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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Three pedestrians died in New York car accidents over the weekend after 8 others already died during the week. Two of the accidents happened on the Upper West Side (see previous blogs here and here) and the third one happened in Ozone Park, Queens where a 68 year old man was struck by a car (read more here).  Several people suffered serious personal injury in NYC this weekend as well. A bicyclist in his 60s was struck by a car Saturday morning around 10:30 am in Hollis Queens. A pedestrian suffered severe leg injury after being struck by a fire truck  at E. 15th St. and Irving Place in Manhattan on Saturday night.   (Read more in the NY Daily News)

These accidents happened shortly after Mayor de Blasio told journalists in a press conference that it had been a “very tough week” and that Vision Zero has “never been more necessary”. The mayor indicated that since zero vision was initiated the number of speeding tickets doubled  and the number of failure to yield tickets tripled.  (Read more in the Gothamist).

de Blasio

 

 

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An elderly pedestrian died after being struck by a taxi on The Upper West Side of Manhattan, NYC early Sunday morning. 88 year old Luisa Rosario, a beloved neighborhood figure, was starting to cross 109 street with the light and had the right of way when a taxi which turned right onto 109th Street from Columbus Ave hit her. The taxi driver, 73 year old Salifu Abubkar,  said he didn’t see the victim. He also told the police that he had been working non-stop for 16 hours.  He was charged with failure to yield.

Taxi drivers are prohibited by the Taxi and Limousine Commission to drive more than 12 hours straight and if they do so they may be issued a summons by the Commission.

Salifu Abubkar has been driving a cab for 30 years and had never had any serious accidents. Taxi drivers don’t have retirement pensions therefore if they don’t have any other source of income they are forced to continue to work.  Read more in the NY Daily News

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Last Thursday an 84 year old woman was killed in a bus accident in Queens, NYC, and the driver just sped away. Earlier during the week another victim was killed by a hit and run bus driver in New York City (see previous blog). This particular accident happened at the busy intersection of Main Street and Kissena Boulevard in Flushing around 8:30 pm. 84 year old Aglaia Goularis was crossing the street when a white Skyliner charter bus that was on its way to Foxwoods Casino struck her. She suffered severe body trauma and was declared dead at the scene of the accident. The driver didn’t stop but he was later identified by the police. Read more in the New York Post.

Intersection of Main Street and Kissena Blvd

The intersection of Main Street and Kissena Boulevard in Queens where the deadly bus accident happened

 

 

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3 pedestrians died and 3 others suffered personal injury in a car accident in New York City last Saturday during Halloween celebrations. 10 year old Nyanna Aquil and her 65 year old grandfather Louis Perez  as well as 24 year old Christian Leka died after 52 year old Howard Hunger lost control of his vehicle, jumped the curb  and slammed into trick-or-treaters walking along Morris Park Ave near Bogart Ave. According to the preliminary police investigation, the car driver appeared to have suffered a seizure while he was driving. As he was driving west on Morris Park Ave he struck a car in front of him twice before driving into oncoming traffic and jumping the curb. He is still in the hospital recovering from his injuries.

Louis Perez was walking with her granddaughter Nyanna and her two young sisters and Christian Leka in the company of her fiancee was holding his 9 year old sister’s hand when the car crashed into the two groups of trick-or-treaters.  Leka shoved her fiancee to the ground and pushed his sister away saving their lives. One of Nyanna sisters as well as Christian Leka’s sister and his fiancee were injured and hospitalized.

So far this year  13 pedestrians were killed by a car jumping a curb in New York City.

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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

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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!
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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

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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.

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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.

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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