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 Wrongful Death

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How many people die from personal injury every year in the U.S.? What are the leading causes of these injuries? How many were the result of a disease? Were these injuries intentional or not? Every year since 2000 the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and the  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provide very precises statistics about the type of injuries people suffer in the U.S. They recently released their statistics for 2015 and here are some interesting points:

  • Among the entire population of the U.S., Heart Disease was the leading cause of death in 2015, followed closely by Malignant Neoplasms. More than 23% of the 2.7 million deaths recorded in 2015 in the US were related to Heart Disease and 22% were due to Malignant Neoplasms.
  • 146,571 people died from Unintentional Injury. This number represents 5.4% of all deaths and is the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S. just behind Chronic Low Respiratory Disease. Click on the graphs for full size10 leading cause of death in 2015
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FDNY fighting NYC home fireA couple died and their 17 year old daughter was injured in a home fire in Brooklyn, NYC. 61 year old Howard Gluck and 59 year old Evelyn Gluck as well as their 17 year old daughter were sleeping in their two-story home located on 44th Street between Fort Hamilton Parkway and 12th Avenue  in Borough Park, when a fire broke out on the first floor and spread to the second floor around 3:45 am yesterday morning. The FDNY told the media that the fire had probably been going for a while until someone noticed it and called 911. By the time the firefighters arrived, the fire had already engulfed the stairwells.  The couple was found unconscious in a back bedroom on the second floor of the house. They were rushed to the hospital but it was too late and they both passed away. Their daughter was found on the roof of the porch and rescued by the firefighters. She suffered injury and was also transported to the hospital to be treated. She is now in stable condition. The daughter survived because she was able to climb out to a first floor landing before being rescued by the firefighters.

The Glucks had been living in their house for nearly 40 years. They were the first Jewish family to move into the neighborhood and beloved members of a tight knit community. Everybody was in shock yesterday in the neighborhood. Maureen Weiner, who had been living in the house next to them for almost 40 years as well was devastated by the news. She said they were the nicest people.

138 firefighters were called to the rescue to keep the blaze under control and make sure it didn’t spread to neighboring houses. 3 firefighters also suffered minor injury in the exercise of their duty. According to the fire marshals the fire was accidental and caused by “careless cooking/grill”.  There were no smoke detectors installed in the house.

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aerial view of drunk driving accident locationA man died in an accident after a drunk driver lost control of his SUV and crashed into a parked backhoe on a NYC highway. The man who died was identified as Abe Prior, a 30-year-old resident of Norwalk, Connecticut. He was among the 3 passengers of a car driven by 30-year-old Jorge Viteri, also from Norwalk, Connecticut. Police said Viteri was  intoxicated at the time of the accident. He is now in custody. The accident occurred yesterday night around 6:30 pm on the Bruckner Expressway in the Bronx, NYC.  The SUV was heading North. As the SUV approached exit 7 C, the driver tried to change lanes. He hit a barrier and crashed into a large construction vehicle that was parked on the white lined center median between the Bruckner Expressway and the Throgs Neck Expressway (see picture on the left) . The impact was intense. All occupants were injured and rushed to the hospital. Abe Prior didn’t survive and died from his injuries while at the hospital. The two other passengers were expected to survive. The driver only suffered minor injuries and was arrested by the police. We question why such a large construction vehicle was left parked on the center median on a weekend. An accident such as this should have been anticipated. Read more on CBS News .

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Bob Simon died in a car accidentOur New York Personal Injury Law Firm is pleased to announce that our partner Howard Hershenhorn succeeded in resolving the Bob Simon wrongful death case on behalf of his widow Francoise Anne-Marie Simon against the defendant Skyline Credit Ride Limousine. The amount is confidential. The CBS “60 minutes” correspondent died in a car accident in February, 2015 after his limo driver lost control of his vehicle on the West Side Highway. Howard  told the New York Post: “The family is relieved that this portion of the case is behind them”.

On February 11 2015 around 7 pm, Bob Simon was on his way to a conference downtown. He was riding a Skyline Credit Ride Limousine  driven by Reshad Abdul Fedahi, a 44-year-old limo driver. Fedahi was speeding down the West Side Highway when he side-swiped a Mercedes-Benz, lost control of his car and hit a metal post. The impact was so strong that the car was completely destroyed. Rescuers pried open the roof to extract the occupants. Simon was found unresponsive with head and stomach injuries. He was rushed to the hospital.

Prior to the fatal accident, Skyline Credit Ride Limousine fired Fedahi after several client complaints but re-hired him after a management change in October, 2014.  At the time he had two moving violations on his regular drivers license: one for speeding and one for “disobeying a traffic device. He  he also had his license suspended 9 times in the past. Additionally Fedahi lost the use of his left arm after a previous suicide attempt during which he jumped from a building in Brooklyn. The company shouldn’t have re-hired him.

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accident sceneA limo driver died after his car hit a tow truck on a Bronx Highway.  His passenger miraculously only suffered minor injuries. 45-year-old Leonel Paulino was driving west on the Cross Bronx Expressway. He was speeding and slammed into an idle tow truck which was helping another motorist.  He suffered massive head trauma and died at the scene of the accident. Amber Normington from Yonkers was seated in the back seat when the accident occurred. Miraculously, she only suffered minor injuries. The driver of the tow truck as well as the motorist who was being helped were also fine.

Read more in the NY Daily News

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accident sceneA woman died in a car accident  after she entered the highway the wrong way.  Two other people were severely injured. The accident occurred early Sunday morning.  The driver of a dark grey SUV entered the North Bound lanes of the Hutchinson River Parkway in Scarsdale the wrong way and started to drive against traffic. The police received the first report of a car driving the wrong way just before 4:30 on Sunday morning but it was already too late. The dark grey SUV hit another grey SUV head-on. The driver of the car driving the wrong way was killed in the accident. The passenger as well as the driver of the other car were both critically injured.  The driver of a black sedan who swerved in the grass on the side of the highway to avoid the collision was fine.  A man working at a gas station just north of the accident told CBS News that it wasn’t the first time that a car was driving the wrong way on the parkway. He said it was happening quite often. The parkway was blocked for 11 hours to allow investigators to complete their accident reconstruction. It is still too early to know if alcohol or drugs were a factor. The investigators also still didn’t know where the driver entered the parkway. In recent years, there were several wrong way accidents in Westchester. Some say confusing signalization may be a factor.

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96 people died and 27,923 suffered personal injuries in 110,992 motor vehicle accidents in New York City during the first 6 months of 2017 based on the most recent statistics released by the NYPD.

This is the first time that the number of people dying in NYC traffic accidents during the first six months of the year is below 100.  In 2013, before Mayor de Blasio launched Vision Zero, 121 people died in auto accidents in the city during the same period. Vision Zero was launched at the beginning of 2014 and since then the total number of people dying in NYC crashes slowly decreased from 110 during the first semester of 2014 to 107 during the first semester of 2015 and the first semester of 2016. It dropped to 96 for the same period of 2017. Multiple Vision Zero measures such as the reduction of the city speed limit to 25 mph as well as the installation of cameras may have contributed to this decline in fatal crashes.

traffic accident deaths in NYC for the first semester of 2013 to 2017
The decrease in traffic deaths in New York City occurred despite a significant increase in crashes over the last 4 years. In 2013, 99,474 crashes were reported to the NYPD during the first semester. This number increased steadily to 100,834 in 2014 and 104,636 in 2015. It then jumped to 111,588 in 2016. It decreased slightly during the first six months of this year to stabilize at 110,992. Distracted driving is the most common factor in these accidents.

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accident sceneA pedestrian died in a Bronx car accident  on Friday afternoon. The 77 year old man was trying to cross the Hutchinson River Parkway near the Pelham parkway when he was hit by a car. He was rushed to the hospital where he died. The driver who hit him stayed at the scene of the accident. He wasn’t charged. Read more in the NY Daily News

Also in the Bronx during the weekend 4 people were injured in a car accident related to speed.  Around 6 AM on Sunday morning the driver of a black sedan lost control of his vehicle and crashed into several pillars before hitting another car.  The accident occurred near Sands Place  in Middletown, Pelham Bay. It is a miracle that nobody died according to the NY Daily News

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accident sceneAn elderly pedestrian was fatally struck by a yellow taxi in New York City on Friday. 80 year old Barbara Horn, an Upper East Side resident, was crossing Third Ave in the crosswalk when she was hit by a taxi. The accident occurred a little bit after 6 PM a few blocks away  from where the victim lived.The driver, identified as 49 year old Syed Ulah was making a left turn from 70th street. He struck the elderly woman and dragged her half a block before stopping.   She was transported to the hospital where she died. The taxi driver was arrested and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian. Read more in the Gothamist

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bicycle garbage truck accident locationA garbage truck fatally hit a bicyclist in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NYC early Saturday morning. The driver didn’t stop.  27-year-old Neftaly Ramirez had just finished his shift at a Brooklyn Pizzeria. He was biking home to the Lower East Side around 12:30 am. As he was riding on Franklin Street near Noble Street in Greenpoint, a garbage truck driving South on Franklin hit him. The garbage truck driver continued on his way leaving the bicyclist dying in the street behind him. The investigation is still ongoing and the police haven’t apprehended the truck driver yet. Therefore it is still unclear if the driver was aware that he hit someone. Ramirez was found by the police with trauma all over his body. He was pronounced dead by EMS soon after their arrival at the scene of the accident.

Franklin Ave in Greeenpoint is a link between Kent Ave and the Pulaski bridge. It is narrow but busy with traffic day and night. According to a local resident, trucks are “flying down the street all night”. There is a shared bike and motor vehicle lane that is completely unprotected (see picture). A large electronic sign was installed at the location of the accident  by the police to ask potential witnesses to report information. Detectives were also looking for potential footage from security cameras. So far the police said that the truck that hit Ramirez was green with white with yellow lettering. It was most probably a private garbage truck. Private dump trucks are among the most dangerous vehicles for pedestrians and bicyclists. They have the highest NYC pedestrian-kill rate per mile driven. One may hope that the police may finally launch a safety initiative directed at private garbage trucks but that is not what happening. The police were seen on Sunday afternoon ticketing bicyclists on Franklin Ave.

Read more in Streetblog

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