A 35 year old pedestrian died after being involved in a car accident as he was crossing Woodhaven Blvd at Jamaica Avenue in Queens, New York. The driver of the car left the scene of the accident without stopping. The police are looking for a white Honda sedan.
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.
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.
Serious 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
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)
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.
An alleged drunk driver killed a man and injured another in a car accident that happened early Saturday morning in Queens New York. A 23 year old driver crashed his car into another car driven by 39 year old Jimmy Sinisi. The impact was so strong that Sinisi was crushed in his car and died at the hospital. The passenger was injured but in stable condition. The 23 year old driver appeared to be drunk but he refused a Breathalyzer test. He was taken to the Hospital in critical condition where his blood was being drawn to test for alcohol.
Read more in the New York Daily News
A New York Metro-North train derailed this morning. 4 people died in the accident and 63 suffered personal injury including 11 critical injuries and 6 serious injuries.
The derailment happened in the Bronx where the Hudson and Harlem rivers meet. It is a dangerous area as the rails make a sharp curve. A previous accident happened at this location when last July 10 cars of a CSX freight train carrying trash derailed.
“That is a dangerous area on the track just by design,” Governor Andrew Cuomo told CNN after touring the site. “The trains are going about 70 miles per hour coming down the straight part of the track. They slow to about 30 miles per hour to make that sharp curve … where the Hudson River meets the Harlem River and that is a difficult area of the track.”
The epidemic number of wrongful death related to pedestrians and bicyclists hit by vehicles reached a new high on Wednesday night as 4 people were killed in an half an hour time span in New York City. A man who was riding his bike in Queens died after being hit by a truck whose driver fled. A an 88-year-old woman crossing Ave. C in Manhattan was killed after being struck by a Con Ed truck and two women were killed when a car hit them as they crossed Forest Hill Road in Staten Island.
Read more in the New York Daily News
In New York lately pedestrians have been killed in car accidents on an almost daily basis. Last week another 7 people were killed in traffic accidents, most of them because of driver error.
On Friday 66 year old Maria Montalvo was struck in a crosswalk by a reckless driver making a left turn. Maria is the 29th senior person killed by a car in 2013.
On Monday 3 other people were killed on New York sidewalks: in Queens a young driver jumped the curb and killed Man Chit Cheng, 59, and Muang Lin, 41 and in East Harlem a woman was killed by a cab driver who lost control of his vehicle after he struck a truck.
New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog