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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A 23 year old New York pedestrian died and 5 others were injured in two separate hit-and-run accidents.

20 year old Aniya Blandon  died in a in hit-and-run accident in Brooklyn on Monday. The young woman was standing at a bus stop with her husband when a driver who was apparently drag racing, lost control of the vehicle, jumped the curb and hit them. Her husband, 23 year old Kevon Westley tried to push her out of the way but it was too late. The wife and husband were both on their way to work. Kevon was planning on dropping his wife at the dollar store where she works with her cousin before going to work as maintenance person at the Philip Howard Apartments in Brooklyn. As they were waiting for the bus at Utica Ave. and Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Kevon saw a first car passing by at high speed, then the second one followed, hit a bump and drifted toward them. Kevon tried to push Aniya out of the way and then passed out. He woke up in the ambulance and was later on diagnosed with a concussion and multiple injuries to his arm, leg and foot. When he woke up in the ambulance, his wife was still alive but passed away shortly after.  A witness to the accident saw the two cars racing and saw one of them jumping the curb and hitting a utility pole that fell on Aniya and hit her in the head. The driver of the car took off on foot.

A day before, on Sunday evening, in Washington Heights, Manhattan, a hit and run driver slammed into two women and two children who were crossing the street.  One of the pedestrians, a 36 year old woman suffered traumatic brain injury and was listed in critical condition. The two children a 9 year old and an eight year old boy suffered minor injuries. The police are still looking for the driver of the Mercedes Benz who sped away after slamming into them.

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Ventricular_assist_device (1)Medtronic stopped the sale of the defective HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device, or HVAD last June after more than 3,000 patients died and 20,000 were injured.

Since 2011, multiple problems with the device have been reported to the Food and Drug Administration but the agency never took any decisive action to make sure the manufacturer  fixed the problems. The FDA and its Center for Devices and Radiological Health are in charge of making sure that medical devices are safe and effective for patients however as we highlighted in a previous blog, the agency policy is too accommodating with manufacturers. It has the power to seize products or to issue fines but rarely uses it.

In the case of the HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device, the FDA knew about issues with the product as early as 2011 when the product was developed by the parent company HeartWare and was seeking FDA approval. An inspector mentioned in its report that engineers were not reviewing documents fully before approving them and that the employee assigned to quality control did not have sufficient training. The company told the FDA they would take corrective actions.

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FDA-logoMany defective medical devices might still be used by medical professionals because deaths that occurred when using these devices are being mislabeled as injuries in the FDA Medical Database according to a study published last week in JAMA Network. The study looked at 290,141 reports of defective medical devices that resulted in serious injuries or deaths that were processed by an algorithm. They found that 52% were classified as deaths and 47.9% were classified by the algorithm as malfunction, injury, other or missing. Among these 47.9% that were not classified as death, 23% of these reports were indeed death reports that were not classified proprely by the algorithm. As a result many deadly devices might still be used on patients.  The FDA must review all reports classified as death but does not routinely review all reports that are classified as other or misfunction.

The most dangerous of all medical devices were the ventricular assist bypass devices. These devices represented 13% of all adverse event reports. Coming in second position was the dialysate concentrate for hemodialysis in liquid or in powder with 8.7% of all adverse event reports. The third most reported defective devices were the transcervical contraceptive tubal occlusion devices with 5% of all adverse reports.

The authors of the study also mention that 95% of the adverse event reports were made by manufacturers and not by healthcare facilities or physicians which might constitute a conflict of interest. The authors note that delays in reporting serious injuries or deaths were common. An example of this issue was the Essure permanent birth control device. 32,000 women reported issues with this device between 2002 and 2013 while the FDA only received 1,023 reports.

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accident sceneTwo men died in a two separate motorcycle accidents in Brooklyn, NYC, this week-end. A woman who was a passenger in one of the accidents is in critical condition. The first accident took place on the Williamsburg Bridge on Saturday night, around 9:40 pm. 48 year old Khayyam Jackson was riding his motorcycle at high speed going toward Brooklyn. As he was trying to pass a car he rear-ended it and as a result lost control of his bike and careened into a pillar of the bridge. The impact was so strong that the motorcycle driver was killed in the accident. The driver of the car remained at the scene of the accident and was not charged.

A few hours later, early Sunday morning, around 2:15 am, 30 year old David Fuller-Gist was riding his motorcycle with a 24 year female passenger on Atlantic Avenue in Crown Heights when he lost control of his bike. He crashed into a pillar of the elevated Long Island Rail Road tracks at the intersection of Troy Ave. Both riders were rushed to the hospital. David passed away and the female passenger was in critical condition. (Read more in the NY Daily News )

Speeding BMW driver  kills 77 year old woman on the Van Wick Expressway

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A total of 118 people including 39 motorists, 16 motor vehicle passengers, 5 cyclists and 58 pedestrians lost their life in crashes in New York City during the first six months of 2021. This is the highest number of traffic accident fatalities during the first semester since 2013 when 121 people died in crashes. During the 7 following years, after Vision Zero was launched in 2014, auto fatalities declined and oscillated around 100 during the first six months of the year with their lowest at 84 deaths during the first semester of 2018.

traffic accident fatalities NYC 1st semester 2021
New York City auto accident injuries were lower than usual during the first semester of 2021. Since the beginning of the pandemic last year, less people have been on the road in the city which might explain the decline in injuries. A total of 22,898 people were injured. Among them were 10,975 motorists, 6,492 passengers, 2,303 cyclists and 3,128 pedestrians.

traffic accident injuries new york 1st sem 2021
Pedestrian fatalities were at their highest since 2014 last semester with 58 deaths compared to respectively, 37, 51, 49, 49, 56, 34, 60 and 72 during the first six months of 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.It is very disappointing that after 7 years of  multiple Vision Zero initiatives, the number of pedestrian fatalities is back at its 2014 level. Are more pedestrians dying because the streets are still less busy than usual and more people are speeding or driving in a reckless manner?

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location of the dump truck accident in Brooklyn, NYCA scooter rider was fatally struck by a dump truck in Brooklyn, NYC, yesterday morning. The accident took place at the dangerous intersection of Canton Avenue and East 7th Street in Kensington, Brooklyn.  The scooter rider that was killed yesterday was identified as 27 year old Frederico Zaput Palsa.  The young man was working at the time of the accident, making a delivery for the pan-Asian restaurant Dao Palate in Park Slope. The truck driver, a 42 year old man, remained at the scene of the accident and so far has not been charged.

Both the dump truck and the scooter were trying to go around a double-parked car

According to the preliminary report of the Police, the scooter rider and the truck driver were both going East on Canton Avenue, the collision occurred as both the scooter and the truck were trying to go around a double-parked car.  Zaput Palax suffered a critical head injury and died at the scene of the accident.  His 21 year old brother, Alfonso was heartbroken. He told the News that he had already lost another brother to Covid19 last year.  Frederico  was the father of two sons and one daughter who live in Guatemala.

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Professor Daniel PollackIn a recent commentary in the New York Law Journal, Daniel Pollack, MSW, Esq., a professor at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work in New York City wrote: “If at some point a lawsuit is brought against the department of human services/CPS in connection with that death, compassionate, yet experienced plaintiff and defense attorneys, familiar with the inner workings of CPS, will definitely be needed.”

The commentary can be found here 

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A 71 year old cyclist was fatally struck by a postal truck at the intersection of 86th Street and Central Park West in Manhattan, NYC.

Last Tuesday around 5:40 pm, Jeffrey Williamson, an avid cyclist, was commuting back from his work downtown to his house in the Upper West Side when a postal truck making a right turn from Central Park West onto the 86th Street traverse hit him. The cyclist, a marketing professional who was close to retirement, was in the bike lane when the truck struck him.

He was rushed to the hospital where he died a few hours later from body trauma. He leaves behind his wife, 68 year old Chris Brimer and two children.

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workers on suspended scaffoldIn an effort to reduce construction accident deaths and injuries in New York City, the Department of Buildings has been deploying new strategies and increasing its staff. It just released a new report about it.

New inspection unit

The DOB role is not only to deliver wok permits for new construction or renovations but also to make sure that construction workers are being fully protected when they do their job. In order to do so the DOB created a new inspection unit called the “Construction Safety Compliance”. Inspectors in this unit are targeting mainly large NYC construction sites and making sure that all workers have been following the Site Safety Training and contractors are respecting all construction safety rules.

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5 construction workers died on the job in New York City between April 1st and May 31st. This is the highest number of  hard hat fatalities over a 2-month period since at least 2015. 2 fatal accidents occurred in Brooklyn, 1 in Manhattan, 1 in the Bronx and 1 in Queens. So far, since the beginning of the year, 7 workers died on NYC construction sites compared to respectively  1 and 8  for the same period of  2020 and 2019. (click on the graphs for full view)

Construction Accident Deaths May 2021 NYC
64 NYC construction workers suffered injuries in April and 38 in May. Between January 1st 2021 and May 31st a total of 223 workers were injured on the job in the city. It is more than during the same period of 2020, when 186 workers were injured, but less than during the same period of 2019 when 502 hard hats were injured.

Injuries on New York Construction sites May 21

Manhattan remains the borough with the highest number of construction accidents as well as the highest number of injuries and deaths related to these accidents

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