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

Published on:

An elderly pedestrian died in a bus accident in New York City. The 70 year old woman was crossing the street at the intersection of Sackman Street and Fulton Street around 6:15 am yeserday morning when she was struck by a MTA bus turning from Sackman Street onto Fulton Street.  The bus kept going and the victim was left on the road “cut in half” according to Ramon Garcia, a witness who tried to help her. She died at the scene of the accident.  The witness said the bus driver stopped briefly at the stop sign before making the turn and hit the woman who was using a walker.

Though the driver left the scene and may have violated the Right of Way Law, police “did not immediately suspect criminality.” The Right of Way Law makes it a misdemeanor for a driver to injure or kill someone who is walking or biking with the right of way. Read more in Street Blog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI28pp1NSVs

Published on:

SoMummyInjuriesPosterpeople died and 4000 suffered personal injuries during Halloween activities last year. 40% of the injuries were lacerations from pumpkin carving.  People, especially children, tripping in their costumes and falling caused many injuries as well. Candle fire is also a common cause of injury during Halloween.

Below are a few tips to keep your Halloween celebration fun and prevent it from turning into a real nightmare:

  • Do not give carving knives to children but have them helping you by tracing the design with a marker or scooping big chunks with spoons. Be careful yourself when using the carving knife!
Published on:

A 22 year old man died in a motorcycle accident in Queens, NYC around 5:45 am on Sunday morning. 22 year old Nathaniel Gomez was riding on Steinway street near 23rd Ave when he lost control of his bike. He was rushed to the hospital where he died. Read more in the NY Daily News

Published on:

Qualified and competent OSHA inspector OSHA construction site safety inspectors play a very important role in preventing  workers from being injured or dying on construction sites. Unfortunately with the recent boom in the construction business in New York City, these inspectors are very hard to find and their rates have been increasing significantly.

Certified Site safety inspectors have taken a safety course with OSHA and must meet specific criteria before receiving a OSHA certification. However these last years many  unscrupulous workers just blew off the classes and presented falsified OSHA cards to contractors in order to become site safety inspectors.

Since the beginning of the year the City has been cracking down on these workers.

Published on:

FullSizeRender (1)The recent construction boom in New York has lead to a significant increase of hard hats dying on construction sites. These deaths could have been prevented if safety measures were proprely implemented and workers better protected.  Among the workers who died this year, 9 fell because they weren’t proprely secured and several of them were crushed by improperly braced walls.

Unfortunately while the number of new construction sites has expanded significantly,  the number of available site-safety inspectors has dropped.  According to a Daily News investigation, there were 1,171 available inspectors in NYC in 2011 compared to 1,105 in 2014, a decrease of almost 6%.  During that same period of time building permits increased by 18% from 121,000 in 2011 to 142,000 in 2014.

According to the NY Daily News, the rarity of site-safety inspectors has led to a tremendous increase of their rates. Some of them are routinely jumping to better-paying jobs in the middle of ongoing projects to snag higher pay creating dangerous conditions because there is no continuity. Retired inspectors are also coming back on the market because of the high rates but they are often too old for the job and sit behind a desk instead of actively inspecting the construction site. In some cases, contractors used fake safety inspectors. Last year the city busted two contractors who had hired a cook, a hotel bellhop and a hairdresser to sign off on safety reports.

Published on:

Last May, 34 year old Marino Nunez, a father of two,  died after being struck by 44 year old Jorge Heraiz, a retired NYPD cop who was drunk driving. That night Hernaiz drank a bottle of vodka and a bottle of Colt 45 before driving. He is accused of fatally striking Nunez with his car as he was exiting the Henry Hudson Parkway onto W. 254th Street and Broadway in Riverdale, Bronx, NYC. After the accident happened, witnesses who saw Hernaiz trying to remove Nunez’s body from under his car called 911. The ex cop pleaded not guilty to drunkenly causing the pedestrian’s death. He is facing a maximum sentence of 25 years if he is convicted of aggravated vehicular homicide. Read more in the NY Daily News

Published on:

A fire in an apartment building in New York City injured 3 people and left one dead. The fire erupted around 9:45 pm yesterday night  in a a 3-story building on Hancock Street near Bedford Ave in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. a 56 year old man was taken to the hospital and died from his injuries. 3 other people were also taken to the hospital. All 3 suffered from smoke inhalation and were treated and released. The FDNY are investigating the cause of the fire. Read more in the NY Daily News

Published on:

teen driverRecent statistics show that 41% of teen drivers who died in car accidents were intoxicated. While drunk driving has been declining, driving while impaired by other substances such as  weed, other illegal drugs, prescription and OTC medication has increased significantly. The National Teen Driver Safety Week that will kick off on October 18th will focus on this particular issue. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in association with the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has developed material for schools and for parents to increase teen awareness about impaired driving.  Under the theme “Avoid the Regret – Avoid Impaired Driving” the campaign is seeking solutions to prevent teens deaths and injuries on the road.

Read more here

 

Published on:

A 34 year old woman died in a NYC accident involving a truck and a bicycle. The woman was riding her bike west on  56th Road near 46th Street in Maspeth, Queens yesterday morning around 8:45 when she was hit by a truck. She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and died shortly after.  The driver who’s license was suspended was taken into custody. Charges are pending. Read more in the NY Daily News

56th Road

56th Road near 46th Street doesn’t offer much protection to bicyclists, Picture: Google map

Published on:

Bed handle
The company Bed Handles Inc is re-announcing the recall of 3 models of their portable bed handles  because they are defective and have caused the death of 4 people. These products are: Bedside Assistant, Model BA10W, Travel Handles Use, Model BA11W, Adjustable Bed Handle, Model AJ1.

When attached to an adult bed without the use of safety retention straps, the handles can shift out of place, creating a dangerous gap between the handles and the side of the mattress, posing a risk of entrapment, strangulation and death.

Recently a 90 year old woman died in a nursing home after being entrapped in the gap between the mattress and the defective bed handle. Before her three other women died in similar conditions.