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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Howard%20Permut.jpgAfter the recent New York train accident that led to the wrongful death of 4 passengers and injured more than 70, Metro North Chief, Howard Perrmut announced that he is stepping down. He will stay until the end of this month to help his successor, Joseph Giulietti, the executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, with the transition.

Read the complete article in the New York Times

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40% of the people who die in a car accident in New York, are the victims of reckless and dangerous drivers. Drivers who are speeding, not yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks or being distracted while driving have killed too many people on the streets of New York City.
By showing images of grieving families at the location of the accident that killed their loved ones, the New York City Department of Transportation new ad campaign sends a very strong message to New Yorkers to stop driving dangerously to reduce the number of people dying in car accidents caused by dangerous driving.

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In a very sad medical malpractice case a 16 year old girl died of brain cancer after none of the 13 doctors who failed to diagnose the brain tumor ordered an MRI. Natasha Simmons had all the symptoms of a brain tumor: headaches, numbness, back pain, vomiting and problems with her eyesight. She visited 13 doctors over a one year period but none of them ordered an MRI. An ER doctor refused a scan and said they were reserved for life and death situations. 11 months later, an MRI was finally done but it was too late. Natasha Simmons was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor and died 8 days later.

Read more in the Huffington Post

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Elisa Toro is the third person to die in a car accident at the exit of the Queensboro bridge in New York. Despite traffic modifications by the DOT to slow down traffic, the car of the 10 year veteran police officer ended up sideways against one of the store fronts at the bottom of the ramp. The police officer who wasn’t wearing a seat belt was killed in the accident . The Queensboro ramp is a notoriously dangerous location. Two people previously died in car accidents at that same location.

Read more in the New York Times

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In a car crash, the probability of sustaining serious personal injury or to die is much higher for drivers and car occupants if they are older adults. The number of drivers above 65 years old increased by 20% in 10 years. During that same time, the proportion of older drivers involved in deadly car accidents increased by 15%. To curb this alarming situation the NHTSA announced a new 5-Year Traffic Safety Plan and Guidelines for Older Drivers and Passengers

A previous NHTSA analysis of the personal injuries sustained by 18,000 occupants involved in a car accident shows that drivers over 75 have a higher risk of suffering personal injury than younger drivers especially when it comes to head, chest and legs and foot injuries. Statistics also show a much higher number of head and chest injuries for older car occupants involved in a side impact accident.

Intersection accidents are the most common car accidents older drivers make. In the most common cases they don’t notice potential conflicts or traffic signs and signals.

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Wrongful deaths and serious personal injuries related to traffic accidents are epidemic in New York. The newly appointed NYPD commissioner, Bill Bratton, promised that this situation would change.

In a speech Thursday Bratton said “It is ironic that even as the death totals have declined dramatically with violent crime in this city, this year the number of people killed on our streets – pedestrian and traffic — will almost equal the homicide total”.

Bratton said his priorities are to make the streets and the subways safer.

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onfi.pngSerious skin reactions medically known as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), can occur at any time during Onfi treatment warns the Food and Drug Administration. According to the FDA, 6 cases have been identified in the US and 14 out of the US. Out of the 6 cases identified in the US 5 were children. All the cases resulted in hospitalization with one case of blindness and two deaths.

Read the FDA Safety Alert

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Human error seems to be the cause of the Metro-North train accident that caused the death of 4 people and injured 63 others. According to sources, William Rockefeller, the train engineer was “in a daze” seconds before the train accident happened. The Bronx District Attorney’s office has launched its own probe to determine if there is evidence enough to file criminal charges. (see New York Daily News).

Steven Harrod, an expert in railroad safety said it “looked bad for the engineer” because a fail-safe design on this type of train would activate the brakes in case of a rupture in their air-pressure system. The evidence also suggests that Rockefeller didn’t downshift the throttle that controls the speed or activate the brakes until the train was right on the curve. (see New York Daily News)

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Our partner, New York Personal Injury Attorney Chris Sallay, was on ABC news yesterday to comment on the deadly train accident that happened Sunday morning in New York. According to the most recent information the train was traveling at 82 miles per hour as it approached a sharp curb where the speed limit was 30 miles per hour. The National Transportation Safety Board said the train’s sudden power shift came “very late in the game”. The train engineer, William Rockefeller is at the center of the investigation. Rockefeller was a veteran of the line and knew the road well. The investigation will determine if the speed was the result of a human error or faulty equipment.
Our hearts go out to the families of the victims of this horrible tragedy.