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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yield to pedestriansVision Zero’s “Right of Way” law makes it a misdemeanor for drivers who killed or injured a pedestrian because they failed to yield. However after 6 bus drivers were arrested last year, TWU, the bus drivers’ union started a heavy campaign to protect bus drivers from the law. Yesterday a federal lawsuit brought by TWU against Mayor de Blasio in April resulted in a settlement that drivers will not be strictly liable for seriously injuring or killing pedestrians in a crosswalk. Investigators will have to determine that a driver failed to “exercise due care,” which will now be defined as “care which is exercised by reasonably prudent drivers.”  Read more in the NY Daily News

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Death or personal injuries such as burns, smoke inhalation and wounds from falling merchandise are among the risks faced every day by New York High end store Idea Nuova’s employees. According to OSHA, the aisles are clogged with merchandise and, at the time of the inspection, an emergency exit was blocked by disco balls, desks and lamps preventing a quick evacuation in case of a fire. Additionally many stairwell exit doors that must remain closed to prevent the fire from spreading were propped open, haphazardly stacked merchandise was  threatening to fall on  anyone passing to close to it and exposed electrical outlets were a risk for electric shock.

This is the second time in two years that OSHA found unsafe conditions at the high end store located on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The company was cited in 2013 for similar hazards at the Manhattan location as well as the Brooklyn location.

Read the OSHA press release

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legionellaAfter a dozen died and over 100 more suffered serious personal injury from Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks this summer in New York City, Local Law 77 of 2015 was recently enacted to identify, regulate and inspect all buildings using a cooling tower.  As a first step building owners have until September 17, 2015 to register existing cooling towers with the NYC Department of Buildings. A new NYC Cooling Tower Registration Portal has been created for this purpose. More information can be found here.

The dangerous bacteria continues to spread in the city. Yesterday, a catholic school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan had to temporarily close for disinfection after tests showed some legionella bacteria in a cooling tower.

 

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Daniel+Pollack-1By simply noting red-flag concerns front and center of  a patient’s file, child welfare workers can protect children from being seriously abused, injured or killed. In a recent article in Youth Today, Daniel Pollack, a professor at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University in New York City and a frequent expert witness in child welfare cases describes how crucial information related to a child’s personal safety can get buried into electronic files and later lead to disaster. For example red flag sentences such as “Johnny is a runner. He needs to be watched at all time” should not be hidden somewhere in the child’s file but should be front and center of the file so, as time goes by, the next person to open the file will make sure Johnny doesn’t get killed running into traffic.

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8 year old Jadan William died last week after being struck by a car in Brooklyn, NYC. The young girl was playing with her friends on E. 22nd Street, a dead end street near Ditmas Ave in Ditmas Park when she was struck by a SUV heading south in the cul-de-sac. A neighbor and two nurses from a nearby nursing home performed CPR on the young girl while waiting for the ambulance. The girl who suffered severe head trauma was transported to the hospital in  critical condition but couldn’t be saved. The driver, 35 year old Reginald August, lived on the block and and was a “known speeder” according to residents. After the crash the driver was punched in the face by Tony Romans who knew the girl and witnessed the crash. He was also transported to the hospital and wasn’t immediately charged. The man who punched him was arrested and charged with assault.

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Divine22 year old Jefrrey Divine of Stormville died in a motorcycle accident, early Sunday morning in Putnam Valley, NY. The motorcyclist was riding North on the Taconic State Parkway when he collided with a SUV Subaru driving in the wrong way around 3.35 am on Sunday. According to the preliminary investigation, 40 year old Melida Espinal drove her SUV south in the northbound lanes after entering the roadway at Peekskill Hollow Road before crashing head-on with the motorcyclist. Espinal and two other occupants from the car only suffered minor injuries.
Read more in the Lohud,
Picture: Facebook

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A famous Broadway actor died this week-end after falling from the fire escape of an apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, NYC. Kyle Jean-Baptiste was the youngest and the first African-American actor to play the role of Jean Valjean in the Broadway Musical “Les Miserables”. According to the New York Times, Kyle was sitting on the fourth floor fire escape with a 23 year old female friend when he stood up, slipped and fell backwards to the street below.

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There were 19,061 motor vehicle accidents in New York City in July 2015 compared to 19,428 the previous month. During the same month in 2014 and 2013 there were respectively 17,361 and 17,548 crashes.  For the last 3 months the number of  accidents was unusually high and stayed above 19,000. So far since the beginning of the year there were 123,697 traffic accidents in NYC compared to respectively 118,195 and 117,022 for the same period of 2014 and 2013.

Motor Vehicle Accidents NYC July 2015
4,776 people suffered personal injury in motor vehicle accidents in NYC in July compared to 4,795 the previous month and respectively 4,591 and 5,077 for July 2014 and July 2013. Even though the number of motor vehicle accidents was very high in the month of July the number of people injured in these accidents was lower in July 2015 than in July 2013 and almost the same as in July 2014.

The number of motorists injured in a vehicle accident in July 2015 was unusually high and above 2,000 for the first time over the last 3 years under review.

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A construction worker died after he fell down an elevator shaft in New York. The accident happened yesterday at the beginning of the afternoon at the construction site of a future hotel located at 577 9th Avenue near 41st Street in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan.

According to DNA Info the construction worker  was not wearing a harness at the time of the accident. He was working on the fourth floor near the elevator shaft which, at the time, was just a hole that extended all the way to the ground. He fell in and landed on his back. The man who was 30 years old was transported to the hospital in critical condition. He later died.

A few months ago the general contractor for the construction site, BRF Construction Corp, was fined for failing to secure the site after a construction worker was spotted on a 15 to 20 foot wall without a harness. BRF employed non union workers.

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An elderly pedestrian succumbed to her wounds two days after she was hit by a FedEx van.  Lubov Brodskaya was crossing Ave J near E 12th Street in Midwood, Brooklyn, NYC around 1;30 pm on Wednesday when the accident happened.  The van which was turning right onto Ave J hit the woman while she was in the crosswalk. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident and wasn’t expected to be charged. The woman sustained severe head injury and was transported to the hospital. She died two days later.

Read more in the JP Updates