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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Two men suffered personal injury in a collision between a car and a motorcycle in the Bronx, NYC. The accident happened at the busy intersection of Baychester and Nereid. During the investigation the police discovered a bullet hole in the car which led them to suspect that the car driver may have ran a red light before the crash as he was fleeing the scene of a shooting that happened a few blocks away. Both the driver – who was shot – and the motorcycle driver were injured and rushed to the hospital.

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Every year around 250,000 children visit the ER because they were injured at the playground. Broken bones as well as bruises and cuts are the most common injuries suffered by kids. Death can also happened in more rare cases. If you are bringing children to the playground the video below offers a few tips that can help you avoid dramatic outcomes.

 

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Our partners, New York personal injury lawyers Ben Rubinowitz and Peter Sagir represented the family of Marilyn Dershowitz, a retired Manhattan Supreme Court special referee who died in a bicycle accident during which she was hit by a postal tractor trailer truck.  Following a two-week bench trial in February U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn found the federal government 100% liable for the fatal accident in a 72 page Opinion.

The accident happened on Saturday July 2, 2011. Marylin and her husband Nathan Dershowitz of Dershowitz, Eiger & Adelson, and the brother of Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz,  were riding their bikes on West 29th street between Ninth and Tenth Ave in Manhattan, New York. Both were wearing a helmet. As they rode under an overpass connecting two US postal mail facilities, the road was narrowed by a protruding Postal Trailer that was perpendicularly parked at a dock. As Mrs Dershowitz was about to ride her bike in the narrower side way, just behind her another postal trailer, driven by Ian Clement, was competing with a silver minivan to get in first in the narrower roadway as  due to the parallel parked trailers to the south and the protruding perpendicular Postal Trailer to the north, cars were not able to travel side-by-side. The postal trailer got in before the minivan but he didn’t see the cyclist and hit her as he was veering to the right to be able to fit into the roadway.

Southern District Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn ruled Wednesday that the federal government was 100 percent liable for the accident. Netburn said “a preponderance of the credible evidence” showed that Clement’s driving and the placement of a postal trailer protruding into the street were the “sole, proximate cause of the decedent’s injuries. Mrs. Dershowitz was not contributorily negligent.”

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yellow cabAs part of the Vision Zero Program to reduce traffic deaths and injuries related to traffic accidents in New York, the Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) started to test a warning system in six of its cabs. The warning system uses artificial vision technology such as cameras and radar to warn drivers about  a potential upcoming collision.  This test is a step in the TLC Vehicle Safety Technology Pilot Program.

Read more in the New York Post

Picture: courtesy of Wikipedia

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Our Managing Partner Ben Rubinowitz  was interviewed by Mario Diaz of  PIX 11 as to the recent NYC East Village gas explosion.  Mr. Diaz quoted Ben as follows,  “It’s a  rare thing to have one party to blame. Usually there is shared fault in these cases.” Ben went on to state,  “The gas should have been shut down to the entire building no  matter what until this was rectified. In other words the failure to make sure that everyone was protected is where the fault lies.” To read the full article and see the video  interview click here.

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An explosion that injured 19 people, causing a massive a massive fire which caused three buildings to collapse, was caused when construction workers inside a sushi restaurant in the East Village accidentally hit a gas line. The explosion inside 121 Second Ave., between East 7th Street and St. Marks Place, caused the buildings at 121, 123 and 119 to collapse after they became engulfed in flames, according to city officials. No. 125 was still burning Thursday evening. “The initial impact appears to have been caused by plumbing and gas work that was occurring inside 121 Second Avenue,” said Mayor de Blasio at a news conference Thursday evening detailing the explosion that injured at least 14 civilians and five emergency responders. See Photos,Videos and  Read more at NBC New York.

See Video Below from CBS News;

https://youtu.be/FW9O0r3nuLE

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3449 people were injured and 13 people died  in traffic accidents in New York City in January 2015 compared to respectively 3899 and 21 in January 2014 , 3993 and 28 in January 2013 and 4179 and 21 in January 2012. These numbers are encouraging and may indicate that the Vision Zero Program started approximately a year ago may be effective in making New York City streets safer. Data from December 2014 and January 2015 also show, for the first time, two consecutive months during which the total monthly number of traffic fatalities was below 14. The total number of motor vehicle accidents was stable. Below are graphs depicting traffic accident rates from January, 2013 to January 2015 for various types of accidents for each month for this time period in NYC.

Traffic fatalities NYC january 2015
Motor Vehicle Accident injuries by month in NYC
Motor Vehicle Accidents NYC january 2015
6 pedestrians died in traffic accidents in January 2015 compared to 12 in January 2014, 20 in January 2013 and 12 in January 2012. This is the lowest number since May 2013. This is also half the number recorded the same month a year before.  In January 2015, 902 pedestrians suffered personal injury after being struck by a car compared to respectively 1075, 1107 and 1045 in 2014, 2013 and 2012. Its the first time that this number is below 1000 for the month of January.

Pedestrian deaths and injuries NYC January 2015
115 people were injured and 1 person died in bicycle accidents in January.  Bike accidents are usually at their lowest in New York City during the months of January and February because less people use their bikes because of the bad weather and the snow.

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Five years ago a woman suffered horrific injuries in an elevator accident  in Brooklyn, NYC, after a negligent repairman bypassed a safety mechanism while he was fixing the elevator.  The doors of the elevator caught the arm and the leg of 52 year old Debra Jordan and struck  floor after floor, after the elevator car suddenly shot up. She was almost killed and she is now confined to a wheelchair. The 30 year old repairman was convicted of reckless assault and was sentenced to 3 months in jail with 5 years probation. Read more in the NYDaily News 

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Wallcure simulation ssalineTwo patients were seriously injured in a New York urgent care facility after they were inadvertently administered non sterile simulation intravenous fluids. They both experienced a febrile illness during administration and had to be hospitalized. One of them developed sepsis. Both of them survived.

The cases were reported to the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH)last year. The NYSDOH  began a collaborative investigation with the CDC in December.  The investigation found that four other New York outpatient facilities had received Wallcur simulation saline. All facilities said they had ordered the real product and weren’t aware that they had received a simulation product until they were were notified by the NYSDOH. Fortunately none of the facilities had used the product yet.

Wallcur recalled all its saline simulation products from the market at the beginning of the year (see previous blog). Investigation was pursued by the CDC at a national level. So far nationally 9 adverse events have been reported for 25 people including 11 hospitalizations. Two deaths occurred even though it wasn’t clear that they were related to the administration of the product.  All clinical facilities that received the products confirmed that they were not aware at time of purchase that the product was intended for simulation only. Read more on the CDC website