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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spinal cord injuryThe medical practice of trying to avoid scar formation at the site of a spinal cord injury may indeed not be correct. Every year approximately 12,500 American will suffer a spinal cord injury and an estimated 276,000 people in the US are suffering from long term effects related to this injury. For decades the prevailing medical dogma was that that scars were preventing neuronal regrowth across the injured area but a newly released study says it is actually the opposite that happens. Scar forming cells called astrocytes may actually help nerve regrowth.  A study recently published in Nature and authored by  Mark A. AndersonJoshua E. BurdaYilong RenYan AoTimothy M. O’SheaRiki KawaguchiGiovanni CoppolaBaljit S. KhakhTimothy J. Deming & Michael V. Sofroniew found that   “scars may be a bridge and not a barrier towards developing better treatments for paralyzing spinal cord injuries.”

Read more in Medical News Today

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A few days after a DOI investigation revealed that NYCHA knew about faulty elevators that killed a resident and injured another, the NYC Housing Authority announced that Ken Buny, the head of the elevator division was fired. Five NYCHA employees who failed to communicate that the elevators were malfunctioning were also reassigned. They are all facing disciplinary charges that could also result in firing. (Read more in the NY Daily News)

The investigation revealed that NYCHA knew about the faulty elevator before the fatal accident happened but because of a communications  breakdown nobody went to fix it.  On December 24 2015, the NYCHA’s Customer Contact Center (“CCC”) received a phone call from a resident at the  NYCHA’s Boston Road Plaza senior building in the Bronx to inform them about a very dangerous malfunctioning elevator. NYCHA didn’t take immediate action to put the elevator out of service. An hour and half  later, 84 year old Olegario Pabon was critically injured when the elevator drifted upward as he was trying to get in. He died 3 days later from his injuries.  The investigation also found that the NYCHA senior management learned about the accident four days later. Another man was seriously injured in a similar accident that happened in another NYCHA building less than a month before.

In both accidents, the DOI found that brake monitors that should have automatically shut down the elevators were not functioning. After this discovery the DOI checked the 1,080 NYCHA elevators equipped with brake monitors and found that 80 (more than 7%) of them were not functioning.

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safety culture constructionConstruction workers have a high risk of getting injured or even dying in an accident while at work. Construction accidents often happen when negligent contractors try to save time or money and put profit ahead of their own workers safety. A new study looking at safety practices among contractors shows that increased safety on construction sites indeed increases Return on Investment (ROI) and attracts and retains more talented hard hats. The recently released study “Building a Safety Culture SmartMarket Report” was produced by the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) and United Rental, a construction equipment rental company.

For the study, Dodge Data & Analytics analyzed 254 American contractors using 33 indicators of safety culture in the construction industry. They found that approximately one third of the contractors were promoting a high safety culture standard in their day to day business and were investing heavily in safety management practices. Another third were somewhat promoting safety culture in their company. The last third were contractors who didn’t have much interest about safety culture and didn’t invest much in it.

The study shows that contractors who invested the most in workers safety reported less injuries, improved their projects quality, increased their projects ROI, had a lower staff turnover and were able to attract staff more easily than contractors who didn’t invest in workers safety.

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A female pedestrian was critically injured after being hit by a school bus in New York City. The bus accident happened Monday morning around 9:20 am in Queens. The 32 year old woman was crossing Grand Ave near 74th street when she was struck by a yellow school bus. No children were on board. The woman suffered head trauma and a broken shoulder. She was transported to the hospital where she was listed in critical condition.  There is no cross walk at the intersection of 74th Street and Grand Ave, making it a dangerous intersection for pedestrians.

pedestrian accident location

picture source: Google Map

 

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Daniel+Pollack-1To avoid children being injured, re-traumatized and abused again it is important that potential adoptive and foster parents be proprely vetted. A proper vetting doesn’t only mean criminal background check identity verification, employment history, character, and residency but also going through the life history of each parent and make sure the information they provided is accurate and complete. In a recent article, Daniel Pollack, a professor at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work in New York City explains what prospective adoptive or foster parents should expect during the vetting process. The complete article can be downloaded here

In another short article, Daniel Pollack looks at informal parenting. For various reasons some children are being raised by caregivers who are not the parents. Caregivers can be relatives or friends of the parents. Most of the time no lawyers or legal documents are signed between the parents and the caregivers. It is based on a trust relationship. However in some specific cases informal parenting arrangements may need approval from the State. The article discusses these specific cases and can be downloaded here.

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A woman was seriously injured in a car accident early Sunday morning. The accident happened in Norwood, Bronx, NYC. The woman collided with another car as she was turning on the Mosholu Parkway near Webster Ave. Rescuers had to remove the door of the car in order to save her. She was sent to the hospital in critical condition. The driver of the other car was also injured and transported to the hospital.

During the same day, a yellow cab went through a red light and hit another car. The impact sent one of the vehicles careening into a man who was crossing the street in a motorized wheelchair. The accident happened at the intersection of  103rd Street and Broadway in the Upper West Side. The man on the wheelchair flew into the air. He was inured but remained conscious.

Read more in the NY Daily News 

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21 year old Michael Messina was critically injured after being hit by a car in NYC early this morning. The young man was riding a scooter on Cooper Ave near 73rd Place in Glendale, Queens  around 3:45 am when a car traveling in the opposite direction veered into his lane and hit him.. The car then caught fire but the driver was able to escape safely. Messina was transported to the hospital in critical condition. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident where he was tested for alcohol. The breathalyzer showed 0.71 which is just below the legal limit of 0.8.  Read more in the NY Daily News

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location of the accidentA pedestrian was critically injured in New York after being hit and dragged half a block by a taxi on Thursday morning. 32 year old Meral Arisoy was on the sidewalk near the intersection of 8th Street and University Place in Greenwich Village when an out of control taxi crashed into a tree pot and then hit her. Her body got wedged under the car  and she was dragged down the University Place sidewalk for half a block before the taxi stopped. According to witnesses the taxi driver was speeding before he lost control of the vehicle. Read more in the NY Daily News

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Fatal pedestrian accident location

No pedestrian crossing at this intersection Picture: courtesy of Google map

A 45 year old man was fatally struck by a negligent driver who didn’t stop after he hit the victim. The car accident happened on 21st Street and 30th Road in Queens, NYC, yesterday around 11:00 pm. The man was transported to the hospital but he couldn’t be saved. The car that hit the pedestrian is believed to be a red Toyota. The police are looking for surveillance footage. The intersection is very dangerous because there is no pedestrian crossing even though it is located in a very busy area of Astoria. According to residents speeding is frequent.

Another accident happened a little bit later in the Bronx. A pedestrian suffered serious personal injury as he was trying to cross the Major Deegan Expressway near 138th in Port Morris shortly after 4:00 am. The victim was transported to the hospital while according to the NY Daily News a car was spotted at the scene of the accident with a smashed windshield and hood.

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Sunny MaritimeAt least 20 passengers suffered personal injury in a bus accident  in Upstate NY yesterday. The bus was operated by W&D Tour a Brooklyn based bus operator. It was transporting SUNY Maritime students from the Bronx, NYC. They were heading back to New York City after attending a conference  at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. Slippery road conditions due to earlier snow may have been a factor in the accident. The bus accident happened in the morning around 10:45 am on Route 28N  in Minerav, in the Adirondack Mountains, NY. The bus fell off the side of the road and landed upside down in the woods. 20 people suffered non life threatening injuries. Read more in the NY Daily News