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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Despite an increase in bicycle accident fatalities and in motorist injuries the total number of NYC motor vehicle accidents and the total number of resulting injuries and deaths decreased during the third trimester of 2019 compared to the third trimester of 2018. The total number of accidents declined from 57,642 during the third trimester of 2018 to 52,567 during the third trimester of 2019. This is the lowest number of crashes since the same period of 2014.

auto accident NYC third trimester 2019
While a high number of fatal bicycle accidents painted a very negative picture of New York street safety, not all numbers are bad. For example pedestrians fatalities were at their lowest during the period of July, August and September 2019. Motorists fatalities were lower than the two previous years during this same period and passengers fatalities were stable.

traffic fatalities in NYC third trimester
The total number of auto accident related injuries were slightly lower than the previous year. A total of 167,083 people were injured in traffic accidents during over the summer 2019 compared to respectively 16,300, 15,860, 16,048, 13,998, 13,472, and 14,900 during the same 3 months of 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. Motorists injuries account for almost half of the injuries and continue to increase. While efforts to protect pedestrians has led to a substantial decrease in pedestrian injuries and deaths, distracted driving remains the number one cause of  motor vehicle accidents in New York City and needs to be addressed.

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Personal Injury Attorney Ben RubinowitzOur managing partner, Ben Rubinowitz, will be a panelist at the “Expert Witnesses” CLE program presented by the Federal Bar Council in New York on December 5th.

Expert witnesses are at the center of modern litigation of all kinds, from personal injury litigation, complex commercial cases to mass torts and white collar crime. This program will cover Daubert motions and other limitations on expert testimony, best practices for drafting expert reports, tips on how to effectively present complex expert testimony to a jury, and strategies for cross-examining experts. The panel will also discuss innovations that may improve expert practice in the federal courts.

Ben will be part of of a group of 5 panelists that includes Jonathan P. Bach, Esq. from Shapiro Arato Bach LLP, Sheila S. Boston, Esq. from Arnold & Porter, Mark R. Seiden, Esq. from Jones Day as well as Professor Daniel J. Capra,  Reed Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law and Reporter for the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence. The judicial moderator of the program will be The Honorable Colleen McMahon, Chief U.S. District Judge, Southern District of New York.

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Our Partner, NY personal injury attorney Christopher J. Donadio has been invited by the New  York Medical Malpractice Attorney Christopher_DonadioCounty Lawyers Association to lecture at a continuing legal education event titled “From Voir Dire to Verdict: Trying a Personal Injury Case” which will be held on Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 6:00pm at the New York County Lawyers Association office at 14 Vesey Street, New York, New York. Mr. Donadio has been asked to provide a plaintiff’s attorney’s approach to all aspects of a personal injury trial.

In addition to Mr. Donadio, the event will also include a defense attorney’s approach to personal injury trials, provided by Alecia Walters-Hinds of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, as well as the perspectives of the Honorable Kathryn E. Freed and the Honorable Louis L. Nock, judges in the New York State Supreme Court, New York County.

Please click on the following link to register for the lecture: https://www.nycla.org/NYCLA/Events/Event_Display.aspx?EventKey=CLE111419

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rear-car-seatSince November 1st, all children under the age of 2 instead of 1 previously, must use a rear-facing car seat when riding in a car in New York State. This requirement is coming on top of the actual New York State Child Passenger Restraint Law that was enacted in 1982 and requires that:

  • all children under the age of 4 ride in child safety seats
  • all children ride in child restraint systems until their 8th birthday
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NYC construction workersConstruction workers and extraction workers not only have a high risk of getting injured on the job but also they are the most at risk of getting addicted to drugs such as non prescription opioid, cocaine and marijuana according to a recent study published by NYU. The study looked at 290,000 workers belonging to 13 different industries and found out that 3.4% of construction workers were misusing painkillers compared to a 2% average for the rest of the professions.

The study confirms that the opiate crisis is a major problem in the construction industry but also found that construction workers were also consuming more marijuana and cocaine than other workers. The study links the increased risk of addictions to all 3 substances to the precarious condition of employment sustained by construction workers and found that absenteeism is a trigger  for increased used of all 3 drugs. The study also found that  employers with written drug policies  have less workers dealing with cocaine addiction and employers using drug testing had less workers using marijuana.

Drug addiction treatments not proposed by employers

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Location of the fatal bicycle accidentAn 87 year old cyclist who was struck by a car in New York City last week died from his injuries. While the police blame the accident on the victim saying that he blew a red light, witnesses told the NY Daily News that the bicyclist had the right of way and that the car driver blew a red light.

The accident occurred last Tuesday at the intersection of Avenue P and Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. The cyclist was riding west on Avenue P and was struck by the car as he was in the crosswalk. One of the witness, a female pedestrian, told the News that she was also about to cross the street after the light turned green in favor of the pedestrians when a black minivan zoomed out of nowhere, ran the red light and hit the cyclist. The witness saw the cyclist falling on the top of the car and said there was blood everywhere. The 36-year-old driver stayed at the scene of the accident and was not charged. The police maintained he had the green light.

The elderly cyclist was transported to the hospital in critical condition. He died from his injuries a few days later.

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Our form was named Best Law Frim 2020Our NYC Personal Injury Law Firm was named a 2020 Best Law Firm by U.S. News and Best Lawyers for the 10th consecutive year and we would like to congratulate our attorneys and staff for their continuous effort and great work.

Also for the 10th consecutive year, Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf was named

  • A Tier 1 Firm for Personal Injury Litigation  – Plaintiff in New York City
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Halloween-InjuriesAlmost 5000 people suffer Halloween related personal injuries every year in the US. So be careful and don’t be one of them! Almost half of the injuries were related to pumpkin carving activities. More than a quarter of them were falls. Burns are common and allergic reactions also send a few people to the emergency room every year.

Preventing injuries while carving pumpkins

Carving monsters in pumpkins can result in real blood. Adults should always be present during this activity. A good way to avoid injuries is to share responsibilities. Children will  draw the design with a marker and use a spoon to scoop the inside while adults will be in charge of the carving itself. Using a battery operated light inside the jack-o-lantern instead of candles will prevent fire accidents.

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A woman suffered head injuries after she fell in a hole on a New York sidewalk. The hole was covered by a metal sheet but it was loose and when the woman stepped on it the cover flipped and she dropped 5 feet in the hole.  The woman hit the back of her head as she fell in the muddy pit. Other pedestrians who witnessed the scene stayed around the hole to provide moral support to the woman who was visibly shaken and was crying. They told her not to move until EMS arrived. When they arrived, emergency responders and firefighters lifted the woman out of the pit and brought her to the hospital where she was treated for minor injuries.

It is the responsibility of the contractor to make sure that the excavation is proprely covered and safe for pedestrians

Located at the busy intersection of 8th Ave and 35th Street the hole was a  construction pit  made by the company New York City Water Works and part of an active construction area. The contractor failed in its responsibility to make sure that the area is safe for pedestrians. According to witnesses the metal plate covering the hole was loose and they were no orange cones to signal danger. Later on  the hole was covered again and surrounded with caution tapes but it was too late. The contractor was slapped with a violation for failing to proprely secure the plate that covers an excavation.

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So many New Yorkers have been injured or died in traffic accidents on Queens Boulevard that it has been nicknamed the “Boulevard of Death”. Fixing and redesigning Queens Boulevard to make it safer was one of the priorities of the Vision Zero program launched in 2014.  The plan to redesign the boulevard was approved and launched in 2015. While part of the boulevard has been redesigned, a whole area from Yellow Stone Boulevard to Union Turnpike that has a dangerous records of accidents was never addressed. As the mayor’s office wouldn’t update residents as to when the project would be finished, safety advocates held a rally on Sunday pressing de Blasio to complete its work in one of the most deadly areas in the city. Residents feel like they have been lied to and abandoned said a mother who lost her son after he was hit by a truck in this dangerous segment of Queens Boulevard. The redesign of Queens Boulevard between Yellow Stone Boulevard and Union Turnpike includes the addition of a protected bike lane and safety features for pedestrians. In the areas of Queens Boulevard that were redesigned, 3 people died in traffic accidents since 2015 compared to up to 25 people per year before the redesign. Pedestrian accidents decreased by 55% and pedestrian injuries by 63%.

Corruption claims

Not everybody is in favor of the redesign and according to an article in NY Streetblog, activists are claiming that Mayor de Blasio made a secret deal with a Queens council member to stop the completion of the protected bike lane. Activists and Council member Jimmy Van Brammer are alleging that Council Member Karen Koslowitz signed a secret pact with de Blasio that she would vote for his proposal to close Rikers Island if he would put a stop to the redesign of the Boulevard of Death.