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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Construction_Accident31 people died in construction accidents in New York over the last 2 years. Injuries from construction accidents recorded by the New York City Department of Buildings increased by 250% from 2011 to 2015.  The recent construction boom in the city has contributed to this increase in hard hats deaths and injuries.

In a recent opinion in the New York Times, Dominique Bravo, director of Pathways 2 Apprenticeships, expressed his outrage at the laissez-faire attitude in regards to safety regulations in the New York construction industry. Bravo notes that while the number of construction permits issued by the DOB increased by 18% between 2100 and 2014 the number of OSHA inspectors in New York State decreased by 13% during the same period of time. They are only 71 OSHA inspectors for the entire State of New York.

INADEQUATE FALL PROTECTION IS THE MOST COMMON VIOLATION

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Trasnportation Alternatives logo9 people including 7 pedestrians and bicyclists died in NYC car crashes in the first 10 days of 2017. In a recent statement, Paul Steely White, the Transportation Alternatives Executive Director, expressed his outrage and asked the city of New York to accelerate street redesigns. He also wants the New York police to change their attitude and be more accountable.

In his statement, Steely White, noted that 7 of the 9 fatal crashes occurred in locations that have been previously identified by Vision Zero as “priority areas”.  Transportation Alternatives asks the city to allocate immediate funding to redesign these high crashes locations.

Steely White also expressed his outrage towards NYPD investigators behavior. The  NYPD has a horrible habit of blaming the victims and exonerating drivers. For example, the driver of the box truck who fatally struck Rafael Nieves last week and left the scene of the accident was let go without his case being referred to the district attorney (see previous blog). The police also didn’t charge the driver who killed 43 year old Marlon Palacios. The driver told the police his leg had become stiff and got stuck on the accelerator.  The police have the power to act as a judge and a jury while a court should make such decision.  Additionally  the police are supposed to deter dangerous driving in New York City but they often blame the victims and let go reckless drivers.

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A woman died from her injuries after being struck by a car at a Long Island gas station. 62 year old Rosalie Koenig, was pumping gas when an out of control car crashed into the gas station. Koenig was pinned between the pump and her car. The reckless driver, 53 year old Renee McKinney, lost control of her vehicle after she overdosed on heroin. She was arrested by the police and charged with driving while impaired by drugs. Koenig was transported to the hospital with critical injuries. She died the following day. The accident happened at a gas station located on William Floyd Parkway in Shirley, Long Island.

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Near Missed event visualized with BMI20% of  the workers who die at work are construction workers but they represent only 4% of the employed workforce in the US. Hard hats are among the workers that have the most risk of being injured or even dying on the job. Sadly, most of these accidents are preventable.

As technology develops, the construction industry has been relying more and more on Building Information Modeling (BIM) to develop its projects. BIM is used throughout the life cycle of a construction project to digitally monitor the design, the plan and the construction itself. BIM can also be used for safety management.

A recent short study published by the Center For Construction Research and Training shows how “near miss accidents” can be visualized in Building Information Modeling.  The authors of the study are Dr Eric Marks and Xu Chen from the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alabama.  Dr Eric Marks recently hosted a free 30 min CPWR Webinar on this subject. The webinar can be seen here.

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bicycle-and-truck-accident-locationA bicyclist was fatally struck by a cement truck in New York last Thursday. The bicyclist was heading to the Greenway and was in the crosswalk of the West Side Highway at the intersection of West 55th Street. The cement truck was driving west and was making a right turn onto the West Side Highway when it struck the victim. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident. He hasn’t been charged so far. It is not clear yet if  he failed to yield to the bicyclist. The bicyclist was found by the police unconscious at the scene of the accident with severe head and bodily trauma.

According to the Gothamist, so far this year the police recorded 21 crashes at this location with 5 people injured in 3 of them. The previous year there were 20 crashes at this intersection 4 resulting in injury. Among the people injured was another bicyclist who had been struck by a car.

 

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accident scene3 men were struck by a minivan as they were changing a flat tire on a highway. One of them died and the two others suffered serious injury. They were expected to survive. The car accident occurred around 2:00 am this morning on a segment of the New England Thruway in the Bronx, NYC.  After one of their tires broke, 3 men in a car pulled over on a narrow shoulder of the highway. As they were changing the tire, a 52 year old man driving a minivan struck all 3 men. The driver remained at the scene of the accident. He wasn’t charged. Read more in AMNY

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A one year old boy died and six people were injured including two severely in a NYC fire accident yesterday morning morning. The fire started in a three bedroom apartment located on the 13th floor of a building located on Mother Gaston Blvd in Brooklyn NYC. Seven people were living in the apartment. Firemen rescued the bay boy but he died an hour later at the hospital. two other people are still fighting for their life and 4 others were injured but expected to survive. They were all transported to a nearby hospital. Read more in Brownsville Patch

Another fire broke at a new wing of the NYU Langone Hospital in Midtown Manhattan. Nobody was injured as the building was still under construction. Black smoke and massive flames caused by tar burning erupted from the rooftop. The smoke invaded the entire Kips Bay neighborhood. Read more in the NY Daily News

Yesterday 8 people including two firefighters were injured in a fire that erupted in a Bronx two-story houses (see NY Daily News). As the weather is getting colder in the City the number of residential fires has been increasing these last days.

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fatal truck accident locationA woman was fatally struck by a truck in New York on Friday afternoon. The 57 year old pedestrian was crossing 39th Street and 10th Ave when she was hit by a truck. The truck driver was travelling North on 10th Ave and was making a left turn on 39th street (see picture) when the accident happened.  The driver identified as 28 year old Clyburn Rance stayed at the scene of the accident. He was later arrested by the police.  He was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian, failure to exercise due care, and failure to adhere to the highway law.

At the beginning of November, a campaign entitled “Dusk and Darkness” was launched in New York City to inform drivers and pedestrians about the increased risk of accidents during fall and winter darkness. During the 3 months following daylight saving time, twilight sets around 4:30 pm in New York City.  Between 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm when most commuters are coming out of work, the streets are already dark. The risk of accidents increases as visibility decreases and a higher number of pedestrians hit the streets of New York City.  Recent statistics show that 6 out of 9 pedestrian accidents during the 3 months following daylight saving times occur after sunset.

The intersection of 10th Ave and 39th street is extremely busy on Friday around 5:00 pm as it is located next to the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey.

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Domino_Sugar_refineryA construction worker fell to his death in New York City on Friday morning around 8:00 am. 59 year old Wilfredo Enrique was working on the facade of  a new residential development when he fell to his death.  Enrique was employed by Two Trees Management and was working on the construction site located on the old site of the Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn. After the accident the site was closed and investigators were working on determining the exact cause of the fatal accident.

According to the most recent complaints reported on the NYC Department of Building website, the scaffold didn’t meet the building safety code standard. The worker fell approximately 4 floors from the master climbingwork platform, after Two Trees Management failed to safeguard the platform.  Since the construction started 41 complaints have been filled. The Department of Building issued a total of 27 violations, most of them immediately hazardous. 3 of them were still open at the time of the accident. Among the open violation were the use of rigging equipment by a non licensed rigger and the failure to safeguard all persons and property affected by the construction operations.

The accident occurred just a few weeks after the death of two other NYC construction workers in Queens (see previous blog). According to Union representatives, Enrique is the 29th construction worker who died over the last two years in New York City. The boom in the construction sector in New York has led to an increase in construction jobs in the city. In 2015, the New York Building Congress recorded 138,200 construction jobs, the highest in 40 years.

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Building at 720 Hunts Point2 sisters died from burns after a radiator exploded in their apartment in the Bronx, New York City. 1 year old Scylee Ambrose and 2 year old Ibanez Ambrose were sleeping in their bedroom when a radiator valve blew off. The entire room quickly filled with hot steam. The two girls were rushed to the hospital but they couldn’t be saved.

The explosion occurred wednesday afternoon in a building located at 720 Hunts Point Avenue in the Bronx. The building shelters 5 homeless  families. It is run by the Bushwick Economic Development Corp. As part of a city program called cluster-site, five families are living in this building. The rent is paid by the city until the families can find permanent housing. The cluster-site program has a bad reputation. Many of the units housing families in this program are among the worst maintained and the most poorly monitored properties among all NYC shelters. Last year a report published by the Department of Investigation found “a lot of dangerous conditions at clusters”.

The building in which the accident happened has received 60 complaints form the Department of Buildings.

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