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 Personal Injury

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A 17 year old driver crashed his car into a SUV last night in New York City. The front passenger of the car died while the back passenger suffered personal injury . Both drivers were also injured. The teen was driving north on 231 St with two other teen passengers when he crashed into a SUV driven by a 20 year old man at 119th Av in Cambria Heights, Queens, NYC. Read more in the NY Daily News

In New York State, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of unintentional deaths for teens. Every day an average of 12 people are killed or are hospitalized because of a collision caused by a teen driver. Newly licensed male teen drivers as well as their teen passengers are the most at risk of being killed or injured in a car accident with unsafe speed being the leading cause of teen crashes. See graph below of most recent New York State statistics.

NY car accidents stats

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4 women are dead and 4 others are still in the hospital after being injured in a collision during which a pick up truck collided with their limo. The 8 friends were having a bachelorette party and had hired a limo to visit distilleries and vineyards from the North Folk Region. The limo was leaving Vineyard 48 winery in Cutchogue, Long Island, NY and was making a U turn when a pick up truck crashed into it. The collision was so violent that that the limo was almost sliced in half. Brittney Schulman, 23, and Lauren Baruch, 24, both of Smithtown; Stephanie Belli, 23, of Kings Park, and Amy Grabina, 23, of Commack all died in the accident. Joelle Dimonte, 25, of Elwood, L.I.; Melissa Angela Crai, 23, of Scarsdale, Westchester County; Alicia Arundel, 24, of Setauket, L.I., and Olga Lipets, 24, of Brooklyn, were all treated at local hospitals and survived. Both drivers were also injured and hospitalized. Steve Romeo, the driver of the pick up truck was charged with misdemeanor DWI. He pleaded not guilty. Read more in the NY Daily News

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baby in hospitalTo precribe Proglycem (diazoxide) to a baby with risk factors for pulmonary hypertension can be medical malpractice leading to severe personal injury.  FDA MedWatch, the FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program recently released a drug safety communication to warn that 11 cases of pulmonary hypertension in infants and newborns treated with diazoxide, the active ingredient in Proglycem, have been indentified since the drug was launched in 1973. The drug is usually used in hospital setting after the birth of the baby.

Doctors should not prescribe this drug to babies suffering from meconium aspiration syndrome, respiratory distress syndrome, transient tachypnea of the newborn, pneumonia, sepsis, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, and congenital heart disease.

Babies with no risk factor for pulmonary hypertension should be closely monitored as well. Parents and caregivers should look for signs of difficulty breathing such as flaring nostrils, grunting, unusual movement of their child’s chest, rapid breathing, difficulty feeding, or a bluish color of the lips. They should stop the medication and contact their doctor immediately if they see any of these signs.

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16 year old Lucas O’Connor was one of five people in a driving school car that was struck by a tractor-trailer in Warwick, NY, after the driver, 16 year old Claudia Krebs, pulled into an intersection with a flashing red light on rural road 41.  Two other students, Antonio Baglivo and Paul VanDoran died in the truck accident. The 4 students were all from Goshen High Schoool. They were participating in a summer driver’s ed program organized by Decat Driving School at the time of the crash. The police indicated that the truck driver who had the right of way couldn’t brake in time. They also mentioned that the intersection was dangerous and that it was not the first fatal accident at this location. There may very well be grounds for a lawsuit against the driving school. If the instructor was not properly trained and a rigorous hiring process not conducted and it can be established that the instructor was not properly qualified a negligent hiring case may be viable.   Read more in the NY Daily News 

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3 people were injured after a building collapsed at 1438 Fulton St. near Brooklyn Ave in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NYC yesterday afternoon. The building was set to be demolished and was vacant except for a beauty supply store at the bottom floor. Thankfully no one was inside at the time of the accident. 55 year old Terry Charles who was riding his bike near the building at the time of the collapse was injured after he fell off his bike. Two other pedestrians were also injured.  Read more and see Surveillance video obtained exclusively by NBC 4 New York

 

 

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The police are hit and run cyclistlooking for a cyclist who struck a 67 year old female pedestrian on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and fled the scene of the accident leaving the victim lying on the road in critical condition.

The bicycle accident happened on June 9th as the 67 year old woman was crossing the bike lane at the intersection of  First Ave and E. 87th Street.

The police are still looking for the reckless bicyclist and recently released a video showing the man riding away after he struck the woman.

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Two pedestrians were seriously injured in an accident between a car and a truck in Queens, NYC, on Tuesday.  Two women, ages 47 and 50, were walking on a sidewalk near the intersection of Northern Blvd and 162nd St. in Murray Hill when a SUV was struck by a Long Island Jewish Hospital truck while turning from Northern Blvd onto 162nd St. The SUV jumped the curb and hit the two women. One of them was pinned under the car and her head smashed on the ground. The two women were taken to the hospital. They were seriously injured but in stable condition. Read more in the NY Daily News

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Anchor itFurniture and TV tip-overs are among the top cause of deaths and personal injuries around the house. Every 24 minutes in the US a child is sent to the emergency room because of a fallen TV or tipped furniture. Every 15 minutes someone in the U.S. is injured by furniture tip-over and on average, one child dies every two weeks when a TV or furniture falls onto him or her.

“Anchor It”, a new national safety campaign outlines the dangers of tip-overs and explains how easy it is to anchor furniture and TVs properly.

Families with children can easily prevent tip-over accidents by making sure televisions are placed on stable and sturdy furniture designed for this purpose. Wall mounted TVs are the best way to prevent tip-over but when TVs are not wall mounted they should be anchored to the wall. Heavy furniture should also be anchored with anti-tip brackets.  Small objects on top of furniture that may tempt children to climb onto the furniture to grab them should also be removed.

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The following video is a demonstration of an opening statement in a wrongful death case.  The plaintiff was represented at trial by our managing  partner New York Personal Injury Lawyer Ben Rubinowitz. The case involved the death of a little girl who was a passenger in a car being driven by her father. She was killed as a result of the combined negligence of a truck driver and the carelessness of the City of New York. The case was significant in that the little girl’s father was in the”zone of danger” when he witnessed the death of his daughter. The jury returned a substantial multi-million dollar verdict in the case finding both the truck driver and the City at fault.

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A speeding SUV driver is responsible for the death of 42 year old Susana Ha and her 10 year old daughter Angelica Ung in a crash between two cars that happened last Wednesday on 210th St. in Queens, NYC according to a police source. Susanna Ha was riding with her two young daughters in the back seat and her mother was in the passenger seat of a car driven by her dad when the driver of a speeding SUV who was travelling in the opposite direction veered to the left, crossed the double yellow line and hit their car. The accident took place in a 15 mph school zone with a speed bump in the middle of the street.

The mother and the youngest daughter were killed in the accident while the other daughter was in critical condition. The 67 year old grandmother was seriously injured while the 74  year old grandfather who was driving the car was in stable condition. The 46 year old driver of the SUV was also injured and in stable condition. To date no criminal charges have been filed. Based on photos of the front end of the SUV and video it had to have been going well above the speed limit.

Read more in the NY Daily News