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.

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Lithium ion battery can be dangerousA 67 year old woman was critically injured in a fire sparked by a defective lithium-ion battery in Brooklyn, NYC yesterday early morning.

The victim was residing in a building located on Goodwin Place  in Bushwick and was probably asleep when the fire erupted around 1:40 am on Tuesday morning.  The fire started in an apartment that one of the tenants had transformed into a lithium battery repair shop. 50 lithium batteries were found there by the firefighters. It is not clear how many batteries exploded but the FDNY said that the fire sparked so fast and was so intense that the fire alarms and the sprinkler system which were working, were of no help.   When firefighters arrived, all 3 floors of the building were ravaged by the blaze. They were still able to find the victim but she was already in bad condition. Another victim suffered minor injuries. The tenant who was running the off-the-book repair shop was not home at the time of the explosion but had left several batteries to charge overnight.

The FDNY told the NY daily News that since the beginning of this year, they have been responding to an average of 3 fires caused by lithium batteries every week.

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3 pedestrians are in critical condition after a drunk driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into them in Jackson Heights, Queens, NYC.

The accident occurred around 4:20 am early Saturday morning at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and 86th Street. A video surveillance shows the 3 young men aged 25, 28 and 32, chatting at the corner of the intersection of the two streets when suddenly a SUV traveling at a high rate of speed lost control of his vehicle as he was trying to pass another car and slammed into the pedestrians.

The 23 year old driver of the SUV was taken into custody and is expected to be charged with DWI.

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patient transition can result in medical errorIn a recent study analyzing 5,270 medical malpractice claims related to medical events occurring between  2017 and 2019, Coverys, a company providing Medical malpractice Insurance, found that 210 of them were medical malpractice related to negligent care transition that led to an alleged medical error. While medical malpractice related to care transition only represents a small share of  all medical malpractice, they have a higher risk of resulting in severe injuries to patients and trigger claims that will result in payments of verdicts and settlements.

When a patient transitions from one healthcare provider to another, it can be difficult for the healthcare providers to proprely collaborate. Miscommunication can occur not only between people but also in the electronic medical records of the patient. Early or rushed discharge as well as not proprely informing the patient and his family about the transition process can also lead to medical errors.

Here are some of the most important findings of this study:

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A New York City assistant principal planned a sexual encounter with a 14 year old boy on Grindr and instead found himself facing an adult who filmed the encounter and uploaded it on Youtube. Earlier this year, 40 year old Claudio Garcia who works at Queens Technical High School in Long Island City as an assistant principal, was on Grindr and starting to chat with a boy who told him first that he was 18 but then said he was actually 14. Garcia then planned a meeting with him in a park that was supposedly near the boy’s Bronx house. When he arrived at the meeting, an adult man was there. The encounter was filmed and posted on YouTube.

The Police recently arrested Garcia and brought him to the 52nd Precinct to be questioned. He was then charged with attempted criminal sex act and disseminating indecent materials to minors.

Garcia was arraigned yesterday night in Bronx criminal court. While the DA consented to release Garcia without bail, Judge Audrey Stone ordered Garcia to be on supervised release. “Given the nature of Mr. Garcia’s status within the community and the very serious charges here, I believe supervised release at a minimum would be appropriate,” the judge said. “Mr. Garcia, I want to explain to you that I understand that the D.A.’s office is requesting release without any conditions, however, these are very significant changes.”

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A man suffered severe burns in a sidewalk explosion in Queens last week.

57 year old Barry West was heading to his T-mobile store to pay his cell phone bill when a Coned underground transformer exploded sending a ball of fire through the sidewalk grate. The man was engulfed in the flames before he was able to move to safety. He suffered second degree burns in multiple areas of his face and body and was immediately hospitalized.  The man was still in the hospital a week after the accident. He told the NY Daily News that the explosion just came from nowhere. He felt he lost a lot of skin and was in so much pain that he could not work.

A similar explosion occurred at the same location exactly one day earlier and partially destroyed the front of a pizzeria next door  (read more and see video of the accident in the NY Daily News).

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Pedestrian and cyclist injuries and fatalities were lower than usual last February and so were motorcyclist, bus and truck accidents.

Traffic Accident injuries reached a record low in New York City in January and February. While February car accident injuries always reach a yearly low, the number of NYC car accident injuries was at its lowest since Vision Zero started. 2,503 people were injured in traffic accidents in New York City compared to 3,028 a month earlier and 4,006 in February 2020. The number of traffic accident injuries mostly dropped over the last 12 months because of the Covid19 crisis that affected the City and slow down activities. (click on graphs for full sizes)

Traffic Accident Injuries NYC February 2021
Motor vehicle accident injuries in NYC in February 2021 by category
After reaching annual record highs over the summer of 2020, the number of New York auto accident deaths also declined and stabilized to numbers somewhat similar to previous years despite the slowdown. 10 people died in traffic accidents last February compared to 13 in January and 17 in February 2020.  Since Vision Zero was launched in 2014, the number of traffic accident fatalities in February has been oscillating between 17 and 10 with 10 last month being the lowest. Fatalities were mostly pedestrian fatalities.

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carbon monoxide danger signA woman and two children suffered carbon monoxide poisoning last week in Dix Hills, Suffolk County, NY. The accident occurred at a residential home located on Pineland Court.  A crew of workers were doing some roofing work while a mother and her two children were inside the house. The roofers used a generator that was positioned too close to the door causing fumes to get in the house and poisoned the family. The woman and the two children started to get really dizzy and she called 911. When EMS arrived the 3 of them could not walk anymore and firefighters found a vey high level of carbon monoxide in the house. The mother and her children were transported to the hospital to be treated.

The silent killer

Carbon Monoxide is an invisible gas that has no smell and no color and therefore is  very hard to detect by human. It is deadly. Firefighters nickname it “the silent killer”.  This why in New York State, it is required by law that any house or apartment with at least one fuel-burning appliance or heater has working carbon monoxide detectors installed. The following precautions should be taken to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning:

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Snow stormIf you want to avoid getting injured during a snow storm in New York City, the best way is to stay home, wait for the snow to stop and for the sidewalks and roads to be cleaned before going out. However if you really have to or want to step out to enjoy some winter fun with the kids, make sure to wear proper shoes and exercise caution when walking around.

If you have to get somewhere you might think that you would be safer walking than driving. It might actually be quite the opposite.

In a study published last May in the Journal of the American Meteorological Society and entitled “Winter Storms and Fall-Related Injuries: Is It Safer to Walk than to Drive?” researchers analyzed the visits to hospital emergency rooms in a medium sized urban community, in Canada, during multiple snow storms. They found that, during a snow storm, visits to the emergency room for injuries caused by falls accounted in average for 64% more than visits to the ER caused by a motor vehicle accidents.

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location of the fire accidentAn overloaded power strip might have been the cause of a gigantic fire in a New York City residential building that caused 4 people to be critically injured. The fire occurred early last Friday around 12:15 am in a residential building located on 35th Ave near Rowan Street in Flushing, Queens, NYC.  When the firefighters arrived they were able to pull a 9 year old girl, a 24 year old woman, a 32 year old woman and a 56 year old woman from their bedrooms. They were all unconscious and required CPR. All 4 were rushed to the hospital with critical injuries. The young girl suffered smoke inhalation while the 3 women were treated for burn injuries and smoke inhalation. The firefighter also saved a small hamster that is now in the hands of the Animal Care Center of New York City.  Four fire fighters also suffered minor injuries while combating the fire and were also brought to the hospital to be treated.

According to preliminary investigations by the FDNY Fire Marshals, the inferno started on the first floor and might have been caused by a bad power strip to which an air conditioning unit was plugged into

Multiple extension cords plugged in with multiple devices might have overload the outlet and sparked the fire that quickly propagated to the entire two story building. The fire marshals didn’t mention if smoke alarms were installed in the apartments or not. In New York, the law requires that all apartments be equipped  with smoke alarms. They might not have been installed or might not have been working proprely.  Someone was seen on video throwing something at the home and investigators determined it was a good Samaritan trying to alert people inside that their house was on fire.

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6 hard hats were injured on construction sites in New York City during the month of April compared to 47 a month earlier and 44 in April 2019. 4 workers were injured on Bronx construction sites and 2 of them on Brooklyn sites. 4 workers suffered minor injuries and 2 others who were injured by a plywood piece  on a windy day, required hospitalization. No fatalities were reported to the DOB during the month of April. The significant decline in construction accident injuries in the city is related to the Covid-19 restrictions that allowed only essential construction sites to be open during the month of April.

Construction Accident Injuries NYC April 2020
In one of the accidents a plumber accidentally screwed his own finger during a plumbing operation. He suffered a cut and was treated at an emergency room. He was then released in stable condition. While the DOB determined that the accident was caused by the worker’s error, inspectors found several safety violations at the construction site located on 1325 Jerome Avenue in the Bronx and issued several citations including: failure to maintain vertical netting, failure to maintain the site clean, failure to provide covers for holes on the floor, failure to protect an elevator shaft opening, failure to install a handrail system on stairways as well as failure to notify the DOB of a change of site safety manager. A partial stop work order was issued.

In an other accident, also in the Bronx, a worker suffered muscle cramps after another worker with whom he was carrying a PVC pipe suddenly put his end down.

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