A Boltbus that departed from New York to go to Boston exploded on the Massachusetts Turnpike yesterday during rush hours. The bus driver noticed smoke coming out of the bus, pulled over and immediately evacuated the 47 passengers with their belongings. Shortly after the bus exploded and caught fire. The recasons of the explosion are still being investigated.
A woman suffered personal injury after being hit by debris in Manhattan. The woman was in front of a Zara store at 580 Broadway near Prince Street on Friday afternoon when debris fell from above onto her head and knocked her to the ground. According to witnesses, the woman was bleeding from her forehead but she remained conscious. She was taken to the hospital where she was treated for trauma.
Read more in DNA Info
A defective surgical staple used to close tissue in the left atrial appendage of the heart is being recalled by the FDA after reports that patients suffered personal injuries such as tissue tears and bleeding including a possible tear of the left atrial wall (top left chamber) during use of the device. The manufacturer of the defective medical device, Maquet Medical Systems, sent an “Urgent Medical Device Recall (Removal) Immediate Action Required” letter to all affected customers asking them to immediately remove and quarantine the Tiger paw System II from their inventory.
Read the press release from the FDA
Personal Injury is the leading cause of death among children 1 to 12 years old in New York City and in the U.S. as well. Between 2003 and 2012 438 NYC children died from injuries according to a new report just published by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. These injuries were primarily related to motor vehicle accidents followed by fire related injuries, suffocation and falls. Most of the children who died after being involved in a traffic accidents were pedestrians.
Most injuries leading to death (65%) were unintentional. Infants between 1 and 2 years old are the most at risk as well as non Hispanic black children of all ages and kids from very poor neighborhoods. Boys have a much higher risk of death from an unintentional injury than girls.
Death related to intentional injuries are more prevalent among infants, in poor neighborhoods. Non Hispanic black kids are the most at risk of dying from an intentional injury.
Our managing partner Ben Rubinowitz and the Honorable Nancy Vaidik, Chief Judge of the Indiana Court of Appeals will direct the National Session of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) in Boulder Colorado from July 22nd to July 30 2015. ” Together Rubinowitz and Vaidik have invited some of the best trial lawyers, judges, and professors in the country, all of whom are also some of the best teachers of trial advocacy in the country.” Participants will have the opportunity to use NITA’s learning-by-doing method to practice and perfect their skills in the art of persuasion and trial advocacy with an outstanding faculty. Participants will be personally coached on speaking well by Brian Johnson and Marsha Hunter, authors of “The Articulate Advocate” and communication experts extraordinaire. Students will also have the opportunity to practice and master isolated trial skills in a dedicated drill room.
To read more about this program and to register click here
Gair Gair Conason Steigman Mackauf Bloom & Rubinowitz was featured in the New York Law Journal’s Top New York Verdicts of 2014 for obtaining the highest award for a verdict in a motor vehicle accident involving a bicycle. The case was tried by our Managing Partner Ben B. Rubinowitz, along with our Partner, Peter J. Saghir. The accident involved a 36-year-old woman who was riding her bicycle south on Broadway across East 14th Street when she was struck from behind by a New York City Transit Authority bus which was traveling southbound in the same direction as the plaintiff. After she was struck by the bus she was dragged into the intersection where the right rear wheels of the bus rolled over her legs. The bus driver claimed that he was in the center or left lane at the time of the accident and that the plaintiff suddenly and unexpe
ctedly rode her bicycle across two lanes of traffic from the right lane to the left lane and struck the right side of the bus. The plaintiff contended she was in the right lane as she approached the intersection. It was undisputed that the plaintiff ended up in the left-hand lane of this three lane roadway. The plaintiff suffered a degloving injury to her right leg as well as fractures to the distal tibia and fibula of her left leg. The plaintiff’s entire claim was based on pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. No claims were made for past or future medical expenses or past or future lost earnings. After two days of deliberation, the jury found the New York City Transit Authority at fault and awarded the plaintiff $8,570,000 ($3,250,000 past pain and suffering and $5,320,000 future pain and suffering over 40.9 years).
Child abuse and neglect not only have terrible consequences on the life of the victim but also impose a hefty cost on our society. Some interventions can change these personnally tragic and socially costly outcomes. A new website, Children Adversity Narratives (CAN) launched by Franck Putnam, MD, UNC at Chapel Hill, NC; William Harris, PhD, Children’s Research and Education Institute & New School for Social Research, NYC, NY; Alicia Lieberman, PhD, Sanfrancisco, CA; Karen Putnam, PhD, UNC at Chapel Hill, NC and Lisa Amaya-Jackson, Duke University. Durham, NC provides an in depth analysis of child trauma and adversities and propose to adopt a public health approach to prevent, screen and treat trauma related to child abuse and neglect.
Last August an 80 year old nursing home resident suffered severe personal injury after she was physically abused by a nurse’s aid in a New York facility. The incident happened when 59 year old Marie Jeanty, a certified nurse aid was changing the resident at the West Lawrence Care Center, a nursing home located at 1410 Seagirt Boulevard in Far Rockaway, N.Y. According to Court documents, the nurse aid asked the resident to move to change her clothes and bed linen. Jeanty then allegedly pushed and hit the resident multiple times in the arm and shoulder with a closed fist and forcibly pushed her into the side of the bed rail, causing her face to hit the rail. As a result, the resident suffered a black eye and significant bruising and swelling to her left arm, right temporal area, and right orbital area, which required treatment at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital. The nurse aid was arrested at the beginning of this month and charged with second degree assault and two felonies for endangering the welfare of another person. Read more in the NY Daily News or read the press release of the New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman
40 people died and 10,069 suffered personal injury in a traffic crash in New York City between January 1st and April 1st 2015 compared to respectively 51 and 10,805 in 2014 and 69 and 11,676 in 2013. it is also interesting to note that there were more accidents during the three first months of this year compared to the same period of the 2 previous years. These numbers indicate that streets are getting a little safer for New Yorkers and that Vision Zero may be starting to show some results.
23 pedestrians died in traffic accidents in NYC during the first three months of the year compared to 31 for the first three months of 2014 and 44 for the same period of 2013. This number is still high but over the last two years it almost decreased by half which is a positive evolution. The number of pedestrians injured in a crash in NYC during that same period was 2,423 in 2015 compared to 2,847 in 2014 and 3,080 in 2013.
1 person died in a bicycle accident in New York City during the first trimester of 2015 compared to 2 the previous year and 1 in 2013. 355 cyclists suffered personal injury during the same period compared to 399 in 2014 and 510 in 2013. It is difficult to look at bicycle accident statistics for the months of January, February and March as it is the end of the Winter season and not many people use their bikes.
6 people were injured in a car accident during which a livery van collided with another car on Park Ave at E. 116th Street in Harlem, NYC. The collision was so powerful that the livery car flipped into the air. Two people were seriously injured and four others suffered only minor injuries. They were all rushed to the hospital.
Read more in the NY Daily News
New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog