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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OSHA logoWorkers especially construction workers may have a higher risk of getting injured on the job if the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) decides to definitely stop releasing enforcement news.  According to a recent article in Fair Warning, OSHA hasn’t published any enforcement press releases since Inauguration Day.

Because OSHA doesn’t have enough inspectors to cover all US workplaces, news releases related to penalties and enforcement of workplace safety are a powerful tool to prevent employers from committing safety violations. Usually the agency releases between 30 and 50 of  these type of announcements every month.  It has been a month and half since Trump was installed as the American President and not one single enforcement news has been released by OSHA. The same happened to the Wage and Hour division of the Labor Department which was previously releasing news on back wages paid to employees. Fair Warning contacted both OSHA and “Wage and Hour” to ask them about this six weeks period of silence but none of them replied.  Despite news releases being halted officials at the Labor Department have confirmed that OSHA inspections are still going on. An explanation for this silence may be the still ongoing and longer than usual transition at the Top of  the Labor Department. However looking at the past, never has such an interruption of news releases occurred during a change of presidency at the White House.

The policy of the Trump administration to fail to release enforcement news regarding unsafe work conditions is clear evidence that the Trump administration is not following through on campaign promises to protect the average middle class worker. Additional efforts to scale back or to delay workplace regulations are under way.  For example two days ago,  the Labor Department just proposed to delay a regulation aimed at protecting construction workers from beryllium, a toxic metal. Things are only going to get worse as evidenced by the proposed cuts for the EPA.

 

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New York Personal Injury Lawyer Rachel JacobsWe are proud to announce that only 3 years after graduating from Law School, our associate, New York personal injury lawyer Rachel Jacobs, is already chairing a Continuous Education Seminar (CLE) at Cardozo Law School on Tuesday March 21st at 6:30 pm. Entitled “Hot Issues in Personal Injury,” this seminar will cover the following subjects:

  • tort trends
  • new tort claims
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SKI_PATROL_ATTENDS_AN_INJURED_SKIER._CROSSED_SKIS_INDICATE_AN_INJURY_-_NARA_-_554256 (1)Many children suffer personal injuries during the winter. Many of these injuries are related to skiing, snow boarding and sledding but doctors at emergency rooms in California also said they are seeing a lot of surf injuries around winter time. Overuse injuries are also common especially when winter is warmer than usual. Growing up athletes continue to practice the same sport they usually practice during summer over fall and winter not allowing sufficient time to rest to their bodies.

Children have a much higher risk of getting injured in skiing and snowboarding activities than adults.  Most injuries occur when children are still learning how to ski or how to snowboard.  When a student skier or snowboarder doesn’t have full control of his or her movement, he or she can sometimes be unable to avoid obstacles. Confirmed skiers usually also know how to fall safely. ER doctors note that male children have a higher risk to suffer severe head and neck injuries. These type of injuries often happen when a youth skis or snowboards too fast for his skill level.

It may seem surprising but on the West Coast surf injuries are also pretty common among youth during the winter. The waves are usually bigger during the winter and emergency room doctors are seeing an increase in head injuries, broken bones as well as ankle and knee sprains.

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Vision Zero was launched in an attempt to reduce pedestrian and bicyclists deaths in NYC. However, in an unexpected twist, the program primarily helped in curbing motorists deaths. 

Back in 2013 before Vision  Zero started, 286 people died and 54,818 suffered personal injury in motor vehicle accidents in New York City. Among the 286 deaths were 168 pedestrians, many of them children and elderly. In New York City, car accidents have been the leading cause of child deaths for many years. According to statistics, two thirds of the children involved in fatal accidents were child pedestrians being struck by cars. Elderly are also at higher risk of being struck by cars in New York City, especially after sunset when the visibility is reduced.

When Bill de Blasio became Mayor on January 1st 2014, he pledged to change this situation and provide safe streets for New York families.  Vision Zero was launched for this purpose in January 2014 and is still ongoing. The program includes various initiatives such as speed limit reduction, dangerous streets re-design and  more forceful prosecution of traffic violations. Since the program started, the total number of traffic deaths gradually declined from 286 in 2013 before the program to 250 in 2014, 235 in 2015 and 223 in 2016. From the beginning of 2014 to the end of 2016, the total number of traffic deaths declined by 22% in New York City.

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the two young New Yorkers who alerted the residents about a fire in their buildingThree people died and several people were injured in NY fire accidents that erupted mostly in the North West area of the city these past few days.

Yesterday morning 3 people were injured in a fire that started in a third floor apartment of a 5-story building located on West 184th Street near Amsterdam Ave in Washington Heights. One of the victims was critically injured while the two others only suffered minor injuries. Read more in the NY Daily News.

Also yesterday in Mount Vernon, NY a mother and her child died in a fire accident. The fire broke out at the second floor of a residence located on 13th street. 11 people lived in the house. A 30 year old mother and her 17th month baby both died in the fire. Another person was injured and transported to the hospital. The causes of the fire accident are not clear yet. Read more and see pictures on PIX11 

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accident sceneA tractor-trailer truck hit a pick up truck killing  3 of the occupants and injuring 5 other people Tuesday early morning. 51 year old Henry Walker, his 21 year old son Khalil and 3 other workers were driving from Pennsylvannia on their way to a construction job in the Hamptons.  As they were driving on the Cross Bronx Expressway near Webster Ave,  a tractor-trailer truck stopped abruptly in front of them.  Henry Walker who was driving was able to stop just behind the truck. Unfortunately another tractor-trailer just behind them wasn’t able to stop on time. He slammed into the pick up truck killing the dad, the son and one of the workers. 5 other people were injured in the crash.

Henry was a contractor from Tonyhanna, PA and his son was a communication student at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. He was working with his dad to make extra money to study in Japan.  They left behind their devastated  mother Sandy Walker. The family had just lost a daughter to diabetes last April.

Read more in the NY Daily News 

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Bianca Bennett died in a NYC crashA NYPD officer died and a sergeant was seriously injured in a car accident that occurred last week in the Bronx. 27 year old rookie officer Bianca Bennett was a passenger in a car driven by Sergeant Randolph Price. Both cops were off-duty. They were returning from a diner with friends in City Island.  Price who was speeding, lost control of his vehicle and careened into a tree stump. The car flipped upside down and burst into flames. Two other cops on their way home from the firing range saw the accident and ran to the rescue. They were able to pull Price out of the flames but it was too late to save Bennett. According to them she was so badly burned that it was impossible to determine if she was a woman or a man.  27 year old Bennett was fiancee to her high school sweetheart Micheal Coleman, they were about to get married in April. A vigil was held yesterday in the East Village. Read more in the NY Daily News

 

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photo__1428053_peter_saghirOur partner, NYC injury attorney Peter J. Saghir, recently obtained a verdict of 100% liability against a glass company that dropped a large glass panel on a woman’s foot as she walked on the sidewalk. On September 29, 2012, Manhisha Narwani, 28, was walking with friends on 9th Avenue at 50th Street when two workers who were replacing a glass storefront dropped a large glass panel on her left foot causing her to sustain three metatarsal fractures. She underwent surgery on two of the metatarsals and subsequent physical therapy. The glass company blamed Manisha for the happening of the accident and for failing to see the glass as it was being carried on the sidewalk. After a 5 day jury trial in New York County before Hon. Arthur F. Enforon, the jury found Manisha was free from fault and that the glass company and workers were 100% at fault for the happening of the incident. The jury awarded Manisha $300,000 for past pain and suffering and $150,000 for future pain and suffering. The top offer by the insurance company was 250,000.

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New York Personal Injury Lawyer Richard SteigmanOur partner, NY injury attorney Richard Steigman will be the chair of the “2017 CPLR Update” seminar organized by the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. The Co chair will be Judge Ariel E. Belen (Ret.), JAMS Mediator & Arbitrator, Justice, Appellate Division, Second Department. The seminar will cover all new recent developments in the field of New York Civil Practice. Participants will be updated on  the recent legislative changes and court decisions in this field.

The seminar will take place Tuesday January 24 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm at the NYSTLA Office. The address is 132, Nassau Street, Second Floor, New York, NY 10038.

To learn more about this seminar or to register please click here

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  • A 13 year old pedestrian was injured in a NYC car accident  last Thursday. Gittie Hershenbaum was waiting  for her school bus on a sidewalk when a car jumped the curb and hit her. The driver who was working for Uber, suffered a cardiac arrest and lost control of his vehicle.  The accident took place at the intersection of 55th street and 18th Ave in Borough Park, Brooklyn. A video surveillance shows the girl landing on the hood of the car after being struck by it. The impact was extremely strong. The parents told The NY Daily News that girl was probably saved by her backpack that was full of books and acted as a cushion as she landed with her back on the car. She suffered a fractured leg. The driver of the car was transported to the hospital in critical condition.