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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methA reckless motorist who fatally struck a pedestrian and injured a few others in New York was convicted of murder. 35 year old Shaun Martin was high on Meth and PCP when in 2013 he sped down Second Avenue in Manhattan, NYC, jumped the curb and fatally hit a florist who was just coming home from his night shift. Two other pedestrians were also injured by the reckless driver. Shaun Martin is now facing life in prison. Read more in the NY Daily News

picture source: wikipedia

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The reckless driver of a BMW who killed a mother and severely injured her daughter in a car accident in New York City and ran away has been arrested by the police. Last Sunday 58 year old Jairam Budhu was driving  his BMW with a suspended license at twice the authorized speed limit when he blew a right light and crashed into another car killing a mother and critically injuring her daughter. He then fled the scene of the accident on foot leaving in his car a passenger who was also injured. He was found by the police while having a drink on his porch at 8:00 am on Sunday morning. He was arrested and charged with manslaughter, assault, criminally negligent homicide, leaving the scene of an accident and unlicensed operation of a car. Read more in the NY Daily News

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To prevent kids from dying when they get hit hard in the chest while playing baseball, the city of New York offered free defibrillators to all male youth baseball teams but not the female softball teams. Apparently the city’s budget for defibrillators was not sufficient to cover all youth baseball and soft ball teams so they just offered them to the boys teams. The softball coaches are outraged and asked the city why the youth female teams do not get a free defibrillator.  Despite statistics showing that commotio cordis happens more frequently to young male players than female players both boys and girls deserves the same protection in case of such an accident.

When a baseball or softball player get hit hard in the chest by a ball, he or she can suffer commotio cordis which is a condition during which the heart stops working properly. It affects mostly young athletes and leads to deaths in 65% of the cases.  Victims are usually saved from death using a defibrillator to provide a shock to the heart to try to restart it.

Last May Mayor deBlasio signed a law to provide a free automated external defibrillator for baseball leagues who play on city fields but not for the softball teams or other sports teams.

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bicycle accident locationA bicyclist died after being hit by a suspected drunk driver in NYC. 17 year old Sean Ryan was riding his bike at Gerritsen and Gotham Aves., near Marine Park in Gerritsen Beach when he was hit by a car driving South on Gerritsen. 3 other people were injured in the accident including one severely according to the NY Daily News. The 24 year old driver, Thomas Groarke was arrested. He was suspected of drunk driving and may be charged with manslaughter.

Picture of the accident location: courtesy of Google Map

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A mother died and  her daughter was seriously injured in a car accident in New York City yesterday. The 41-year-old woman was riding in a car driven by her husband.  She and  Her 9-year-old daughter were sitting in the backseat. A 71-year-old man  was riding in the car with them in the front passenger seat. They were driving north on 130th Street in South Ozone Park in Queens around 5:00 pm. As they drove  through the intersection of 115th Ave, a speeding BMW  that just blew a red light crashed into them violently. Witnesses said it  sounded like a bomb.  The impact was so strong that the mother and the daughter were ejected  from the car and landed on the street. The mother died and the daughter was seriously injured. The father as well as the passenger were also injured but in stable condition. The driver of the BMW ran away leaving behind him an injured passenger. Read more in the NY Daily News 

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imageA drunk off duty cop killed a pedestrian and injured 3 others in Brooklyn, NYC, Sunday around 3:00 am.  21 year old Andrew Esquivel (photo ), a MIT student interning in New York for the summer , was walking home when he was hit by an out of control car that jumped the curb. Another man and two other women were seriously injured in the accident. The driver of the car was off duty NYPD Officer Nicholas Batka who was allegedly drunk but refused a breathalyzer test. He was charged with vehicular manslaughter, three counts of assault, driving while intoxicated, driving with impaired ability and driving on a sidewalk. Read more in the NY Daily News 

 

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Cy VanceLast year 22 year old Carlos Moncayo died in a  construction accident in New York. The young worker was crushed to death by a collapsing  wall on the site of the former Pastis restaurant in the Meatpacking district, in lower Manhattan, NYC. Prior to the accident, Harco, the contractor, had been warned by an  independent engineer  that the construction site was unsafe and that it should be closed.  The contractor refused and Carlos died. (See previous blogs here and here)

A coalition of 22  groups including District Attorney Vance and then Building Trade Employers’ Association (BTEA) are asking the judge to impose the maximum sentence on  Harco.  Harco was found guilty of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment by Judge A. Kirke Bartley.  The D.A.  Also requested that the contractor pay for an advertising campaign to promote  worker safety this fall in New York.

Read more in the Real Deal 

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A pedestrian was  fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver  Tuesday night in New York City. According to DNA info the man was intoxicated. He had just come out of a limo and he fell on the ground before being hit by a car. The fatal car accident happened on Jerome Avenue near the Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.  The limo driver called 911 after the accident. The man was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. The police are still looking for a white Chevrolet Impala.

Read more in  DNA info 

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Crane ReportFollowing the fatal collapse of a crane in  lower Manhattan last February, Mayor de Blasio and NYC building commissioner Rick Chandler created the Crane Safety Technical Working Group. The mission of this independent group of experts was to assess actual New York crane safety regulations and provide a set of  recommendations to improve existing regulations and limit further crane accidents in New York City. A few days ago the group released a report that includes  23 recommendations to improve crane safety in New York City.

The group noted that despite having some of the most comprehensive crane safety regulations in the world, the NYC  Department of Buildings hasn’t comprehensively revised and updated these regulations since 2008. In between technology and best practices have evolved tremendously. A new effort to update regulations was launched by the DOB  last year but nothing has been released yet. Therefore the Crane Safety Technical Working Group proposes that the Department of Buildings integrates the Crane Safety Technical Working Group recommendations with their ongoing efforts to update the existing crane regulations.

In its recommendations, the group suggests:

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A pedestrian died after being hit by a car in NYC.  The accident happened early Monday morning a little bit before 1:00 am. The 22 year old man had just stolen beers at a Bodega in the Bronx and  was running across Bruckner Boulevard near 149th street. He was struck by a SUV driving west on the boulevard. The pedestrian was found unconscious at the scene of the accident. He was transported to the hospital where he was declared dead. The police are still investigating the exact cause of the accident.

Read more in the NY Daily News