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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NYC fire12 people were injured in a fire in New York City Tuesday night. 4 of the victims were transported to the hospital. One of them suffered serious injuries. The other victims were treated on location for smoke inhalation and other minor injuries.

According to the NY Daily News, the fire started on a building rooftop around 10:00 pm on Dekalb Ave between Knickerbocker Ave and Wilson Ave and spread to four other rooftops. Families who lived in the building were able to escape the building  with the help of two early responding police officers. The firefighters who arrived shortly after searched every floor for potential victims.  A resident told the NY Daily News that his smoke alarm never went off and that the screams from other building residents alerted him to get out.

According to the FDNY commissioner, Daniel Nigro, an extension built behind one of the buildings partially collapsed and triggered the fire to quickly spread to the other buildings. By midnight one of the building’s front facades had collapsed. Several apartments were damaged during the fire leaving 90 people homeless.

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Several people were injured and one person died in two fire accidents in New York City this week-end.

Early Saturday around 12;14 am two civilians and two firefighters were injured in a three-alarm blaze in Washington Heights. According to the NY Daily News , the fire started in an apartment on the sixth floor of a building located on Broadway and W. 151st Street. The fire and the smoke spread quickly through the building and 138 firefighters were needed to stop it.

On Sunday morning around 4:00 am,  another fire started in a house in Jackson Heights, Queens killing an 88 year old man who was living there.  65 firefighters were called to the rescue. It took them 45 minutes to stop the blaze that ravaged the house located on 87th Street and 35th Avenue in Queens, NYC. The victim was found dead by the firefighters with severe burns on his body.

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a 47 year old woman was injured in New York City after the window of her livery cab exploded and showered her with shards of glass. The woman was a passenger in a livery cab that was driving on East Fordham Road near Sedgwick Avenue in University Heights in the Bronx.  The accident happened around 9:00 pm.  The police are still investigating the caue of the accident. They thought someone may have shot at the limo but no bullet was found. The victim was transported to the hospital. She had cuts in her neck caused by the shattered glass.

Two children were also injured this week-end in the Rockaways, Queens after a gunman on a rooftop randomly fired at the window of the cars they were in. The gunman is still at large.

Read more in the NY Daily News

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3,665 people were injured and 18 people died in traffic accidents in New York City last month. This is the highest number of  crash injuries and the second highest number of crash deaths recorded in the month of February over the last 4 years.  Compared to February of last year the monthly number of people injured in a motor vehicle accident in NYC increased by 23% and the monthly number of people killed by 20%.  Even though there are usually less traffic accidents in February than in any other months in New York City the increase of deaths an injuries recorded during the last month is of concern.

Traffic Accidents Injuries and Death NYC February 2016

 

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9 people suffered personal injury in a New York bus accident. 2 of them are seriously injured and are still being treated at the hospital.

The accident happened yesterday afternoon a little after 4:00 pm.  The QM11 bus, a MTA express bus, was on its way to Queens.  As it was passing under the FDR overpass at 33rd Street, the driver reached for his bottle of water.  He lost control of the bus and hit a pillar of the overpass. 6 people suffered minor injuries, 3 passengers were transported to the hospital, 2 with serious injury. The driver was also transported to the hospital. He suffered chest pain. Read more in the NY Daily News

Eating and drinking can cause accidents. In New York City between 0 and 6 accidents every month are being caused by eating and drinking behind the wheel.

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Fire escapeA 23 year old man suffered critical injury after he stepped on a defective fire escape and fell 4 stories to the ground. 23 year old Chad Miller was about to move to a new apartment on Bedford Ave near Lefferts Boulevard in Brooklyn, NYC. He was hanging out with a friend on the fire escape outside his new place when the railing broke. Chad fell 4 stories and was critically injured. According to his dad, his son is still in a coma.

The owner of the building  received a violation for failure to maintain the fire escape. It could cost him up to a $5000 penalty. There is also a good chance that the family of the victim files a premises liability lawsuit against him. In 2011 we settled a case for $5,000,000.00 when a fire escape landing on which a man was standing on collapsed causing him to fall approximately 30 feet to the ground. Discussion of case here.

Read more in the NY Daily News and here 

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A pedestrian suffered serious injury after being hit by a car in New York City but according to a witness, the driver was let go by the police after he flashed a badge.

On January 11th, 63 year old  Cindy Klump who managed the drawing Center at Pratt Institute, was trying to cross Myrtle Ave at Ryerson Street in Brooklyn, NYC.  As she was crossing, she tripped and fell on the ground. She was getting back when up she was hit in the back by a a light colored minivan.  John Cisneros, a Pratt student who witnessed the accident saw the van driver parking his vehicle 50 feet away and run to rescue the woman. Another woman who also witnessed the accident ran to the rescue. She had medical training and tended to Klump while Cisneros called 911.

The ambulance and the police showed up shortly after. One of the police officers, Officer Orlando Vargas, started to interview the woman who helped Klump. She pointed at the driver who was still around and pointed at his car and told the officer: “that’s the guy who hit her and that’s his car”. The driver denied it and said it was a car before him who struck the woman and ran away. Cisneros said he saw the driver flashing a badge to Officer Vargas. He then kept the badge on a chain around his neck and was let go by Officer Vargas.

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nypd chaseA 34 year old mother and her 2 year old daughter suffered personal injury in a car accident in the Bronx, NYC.  The accident was caused by a driver who was chased by the NYPD. The chase started after police officers saw a car speeding on on Nereid Ave in Woodlawn Heights. The driver of the car lost control of the vehicle near the Mount Vernon border and crashed into several parked cars on West 4th Street. The mother and her daughter were sitting in one of the cars when the crash happened. She and her daughter were injured and transported to the hospital. According to the NY Daily News, the mother suffered severe head trauma.

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co_detectorA whole family was injured by a carbon monoxide gas leak in NYC early morning yesterday. Initially called for a fall accident, the firefighters arrived to a Flushing home in Queens and found the mother unconscious in the bathroom and the dad circling the apartment and talking in a way that didn’t make sense. One of the two kids was crying. An elderly man was also present in the house. The FDNY checked the house for carbon monoxide and found that the level of CO was at 755 parts per million, an extremely high and fatal level. The family was immediately transported to the hospital to be treated. They are now in stable condition.

The family had recently moved into the Queens house. They hadn’t installed CO detectors which are mandatory in New York City. According to the FDNY, the gas leak was coming from a defective heating unit that was venting CO in the house. The FDNY told the NY Daily News that “some work was recently done to the furnace and it wasn’t done to code”.

Carbon monoxide is a very dangerous gas because it has no smell and no color.  The first symptoms of CO poisoning are upset stomach, vomiting, headache, chest pain, dizziness and confusion. Further intoxication can make people pass out and ultimately die. People who are sleeping or who are drunk may die without even feeling the first symptoms.

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A woman is loaded into an air ambulance that landed on Ski Hill Rd. after a head-on crash near Lifford Rd. on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011. She was flown to Toronto's Sunnybrook hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries. Another woman was also airlifted to the same hospital with serious injuries. JASON BAIN/THE LINDSAY POST/QMI AGENCY

Personal injury attorneys representing construction workers that have been injured at work understand too well the economic consequences of such accidents. When a worker is injured he will not only have direct costs such as medical expenses but also indirect ones such as lost wages and fringe benefits as well as lost home productivity.

A recent study published by the American Journal of Industrial Medicine provides an analysis of the economic consequences of workplace injuries in the United States.  The authors of the study , Xiuwen Sue Dong DrPH1,*, Xuanwen Wang PhD1, Julie A. Largay MPHand Rosemary Sokas MD, MOH2   estimated that in 2007, the total of the direct and indirect costs of all reported work injuries in the US cost $250 billion, higher than the $219 million spent on cancer. Worker’s compensation covers an average 44.5% of the direct medical costs but this amount represents only 20.7% of the total costs. The difference is being  shifted onto the workers and their families, insurance carriers and the government.

The study finds that following an injury, an injured worker’s family will suffer income loss because of the lost wages and his or her disability. The study also shows that Union workers are better protected in case of an accident and will suffer a moderate income loss compared to a non union worker who suffers the same work injury. Income disparity will persist in the long term.