC. Haroon Ali Khan was chasing a basketball when he was hit by a car on East 33rd Street near Filmore Ave. He was rushed to the hospital in critical but stable condition. The driver of the car stayed at the scene of the accident and wasn’t charged.  (Read more in the NY Daily News)

Later on Friday, another pedestrian was fatally hit by a tractor trailer truck. The truck accident occurred on the Clearview Expressway near 46th Ave in Auburndale, Queens, NYC. The pedestrian was trying to cross the busy highway when the accident occurred. The truck driver tried to swerve to avoid the pedestrian but he couldn’t avoid him. The pedestrian was rushed to the hospital but he couldn’t be saved. The truck driver stopped and remained at the scene of the accident. He wasn’t charged. (Read more in the NY Daily News)

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96 people died and 27,923 suffered personal injuries in 110,992 motor vehicle accidents in New York City during the first 6 months of 2017 based on the most recent statistics released by the NYPD.

This is the first time that the number of people dying in NYC traffic accidents during the first six months of the year is below 100.  In 2013, before Mayor de Blasio launched Vision Zero, 121 people died in auto accidents in the city during the same period. Vision Zero was launched at the beginning of 2014 and since then the total number of people dying in NYC crashes slowly decreased from 110 during the first semester of 2014 to 107 during the first semester of 2015 and the first semester of 2016. It dropped to 96 for the same period of 2017. Multiple Vision Zero measures such as the reduction of the city speed limit to 25 mph as well as the installation of cameras may have contributed to this decline in fatal crashes.

traffic accident deaths in NYC for the first semester of 2013 to 2017
The decrease in traffic deaths in New York City occurred despite a significant increase in crashes over the last 4 years. In 2013, 99,474 crashes were reported to the NYPD during the first semester. This number increased steadily to 100,834 in 2014 and 104,636 in 2015. It then jumped to 111,588 in 2016. It decreased slightly during the first six months of this year to stabilize at 110,992. Distracted driving is the most common factor in these accidents.

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accident sceneA one year old baby suffered injuries after being hit by a yellow taxi.  The baby was sitting in a stroller next to the parents on the terrace of a restaurant  located at 85th Street and Second Avenue in the  Upper East Side of Manhattan when the accident happened. Two yellow taxis crashed into each other.  The impact caused one of the taxis to jump the curb and hit the stroller.  Two taxi passengers, a 46-year-old woman and a 9-year-old girl also suffered minor injuries. The two taxi  drivers  weren’t injured. They both jumped out of their taxis and started to argue. According to a witness, they didn’t seem to care much about the injured passengers or the family that they almost killed. Both drivers told the police that the other one didn’t have the green light. The police are still investigating the accident.  They are going to look at footage of the surveillance video camera from the restaurant to  figure out who was right and who was wrong. It was a miracle that no other pedestrians suffered  serious injury as the accident occurred during a sunny  Sunday afternoon  with terraces and sidewalks packed with people. Read more here

 

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accident sceneA pedestrian died in a Bronx car accident  on Friday afternoon. The 77 year old man was trying to cross the Hutchinson River Parkway near the Pelham parkway when he was hit by a car. He was rushed to the hospital where he died. The driver who hit him stayed at the scene of the accident. He wasn’t charged. Read more in the NY Daily News

Also in the Bronx during the weekend 4 people were injured in a car accident related to speed.  Around 6 AM on Sunday morning the driver of a black sedan lost control of his vehicle and crashed into several pillars before hitting another car.  The accident occurred near Sands Place  in Middletown, Pelham Bay. It is a miracle that nobody died according to the NY Daily News

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accident scene6 pedestrians were injured including 2 critically in a bizarre van accident in NYC on Saturday afternoon. A crazy van driver in a white religious robe  started to accelerate on Brookville Boulevard near 143rd Avenue in Rosedale, Queens, plowing into cars and pedestrians.  A teenage boy and a teenage girl were sent into the air.  The boy landed on the back of the van. The girl fell in front of it and the driver just ran over her.  The van then sideswiped another car and  ran over  another pedestrian before driving  into the pond of Brooksville Park.  The driver then came out of the van dressed in a religious robe and screamed “hallelujah,  praise Jesus”. On one of the van’s windows one could read “Psalm 24, Psalm 37, Psalm 27” written by hand in white letters.  The police apprehended him and took him to the hospital for  psychiatric evaluation.  Some witnesses said he looked like he was on drugs. The pedestrians injured in the accident where all rushed to the hospital as well.  The two teenagers suffered critical injuries. Three other pedestrians where in serious condition and another one suffered minor  injury. Read more the NY Daily News

Also in Queens, NYC, on Friday afternoon, an armed driver who injured two officers after trying to escape the police was arrested. He is facing attempted murder charges. The driver was pulled over after not respecting a stop sign on 110th Ave.  Police officers also noticed that the car had a broken taillight. As the as one of the police officer was asking for papers through the window, the driver accelerated dragging the officer into a parked car.  He then hit another officer before to crash his car. He was arrested and the police found a gun in his car. The driver was identified as 38-year-old Kyle Freistat. (Read more in the NY Daily News)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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accident sceneAn elderly pedestrian was fatally struck by a yellow taxi in New York City on Friday. 80 year old Barbara Horn, an Upper East Side resident, was crossing Third Ave in the crosswalk when she was hit by a taxi. The accident occurred a little bit after 6 PM a few blocks away  from where the victim lived.The driver, identified as 49 year old Syed Ulah was making a left turn from 70th street. He struck the elderly woman and dragged her half a block before stopping.   She was transported to the hospital where she died. The taxi driver was arrested and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian. Read more in the Gothamist

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The police are still looking for a hit and run driver who almost killed a pedestrian in New York. The 36-year-old man was crossing Riverside Drive at the intersection of West 155th Street when a speeding car hit him and sped away in the night. The pedestrian suffered a fractured skull , a broken arm and a deep laceration of his head. He was in critical condition when he arrived at the hospital but he is now stable. After the accident the police said that they were chasing the driver who hit the pedestrian. They had tried to pull the driver over for a traffic violation ten blocks away.

Police chases are triggering too many crashes and often end in killing or badly injuring innocent people like this unfortunate pedestrian.  They should very limited in New York City depending upon the reason for the pursuit.

Read more on CBS New York website

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pedestrian accident locationA pedestrian was fatally struck by car in NYC last night . According to the NY Daily News The 53-year-old man was crossing East Tremont Ave at the intersection of Saint Peters Ave when a SUV hit him. The pedestrian died at the scene of the accident. The driver wasn’t charged. The accident occurred at night around 9:30 pm.

East Tremont has been identified by the Vision Zero  initiative as a dangerous corridor. Speeding is frequent and pedestrians crossings are too few on this 4 lane avenue. The DOT presented a plan to redesign Est Tremont Ave to the community Board 9 in April 2016. However this plan covers only a part of East Tremont Avenue and not the area where the pedestrian was fatally struck yesterday night.

Picture of the pedestrian accident location: courtesy of Google

 

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11 people died in auto accidents in New York City last May compared to 20 in April and 18 for the same month a year ago. This is a the lowest number of traffic deaths recorded since March 2016 where the number was also 11. This record low number of auto accident deaths occurred despite traffic accidents reaching 20,689 during the same month. This is the highest number of monthly motor vehicle accidents ever recorded in the city. The month before there were 17,585 motor vehicle accidents and 19,911 in May last year.

Traffic accidents in the city have been on a rising trend.  However it is only the second time that this number is above 20,000. Before that, the monthly number of accidents only went above 20,000 once in October 2015. (Click on graphs for full size)

Auto Accidents NYC Monthly Graph
While the number of traffic accidents has been increasing steadily, the number of deaths related to theses accidents have been declining over the last 4 years. This decline may be explained by the various street safety initiatives that have been launched under the umbrella of the Vision Zero Program to reduce traffic deaths in the city.

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tow-truck-accident-location A pedestrian died in a tow truck accident in New York City last Friday. 70 year old Donna Hahl of Valley Stream was crossing Jamaica Ave when a tow truck driver making a turn from 217th Street onto Jamaica Ave struck her. The woman had the green light and was in the cross walk. The tow truck driver also had the green light but as he was making a left turn he not only had to yield to traffic coming in the opposite lane but also to pedestrians crossing at the same time. The tow truck driver identified as 29 year old Mandip Singh from Queens remained at the scene of the accident. When the EMS arrived they found the pedestrian lying on the street unconscious and with body trauma. They transported her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.  The driver was arrested for failure to exercise due care and failure to yield to a pedestrian ( Read more in the Gothamist).

Our New York Truck Accident Lawyers team handled a very similar case a few years ago. The victim, a New York physician was biking on the New York Greenway by the Hudson River when a NYPD tow truck crashed into him. The driver didn’t exercise due care and turned onto Greenway without yielding to the bicyclist.  The impact was so strong that the bicyclist was propelled into the air and fell onto another truck. His head hit the hood. He was transported to the hospital with critical head trauma. He died from his injuries a few days later. The driver wasn’t charged despite not yielding at the intersection. The physician was an avid bicyclist and a marathon runner. He would do house calls on his bike but that night he was just enjoying a pleasant ride by the river with his wife. Our attorneys were able to recover $5 million for his widow.

Picture: location of the tow truck accident courtesy of Google Map