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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New York Wrongful death Attorneys Ben Rubinowitz and Peter SaghirOur New York Personal Injury Attorneys Ben Rubinowitz and Peter Saghir  recently obtained a $41.5 million Verdict for the wrongful death of a City sanitation worker who was struck by a sweeper truck.
43-year-old Steven Frosh, a City worker died on the job in 2014. He left behind a wife and 4 children aged 7 weeks, 3, 8 and 11 year-old. At the time of the accident, Mr. Frosh was in a city garage in Maspeth. He was making adjustments to his street sweeper truck when he was fatally hit by another street sweeper. He suffered excruciating pain for 2 to 3 minutes before succumbing to his injuries.
His wife, Bina Frosch, sued the City of New York for the negligence and carelessness of the worker driving the sweeper truck.
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deblasioToo many construction workers die or are getting injured on the job in New York City. A majority of fatal construction accidents occur at non unionized sites. Most of them can be prevented if workers observe basic safety rules. Unfortunately too often construction workers are not proprely trained about the dangers of working on construction sites. Many greedy contractors or developers hire cheap immigrant workers with little to no experience who get injured or even die in accidents because they haven’t been proprely trained.

To curb the recent increase of deaths on NYC construction sites,  Mayor de Blasio signed yesterday “Intro. 1447-C” a bill requiring each construction worker to attend 40 hours of safety training to be able to work at a New York construction site. “For the hard-hats in one of our city’s most dangerous jobs, this bill will help get them home to their families at night and keep the general public safe around construction sites. I want to thank Speaker Mark-Viverito and the Council for bringing this legislation into fruition and helping making our city even healthier, fairer and safer city for all.” said Mayor de Blasio in his press release.

The bill was supported by the construction workers unions but most of the contractors and the real estate industry opposed it. They argue that it would be expensive and that the timeline was impractical.  However, according to Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn), a sponsor of the bill, the city will provide $5 million to help pay for the training for small companies and minorities.

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Since Vision Zero started in 2014 fewer people are dying in traffic accidents in New York City but more and more are getting injured. Vision Zero initiatives  helped decrease the number of pedestrian deaths and injuries however the number of motorists injured in car accidents in the city increased at an alarming rate over the last 3 years.

5,163 people suffered personal injury in motor vehicle accidents in New York City last August compared to respectively 5,383,  4,737, 4,445, 4,007 and 4,846 in August 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.  Since the month of May the monthly number of people injured in traffic accidents stayed above 5,000.  The same occurred last summer as well.

Injuries and deaths related to traffic accidents in NYC
Despite a decrease in both pedestrian and bicycle accident injuries over the last 3 years the total number of motor vehicle accident injuries continued to grow mostly due to a steady increase of motorist injuries over the last 3 years.

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matthew vo nohlen died in a NYC bicycle accidentLast year Matthew Von Ohlen was riding his bike when he was intentionally hit by a driver who left him dying at the scene of the accident. The accident occurred on July 2nd 2016 on the Grand Street bike lane in East Williamsburg. Brooklyn, NYC.  Von Ohlen was heading home after a night shift at work in Manhattan. Surveillance video of the accident show Von Ohlen riding in the designated bike lane and being intentionally struck by a car. The video clearly shows the car slowing down and moving into the bike lane to strike him. The bicyclist fell, the car ran over him and then dragged him 10 to 20 feet before speeding away. The  car driver was later identified as 56 year old Juan Maldonado,a  South Williamsburg resident. He was arrested by the police.

During an 11-day trial , Maldonado appeared in a courtroom filled with friends and family members of Matthew Von Ohlen. On Monday the jury delivered the verdict after 3 hours of deliberation. Maldonado was found guilty of manslaughter, leaving the scene of a fatal crash, and reckless driving.  Maldonado will appear in Court again on October 18 when he may be sentenced for up to 15 years in prison.

Read more in DNA Info

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motorcyle accident2 men died in motorcycle accidents in NY on Monday.

A Queens motorcyclist died after colliding with a car around 7:30 pm. 26 year old Jamie Pusey was riding his motorcycle on Merrick Boulevard when he collided with a car near 130th Street in St. Albans. The motorcyclist flew of  his bike and fatally fell on the asphalt. The 20 year old driver stayed at the scene of the accident. He wasn’t charged. Investigation is ongoing.

The accident occurred just an hour after another biker was killed in Long Island.

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Hudson Yard had many construction accidents2 construction workers died and another one was seriously injured in New York last Thursday at 2 different locations.  The first fatal accident occurred around 9:15 in the morning. 43 year old Juan Chonillo, a veteran construction worker and a father of 5 was working on the 29th floor of the 1 Seaport Residences construction site when he lost his balance. He fatally fell on the top of the scaffold bridge installed above the sidewalk. Just before the accident Chonillo was raising a concrete framework to lay concrete on the floor. According to his cousin Angel Munoz, at the time of the accident Chonillo was trying “to free the crane from the building after a cable got stuck somehow”. Chonillo who was trained and certified. He was wearing his harness but it wasn’t attached to anything. Chonillo had 10 years experience in the New York construction industry including several construction sites in the Financial district. The day before the accident the DOB issued a partial  stop work order for the unsafe operation of a crane. It appeared that the crane had been installed without a permit. It is not exactly clear so far if the death of the worker is directly related to the unsafe installation of the crane. Prior to the accident the construction site was hit with 28 complaints including several failures  to safeguard workers and property and a failure to provide a concrete safety manager at the time of an inspection. Chonillo was employed by the contractor Pizzarotti IBC. The construction site of the luxury all-glass residential building is located at 161 Maiden Lane.

Later on during the same day, two other construction workers fell 36 feet from a bucket lift at a construction site located at 401 9th Ave. The buildiing is part of the Hudson Yards development. One of the workers died and the other one was seriously injured. He was rushed to the hospital. According to NBC New York, the two workers were wearing a safety harness but were not attached to the bucket. It is the second time that a worker fell to his death at this location. Last June, Roger Vail was surveying the 16th floor of the building when he stood on a wooden platform that gave way (see previous blog).  The site was temporarily shut down in June and then re-opened after a safety plan was submitted to the city. Read more in the NY Daily News

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3 people died and 16 suffered injury in a bus accident that occurred in Queens, NYC, last week. Around 6:00 am last Monday, 49-year-old Raymond Mong was driving an empty charter bus owned by the Dahlia tour company when he ran a red light and crashed into a MTA bus in Flushing. The crash occurred at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and Main Street.  Footage from a security camera shows the Dahlia bus recklessly speeding through the intersection and crashing into the MTA bus which was making a right turn from Main street onto Northern Boulevard.

The bus driver, Raymond Mong, died in the accident as well as a pedestrian (68 year old Henry Wdowiak) and a MTA bus rider (55 year old Gregory Liljefors). Among the 16 other people who were injured in the accident, five of them were still hospitalized with 3 of them in critical condition.  According to the most recent results of the investigation,  Mong drove through the intersection at a speed of 58 mph. The maximum speed limit in the city is 25 mph.

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truck and bicycle accident locationA cyclist was fatally hit by a truck in New York  and another one was critically injured after being struck by a car yesterday in Brooklyn. The first accident occurred in  Crown Heights, Brooklyn, around 7:00 am. A  35 year old man was riding his bike on Utica Avenue when he got hit by a car at the intersection of Empire Boulevard. The cyclist suffered critical injury and was rushed to a nearby hospital. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident and wasn’t charged. (read more on PIX11).

Another bicycle accident occurred later on around 5:45 pm in Manhattan. A box truck  fatally hit a cyclist. The 38 year old truck driver was driving East on Walker Street. As he was making a right turn onto Broadway he hit 48 year old Yan Jindee who was riding her bike.  A witness working near the scene of the accident said he heard a loud bang and stepped out. He saw the victim on the ground. When the paramedics arrived the victim was unconscious. They performed CPR on her for a few minutes but they couldn’t save her. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident. According to the police, it is not clear yet if he is facing charges or not. There are no bike lanes  either on Walker or on Broadway. (read more in the NY Daily  News)

Picture of the location of the accident between the truck and the bicycle, courtesy of Google Map

 

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A New York City cab driver whose passenger fell out of his cab just continued on his way. Seconds later the passenger was hit by another yellow cab who also fled the scene of the accident and left her dead on the road. The hit and run accident occurred as the taxi was heading South on Lexington Ave between 69th and 68th  Streets yesterday morning a little after 5:00 am. For some unknown reason  the woman who was riding the taxi opened the rear door and fell out of it. Moment later another yellow cab also driving South on Lexington hit her and never stopped. The victim was rushed to the hospital but she couldn’t be saved. The police weren’t able to identify her but according to witnesses she was a homeless person often seen in the area.  The police were able to find the first cab driver. He was identified as 46 year old Azizur Mazumder and was arrested by the police two hours later near the accident scene. He was charged with reckless endangerment and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. The police are still looking for the second hit and run cab driver. Read more in the NY Daily News

 

 

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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