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 Premises Liability

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https://www.newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneysblog.com/files/2018/02/New_York_City_Housing_Authority_logo.svg_.pngLead based paint exposure can cause serious personal injury, especially to young children. Lead poisoning builds in the body over months, sometimes over years.  A small quantity of lead such as paint on the wall or dust is enough to create severe mental and physical impairments in children and a larger quantity can lead to death. Lead paint was widely used to paint residential interiors in the past but  after its toxicity was discovered it wasn’t used anymore. Lead paint can still be found on the walls of old buildings that haven’t been renovated for a long time. Some of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) buildings for example still have lead paint. NYCHA was supposed to inspect its buildings and address issues but recently the Department of Investigation found out that NYCHA not only failed to inspect buildings for lead paint but also falsified documents to pretend inspections occurred (see previous blog).

NEGATIVE HEALTH EFFECT FROM MOLD INVESTIGATED TOO

On Monday the New York State Department of Health announced that it was opening an investigation over the health impact of NYCHA’s failures to tenants in Southern Queens. The Health Department will not only study the consequences of lead paint exposures but also health problems related to mold. Mold is affecting thousands of  NYCHA apartments. It can cause asthma and other serious respiratory diseases. Additionally the Health Department will also study the health impact of the recent heat and hot water outages. Since October including during the coldest days, more that 320,000 NYCHA tenants (80%)  have been experiencing heat or hot water outages. These outages are especially unhealthy for younger or older tenants.

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Pomonok_Houses NYCHAThe New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) not only  failed to do critical lead safety inspections but also falsified paperwork to pretend inspections were done and buildings were meeting requirements according to a report released by the Department of Investigation (DOI).

By mid 2016, Shola Olatoye, the NYCHA chairwoman appointed by Mayor de Blasio in 2014, was aware that lead paint inspections that were supposed to be finalized over four years hadn’t been completed in many of the 180,000 NYCHA apartments. She knew NYSHA was violating federal rules and local law but instead of admitting the problem and trying to fix the issues she and other top managers at NYCHA decided to conceal it.

NYCHA submitted a false certification in October 2016, potentially putting numerous children at risk of lead poisoning. Young children are the most at risk of being poisoned by lead. They can can suffer from developmental delays that can have lifetime consequences. In some cases lead poisoning can be fatal.

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New York Personal Injury Lawyer Howard HershenhornNew York Personal Injury Attorney Christopher DonadioOur partner, NYC Personal Injury Attorney Howard Hershenhorn assisted by Christopher Donadio is representing Kyle Green in a lawsuit against rapper Travis Scott and the New York concert venue Terminal 5. 23-year-old Kyle Green was left paralyzed after he fell from a balcony during Travis Scott’s concert on April 30 at Terminal 5 in New York.

Travis Scott concerts are infamously known to be wild and the singer himself  encourages fans to stage dive and surf the crowd. During the New York concert before Green was pushed from the third floor balcony, Scott put the spot light on a fan who was attending the concert from the first floor balcony and encouraged him to jump which the fan did. He said to the fan, “They going to  catch you, don’t be scared.” (see video below). Other fans then did the same.  Shortly after, Green who was watching the concert from the third floor balcony was pushed over the railing by the surging crowd. He fell and hit the floor. Security guards immediately surrounded him and Travis yelled at them to bring the fan to the stage. Green who was in tremendous pain was lifted up, pulled around and dropped in front of the stage without using any backboard or neck brace. Then Scott gave him his ring.

Kyle Green is now in a wheelchair. He suffered serious injury that includes fractured vertebrae, a broken left wrist and fractured right ankle.  The injuries required surgery and he was left paralyzed on his left side and must get around in a wheelchair. He had to quit school and move out of his Brooklyn apartment to go live with his parents in Dutchess County.

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Inadequately Maintained Building New YorkA woman fell 6 feet after the sidewalk of an inadequately maintained building collapsed under her. 47 year old Mariana Fuentes is a flower vendor in Washington Heights. Last Saturday around 7:40 am she parked her cart next to a building located on West 158th Street near Broadway. Suddenly the sidewalk collapsed and she fell 6 feet down into an abandoned underground vault. Her husband who was standing near her when the accident happened watched in horror. There wasn’t much he could do to help her as he was himself injured after having been run over by a city bus a while ago.

A good Samaritan who saw the accident, brought a ladder and went down to help Fuentes. He found her lying on the ground with a big concrete slab on her leg. He wasn’t able to remove it but he stayed next to Fuentes until EMS arrive. The firefighters were able to free her and bring her out on a backboard. She was transported to the hospital with serious injuries. Inspectors from the Department of Building came and issued a partial vacate order for the underground vault and the sidewalk as well as for an adjacent building. A sign on the building  read “The Department of Buildings has determined that conditions on these premises are imminently perilous to life”. The hole was covered with police tape and plywood.

The Fuentes have been living on the block for more than 20 years. The flower business is the family’s only income.

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A young man broke both his legs after he fell through a skylight at a rooftop party in Brooklyn, NYC. The man was hanging out with friends on the rooftop when  he stood on a skylight. The skylight made of  glass broke under the weight of the 25-year-old man. He fell 5 stories down on to the concrete. He was  rescued by the EMS with two broken legs.  According to residents, party goes may have walked from  one rooftop to another however being on the rooftop wasn’t allowed because of safety concerns. The building has no prior violations according to the DOB website.

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prevent drowning in poolsToo many kids are still fatally drowning in swimming pools and spas every year in the U.S.. According to a new report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, drowning continues to be the number one cause of death among children between 1 and 4 years old and the second leading cause of death among children 5 to 14-years old.

Families need to be constantly educated about the risks of fatal and non-fatal child drowning in spas and swimming pools. Therefore the “CPSC Pool Safety Campaign” team and the Michael Phelps Foundation recently announced that they were joining forces to fight this serious public health crisis. In a recent joint press conference of the CPSC and the Micheal Phelps Foundation, Micheal Phelps told media that the CPSC pool campaign would be integrated into his IM Program. The program encourages children to be healthy and active by offering swimming lessons, water safety courses and other recreational activities around the pool. At a recent event, children learned to swim and how to be safe in the water. Every child also took the pool safety pledge to

  • never swim alone
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snoop Dog42 people were injured at a Snoop Dog and Wiz Khalifa concert last Fridat night in Camden NJ. The two artists were performing at the BB&T Pavillon when  a railing collapsed causing dozens of fans to fall several feet below onto the concrete (see video at the bottom). One person was critically injured and dozens of them were transported to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries such as bruises and broken bones.

Accidents at concerts and festivals are not very common however when they happen they are often catastrophic because they include a large number of people that are often intoxicated. It is the responsibility of the event organizers to make sure the venue is safe and that contingency plans are in place in case of complications.  Inadequate protection and planing can quickly lead to dramatic disasters during crowded concerts and festivals.

Here are some of the most terrifying concert accidents that happened in the past, the most deadly were due to fire accidents in venues where organizers neglected attendees safety:

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21 East 115 StreetA greedy Harlem landlord put a family at risk of serious injury or death while starting to demolish a building while they were still living there. Ephraim Vashovsky tried to evict all tenants  to pull the building out of rent stabilization. He almost succeeded but a large family of undocumented Mexicans who had nowhere else to go  decided to stay despite the fact that the landlord was gutting the building (see Google map picture on the left ).

The heartless landlord deprived the family of water, electricity and heat and put the family at risk of dangerous accidents. He is now in custody and charged with various crimes ranging from endangering the welfare of a child and grand larceny to coercion and conspiracy Read more in the NY Daily News 

 

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A few days after a NYC toddler died by falling from a window, another one injured himself badly in a similar manner. The 5 year old boy fell from the 5th floor of a 6-story building and miraculously survived. The New York Daily News reported that something may have broken the fall and saved the boy.

The apartment where the boy was living had no window guards. In New  York City,  family’s with young children must have their apartment protected with window guards. It’s the law. The building owner is responsible to make sure that any of the apartments where a family with young children lives has window guards installed.

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Harlem River HousingA 3-year old boy died after he fell from a window in a  public housing development in Harlem, New York City.  Latyre Sene fell  from the 13th floor of a building located in the Harlem River II Houses on Frederick Douglass Blvd. near W. 151st St (picture).  The window guard was found next to him. Police are investigating why the window guard fell and didn’t protect the toddler.

Building owners have the responsibility to install and maintain window guards in any apartment where a family is living with children. Because Latyre Sene’s family was illegally subletting the apartment,  it wasn’t clear if  NYCHA who owns the building was aware that a child lived in this apartment.

On Monday, a maintenance employee was seen leaving the apartment with a drill and 3 guards in his hands. Following the tragic accident, several other residents of the building also asked for a revision of their window guards.