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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firefighter who diedA FDNY firefighter fell to his death Thursday afternoon as he was fighting a fire in a NYC apartment. 42 year old, William Tolley was responding to a two-alarm apartment fire on the third floor of  a building located on Putnam Ave in Ridgewood, Queens.  The fatal accident happened when the fire was almost extinguished. Tolley had just finished executing a routine operation on the rooftop. He was about to get in the bucket at the end of a five story ladder when something went wrong and he fell to his death.

It is not clear so far if Tolley took a misstep or if  a mechanical issue with the ladder or the bucket caused the accident. The truck was kept on the street with the ladder extended for investigation purposes.

The FDNY said the fire was a minor blaze with very limited risk of injury or death and the accident was “bizarre”.

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carbon monoxide danger signA couple died from carbon monoxide poisoning in New York last Sunday.

71 year old Doris Crawford and 80 year old John Crawford were found dead in their Harlem home On Easter Sunday morning by their daughter and her husband.  After her parents didn’t answer the phone, she and her husband went to check on them. They were supposed to go together to church for the Easter service.  The daughter told investigators that she smelled gas as soon as she entered the apartment. She and her husband found her dad lying in his bed in a pool of vomit and her mother siting in a chair in front of the tv. Both were dead. The oven was turned on but there was nothing inside it.

According to an ongoing investigation, The FDNY found a carbon monoxide detector without batteries on a table inside the apartment where the couple lived. Investigators suspect that the couple didn’t realize that their apartment was filling with CO2. They also suspect that the couple took the batteries out of the detector because the device started beeping. According to their neighbors, maintenance workers had just replaced smoke and CO2 detectors a few weeks ago in the building. Therefore the couple may have thought a defective detector was installed in their apartment and removed it.

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The truck driver who fatally struck a bicyclist may face criminal charges. The NYPD Collision Squad Investigation told the media yesterday that they are planing to recommend criminal charges against the truck driver who killed 31 year old Kelly Hurley. The woman was riding her bike through the intersection of First Avenue and East 9th Street when she was hit by a box truck making a left turn. Both the truck and the bicyclist had the green light.This type of intersection is called a “mixing zone” intersection. According to the NYC traffic law the bicyclist had the right of way. The truck driver failed to yield and struck her. According to the Collision Squad Investigation the woman tried to avoid the truck by dismounting her bike but she couldn’t avoid it. (Read more in DNA)

A few days ago, comments by a NYPD representative who blamed the victim and cops being seen ticketing bicyclists a lock away from the fatal crash outraged bicyclist advocates. (See previous blog)

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Building-Blocks-NYC_logo-1Too many construction workers die in New York City because they are not proprely trained for the job. Yesterday the Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust (LECET) and District Council 9, International Union of Painter and Allied Trades (DC9 New York) announced that they were joining forces by creating Building Blocks NYC, a new coalition to advocate for the passage of Intro 1447 by the New York City Council. Intro 1447 is a legislation that would increase training for all construction workers in New York City, union and non-union alike.

Over the last 2 years 33 construction workers died on the job in New York City. The most recent fatal construction accident in the city occurred last week in Time Square, New York. 59 year old Jose Cruz fell 18 feet to his death. Cruz fell from an I-Beam. At the time of the accident, Cruz was wearing a safety harness but it wasn’t tied it off. The accident was completely preventable. (see previous blog)

Cruz was working for Streamline USA, a non unionized contractor. Streamline has a history of safety violations on its construction sites and was fined twice by OSHA over the last year. The majority of fatal NYC construction accidents occurred on non-unionized construction sites. Building Block NYC believes that many of these fatal accidents may have been prevented if employees were proprely trained. Unlike unionized contractors who require their employees to sit down in classrooms and participate in rigorous training programs, many non unionized contractors neglect to proprely train their employees.

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Kelly Hurley, The 31 year old woman who was critically injured in a bicycle accident in New York (see previous blog) didn’t survive her injury. She was taken off life support a few days ago and passed away.

Kelly was heading North on First Ave in Manhattan when a truck making a left turn onto East 9th Street hit her. She had the right of way. Despite violating the right of way law, NYPD announced today that they only issued a summons to the driver for “not having a cross over mirror”. The police also blamed the victim and said that “the victim sadly slipped off her bike”. (see DNA info)

The police were observed ticketing bicyclists one block away from the fatal accident scene.  (see the Gothamist)

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A construction worker was fatally struck by a bulldozer in Red Hook, NY last week. Susan M. Coons of Elizaville in Columbia County was working on a field leveling project for Jeff Decker & Son with another construction worker. 45 year old Kenneth Bendix was operating the 18-ton bulldozer. He struck her as he was moving the machine to make a minor adjustment to the blade.

The woman was transported to the hospital but she didn’t survive.

Read more in the Poughkeepsie Journal  

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diatracted driving accidents prevention poster

Just is all it takes

In New York Sate, car crashes involving distracted drivers killed 160 people and injured more than 33,000 in 20015 according to a study from the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research that was published a few months ago. The study estimates that around 20 to 22% of the fatal car accidents in New York State are related to distracted driving. The problem is not only in New York but all over The United States.  Nationally during the whole year of 2015, 3,477 people died and 391,000 were injured in distracted driving accidents.

April is “Distracted Driving Awareness Month” and during the whole month the National Safety Council (NSC) is campaigning to crack down on this epidemic. The NSC invites organizations and communities to share information about distracted driving. Various material is available to download on their website.

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Location of the fatal New York Construction AccidentA man died in a construction accident in New York yesterday morning. According to Rick Chandler, New York City Building Commissioner, the death was completely preventable.

The fatal fall occurred around 11:00 am yesterday on a construction site located at 1604 Broadway, near West 49th Street in Time Square, New York.

59 year old Jose Cruz, a native of The Dominican Republic living in Sunset Park, fell 18 feet to his death from an I-beam near the second floor. The accident occurred as he was helping remove part of a steel deck from a slab. Despite working at heights he wasn’t wearing proper fall protection equipment.

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accident sceneA 25 year old man died in a car accident in New York City around 4:00 am this morning. The man was riding a car driven by a 22 year old driver who may have been drunk or high according to the police. The car had  a Taxi & Limousine Commission license plate. So far it is not clear if the passenger knew the driver or if he was a customer.

As he was attempting to exit the Bronx River Parkway at East Gun Hill Road in the Bronx, the driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a concrete wall. Speed may have been a factor contributing to the accident as well.

Both the driver and the passenger where rushed to the hospital. The passenger didn’t survive. The driver is in critical condition.

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A 21 year old man died and several other people were injured in a car accident in NYC last Saturday night.

Around 8:30 pm, 37 year old Terrance Smith was driving his car on Powell Street in Brooklyn, NYC. He was speeding while at the same time arguing with his passenger.  As he approached the intersection of Glenmore Ave in Brownsville he hit 21 year old Michael Joefield who was rollerblading in the street.  The impact of the accident was so violent that the roller-blades were ejected from Michael’s feet and flew into the window of a nearby van.

Michael’s body got stuck under Terrance’s car but he didn’t stop. He continued on his way dragging the body under his car and slamming into two others vehicles and into a stop sign.

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