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.
Published on:

Location of the fatal accident caused by drunk driver Upstate NY3 people died and 6 were injured in a car accident in Upstate New York on Sunday morning. The victims were all members of the same family and were on their way to Niagara Falls. They were all riding in a Kia Sedona minivan when they were T-boned by a drunk driver who blew a stop sign in Sheldon, a small town in Upstate New York.

Among those who died were 4 year old Kiara Hernandez, her mother, 32 year old Mayelin Broti-Castro and her grandmother, 47 year old Ondina Castro de la Cruz. 6 other family members all from Perth Amboy, NJ, were also injured in the crash and taken to the hospital. The driver was identified as 20 year old Richard Sawicki. He was also injured in the accident, transported to the hospital and later on taken into custody where he is being held in lieu of $200,000 bond. He is facing vehicular homicide, DWI and reckless driving charges. He is due in Court on June 10.

Drunk Driver blew the stop sign

Published on:

3 pedestrians were injured in a car accident in Long Island, NY, after a drunk driver jumped the curb and struck them. 66-year-old Mitchell  Messling was intoxicated and witnesses said he was driving erratically on West Merrick Road in Freeport when he jumped the curb and struck a family of 3 yesterday afternoon around 4:00 pm.  A 11-year-old boy was seriously injured and had to be evacuated by helicopter while his parents were rushed to the hospital by ambulance.

The driver was arrested and charged with second-degree assault, second-degree vehicular assault, two counts of third-degree assault, two counts of driving while intoxicated, reckless endangerment, and reckless driving. He is due in Court Today in Hempstead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6QRlyQjnVs

Published on:

Location of the fatal motorcycle accident in Brooklyn NYCA 28-year-old man was killed in a motorcycle accident in New York City, early Monday morning. He collided with a car driven by a 24-year-old drunk woman who was driving without a license.

Alexander Evron was riding his Kawasaki motorcycle South on Ocean Parkway around 3:55 am when he collided with an Infiniti car driven by Jasmin Morales-Cruz.

The motorcyclist was thrown off the bike. He was rushed to the hospital but he couldn’t be saved and was pronounced dead upon his arrival.

Published on:

Location of the fatal pedestrian accident in HarlemA NYC pedestrian was among the several people who died in New York traffic accidents during this Memorial Day Holiday. 55 year old Leon Frazier was crossing the street when he was hit by a car making a left turn from W. 112 Street onto Malcom X Boulevard in Harlem. The pedestrian died at the scene of the accident. The 27 year old driver stayed at the scene of the accident. The accident occurred early Saturday morning around 4:00 am in an area which is known to be dangerous. According to statistics, 2 cyclists, 4 pedestrians and 13 motorists were injured in 25 accidents last year in this area.

Read more in Street Blog

Satellite view of the location of the accident courtesy of Google Map

Published on:

Personal Injury Attorney Ben RubinowitzOur managing partner, New York Personal Injury Lawyer Ben Rubinowitz, is co-chairing with NYSTLA Past President Jeff Korek the 2019 NYSTLA Seminar “25 Trial Issues That Keep You Up In The Middle Of The Night”.

Held over two evenings (Monday June 17 and Monday June 24 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm) this seminar consists of an informal panel discussion with Top Trial Attorneys, Judges and Ethicists during which audience participation is highly encouraged.

The program is modeled after the 1962 Herman Glaser seminar in which Glaser gathered the “greats” of his era to impart their collective wisdom to aspiring trial lawyers.  Thirty years later, Harvey Weitz assembled a round table panel at NYSTLI that included the Hon. Ira Gammerman, Hon. Gabriel Krausman, Hon. Eve Preminger and attorneys Ivan Schneider, Richard Shandell and others . The panel borrowed from Moe Levine , Al Julien and James Dempsey while setting out to demonstrate how best to deal with difficult trial issues. Harvey’s NYSTLI seminars formed the basis of his book the “Compendium of the Art of Summation” which with Harvey’s permission has served as the inspiration for Ben and Jeff to put together this seminar.

Published on:

When a nursing home is understaffed, patients have a higher risk of getting neglected. Studies show that patients in understaffed nursing homes have a higher risk of  weight loss, malnutrition, dehydration, pneumonia, infections and bedsores. When there is not enough staff, nursing home patients do not get proper attention and as a result neglect and medical errors can occur. Additionally working conditions in understaffed nursing homes are difficult. Nursing homes who are trying to minimize their costs are not hiring as many registered nurses and certified nurse assistants as they should and stretch the existing staff as much as they can. Stressed and overworked workers get frustrated and that’s when nursing home patient abuse has the highest risk to occur.

It is estimated that approximately 90% of nursing homes are understaffed in the US. Many nursing homes do not have any registered nurse available for days. In an effort to crack down on this problem, Medicare recently revised its five stars ranking system and automatically downgraded to one star the staffing ranking section of all nursing homes that do not have a registered nurse on site for four or more days instead of 7 or more days in the previous ranking. As a result 1638 nursing homes in the US now have a one star rating for their staffing.

The change in the staffing comes in the aftermath of a decision by the government last year to require nursing homes to submit payroll records to verify staff level. While analyzing the records, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services became alarmed by the frequency of under staffing of registered nurses. Registered nurses are the most qualified nurses. When staffing level increases so does the quality of care.

Published on:

New York Construction workersConstruction workers fatalities and injuries are on the rise in New York City. The boom in construction has lead to a shortage in experienced construction workers and as a result many contractors have been hiring workers with less or little experience without providing them proper safety training.  To reduce the number of injuries and deaths on NYC construction sites and make sure every construction worker is proprely trained about safety, the New York City Council introduced  new legislation “NYC Local Law 196”  that increases the minimum number of training hours for a construction worker to 59 hours.

What does NYC Local Law 196 mean for construction workers and contractors?

NYC Local Law 196 is being implemented in 3 phases

Published on:

Location of the fatal pedestrian accident Little Italy New YorkA pedestrian was fatally struck by a taxi in New York on Saturday afternoon. The accident occurred on a busy and sunny Saturday afternoon in Little Italy, Downtown Manhattan. Around 4:00 pm a woman in her 80ies whose identity wasn’t revealed was crossing Broom Street in the crosswalk when a taxi making a left turn from Center onto Broom Street struck her. She was rushed to the hospital with severe personal injury. She was pronounced dead when she arrived there.

The cab driver, 44 Bouchouata Miloudi, stayed at the scene  of the accident. He was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to use due care.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Oz_3NPX_DI

Published on:

Prospect park bike lanes5 bicyclists, 15 pedestrians and 201 motor vehicle occupants were injured and 1 pedestrian died  in traffic accidents on Flatbush Ave between Grand Army Plaza and Ocean Avenue from 2013 to 2017. This section of Flatbush Avenue was identified by Vision Zero as a priority corridor and the DOT proposal to install a protected bike lane was recently unanimously supported by the members of the Community Board 6. Work is scheduled to start this summer.  This segment of Flatbush Avenue connecting to Grand Army Plaza, Prospect Park, The Brooklyn Public Library,  Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Brooklyn Zoo is being used by an average of 500 bicyclists a day during the week-end and 350 during the week. It is also one of the busiest bus routes and more than 1100 vehicles per hour cross it at peak hours.

The DOT proposal should not only lead to a decrease in bicycle accidents but also improve bike  access to Prospect Park and on-street bike network

According to the DOT, the Prospect Park edge condition is ideal for two-way protected bike lanes that would provide 2-way routes around the park compared to one now and also provide alternative routes at night time when the park is closed.  Another protected bike lane project is in development for the segment of Ocean Ave that is at the edge of Prospect Park and the DOT is studying options to install bike lanes on Parkside Avenue and Prospect Park SW (see illustration).

Published on:

A man in a warehouse was fatally pinned against a wall by a tractor-trailer backing up. On Friday morning around 6:00, a 2012 Freightliner tractor trailer backed up into the loading dock inside Sun King Produce Corp located on Morgan Street near Jackson Street in East Williamsburg.  63 year old Son Ngoc Nguyen who was standing near the back wall was crushed against the wall by the truck. He was transported to the hospital in critical condition and died from his injuries a day later. The truck driver wasn’t charged. Read more in the NY Daily News 

Dock workers at high risk of accidents

The loading dock is one of the most dangerous area in a warehouse. OSHA has specific regulations about loading dock safety that can be found in 29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1910.176 material handling. While forklift accidents such as forklift overturning,  are the most common in warehouses, it is also quite frequent for warehouse workers to be crushed by trucks and sadly most of these accidents are deadly . Here are some of the most recent cases reported by OSHA: