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.
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Are car accidents up or down on Corona’s 111th Street since the DOT  redesigned the street? They are up says Community Board 4. Nope, they are down says DOT boss Polly Trottenberg.

On January 11th the Queens Chronicle published an article saying that car accidents had been on the rise on Corona’s 111th Street since the Department of Transportation had redesigned the street this summer. The article mentioned that between August 1st and November 20 2017 49 crashes were reported on 111th street compared to 38 for the same period the year before. Already a month before the publication of this article, the community board 4 had sent a letter to Queens Commissioner Nicole Garcia to express their concerns. In the the letter the CB4 was asking the DOT to revisit the design of the street because they didn’t believe it was making the street safer and was reducing the number of accidents.

On Thursday, Polly Trottenberg personally replied to the CB4 attacks in an opinion in the Queens Chronicle.  According to Trottenberg, the CB4 is looking at statistics that are covering the complete length of 111th street (in yellow on the picture) while they should focus on the official project area which is from 43rd Avenue to Corona Ave (between the two red signs on the picture). In this exact area the number of accidents recorded from September 1st to November 30th decreased by 4 from 16 to 12 between 2017 and 2016. Therefore Trottenberg insists that the street redesign is making  the street safer.

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After 13 people died and 4 were critically injured in a fire accident in New York City, the FDNY  reminds New Yorkers that a simple move can save lives. If you are fleeing a room on fire, shut the door behind you! In apartment buildings this simple action can prevent the fire from spreading to hallways and stairs. In houses, closing a door can save the whole structure. Above all all it can prevent others from being injured or from dying.

Last month, a fire started in the kitchen of an apartment located at 2363 Prospect Ave in Belmont. A young mother was in the kitchen and ran away leaving the kitchen door opened behind her. This allowed the fire to spread upstairs and then throughout the entire building. 12 people died in the fire including four children. 4 other people were critically injured. Among them was a man who died from his injuries a few days later. The FDNY believes that if the kitchen door had been closed, the deaths and injuries may have been prevented.

If you find yourself in a situation were you have to flee from a fire just remember one thing: Close the Door!

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New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer Ben RubinowitzOur partner, Ben Rubinowitz, a nationally regarded plaintiff’s lawyer, recently lectured at the Winter Urologic Forum sponsored by Columbia University, Vanderbilt University, and University of California Davis.

One of the main topics in his talk focused on the issue of Concurrent Surgeries, or what is commonly referred to as Simultaneous Surgeries.  Although many teaching hospitals throughout the country participate in this practice, Rubinowitz made clear that it is not in the best interests of the patient to have the doctor leave the operating room while treating one patient to attend to another.

Although the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently suggested that Concurrent Surgeries were safe for patients, Rubinowitz challenged that study.

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schoolbusA reckless school bus driver hit an 11 year old boy as he was on his way to school early Tuesday morning. The accident occurred on Sutphin Boulevard near Liberty Avenue in Jamaica, Queens at 6:50 pm. 60 year old Marc Saget struck the boy and continued to drive without noticing what just happened. He was stopped not far away from the accident and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.  The 11 year old boy was transported to the hospital with a bump on his head as well as scratches and bruises

A few minutes later in Manhattan another school bus hit a 56 year old pedestrian. The woman was crossing West 124th Street at the intersection of Lenox Ave when the accident occurred. She suffered serious injury and was rushed to the hospital. The police are still investigating what caused the bus driver to hit the pedestrian

Read more in the NY Daily News

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A 33 year old construction worker died after falling in an elevator shaft in New York. The accident occurred on 24th Street near Park Ave in Gramercy Park. Ju Cong Wu wasn’t attached to the safety line when he felt 100 feet down an elevator shaft. The man was working for U-Tek elevator and was part of a team that was installing an elevator car in a 12-story hotel project. Workers told the NY daily News that the site was non-union and that they didn’t know what caused the accident. The New York City Department of Buildings issued a stop-work order and launched an investigation. A total of 17 complaints about the site were filed last year. Among them there were two safety complaints in August, another complaint in April mentioned workers were not wearing safety equipment. In March another complaint was filed about insecure debris flying off the building. Ju Cong Wu is the first construction worker to die in New York City this year. Last year 12 workers died on construction sites in the city.

The same day a man who was renovating window fell to his death on Tuesday around 2:55 pm. 26 year old John Davie was doing some construction work with his father and another man in an apartment located on the sixth floor of a building on Saunders Street near 62nd Drive in Rego Park, Queens. John was working on the renovation of the window when he fell out of it. His father could only watch in horror and his mother collapsed outside of the building 10 minutes later after her son succumbed to his injuries.

 

 

 

 

 

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Defective Panasonic TVA potentially defective tabletop swivel stand sold with a 55-inch flat screen TV  was recently recalled by Panasonic. The Panasonic 55-inch, LED/LCD flat screen televisions with a tabletop swivel stand is a model that was sold to schools, government buildings and hotels from July 2012 through March 2014 .  The mounting screws that connect the stand to the TV can become loose and the TV can unexpectedly fall off the stand. This pose a risk of severe injury or even deaths to children.

If you see one these TVs on a swivel stand at your child’s school, at work or in a hotel please inquire if it was recalled and repaired. If it wasn’t please make sure that the  TV is detached from the stand and placed in a safe location before calling Panasonic for a free repair kit.

Panasonic indicates that so far nobody was injured.  755 models have been sold in the US and 130 in Canada. The TV is black with Panasonic printed in the front and the swivel stand is in a glossy black color and is 50 inches long. The model number for the television is TH055LRU50. It can be found on a tag on the back of the television.

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5,190 workers suffered fatal injury on the job in 2016, an increase of 7% compared to the 4,836 fatal injuries recorded in 2015. This is the first time since 2008 that the annual number of fatal work injuries is above 5,000. The fatal injury rate was on the rise as well with 3.6 per 100,000 full-time workers being injured on the job compared to 3.4 in 2015.fatal work injuries 2016

Almost half of the fatal work injuries occurred during transportation events. Among the 2,083 workers who suffered fatal injury in a transportation accident, 1,252 died in roadway accidents involving motorized land vehicles, 342 were pedestrians struck by a vehicle, 245 were involved in accidents involving motorized land vehicles, 130 in accidents involving an aircraft, 50 in accidents involving a rail vehicle, 48 in accidents involving a water vehicle and 16 in accidents involving animal transportation or pedal vehicle.

866 workers died from violence or other injuries by persons or animal. Violence at the workplace is the second most common cause of  fatal work injuries.  It increased by an alarming 23% last year.

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OSHA-inspectorTo prevent workers, especially construction workers, from being killed or injured on the job, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducts thousands of work sites inspections every year. After Trump took over some worried that OSHA power would be diminished and that workers might be exposed to riskier work conditions. So far it hasn’t been the case.

During the fiscal year 2017, OSHA conducted 32,396 inspections compared with 31,948 during the fiscal year 2016.  The average penalty per violation was $3645 during the 2017 fiscal year compared with  $3415 during the 2016 fiscal year. Between 2010 and 2015 there was an average 8.4 $1 million cases reported yearly however in 2017 there were only 6 $1 million cases.

Despite being nominated by the president to head OSHA, Scott Mugno, currently vice president for safety, sustainability and vehicle maintenance at FedEx Ground hasn’t been confirmed by the Senate yet. So far the career OSHA people are still running the show and things are not expected to change dramatically.  This is mainly because the lack of political leadership and the language and requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act are preventing deregulation.

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CuomoWould the risk of medical malpractice increase if New York retailers were allowed to operate in-store clinics or would it just help cutting back on unnecessary visits to the emergency room?

According to Cuomo administration Medicaid could save $10 million every year if corporate outfits such as Wallmart and CVS could run medical clinics in their stores. This is the proposal made to New Yorkers by governor Cuomo last week when he unveiled his budget.

While Governor Cuomo believes that in-store medical clinics would improve access to affordable care, opponents are worried that corporate may be more concerned by profits than by patients well being. They also argue that if a pharmacy runs a clinic they may want to try to increase the pharmacy business through the clinic.  Additionally patients visiting these types of clinics will mostly be treated by nurse practitioners or physicians’ assistants rather than by physicians. However Cuomo’s proposal indicates that clinics would only be allowed to treat minor injuries and illnesses.

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accident sceneA pedestrian was fatally struck by a car in New York and the police are still looking for the driver. 61 year old Mercedes Dearmas was killed on Saturday night by a reckless driver who took off after he hit her.  That day Dearmas was celebrating her birthday. She had spent the day picking out a birthday outfit and chatting with neighbors. She spent the evening at her home located on Seventh Ave and 120th Street in Harlem with her long term boyfriend Rodolpho Rabaza. A little after midnight she told him she was going to the store. She walked down to 113th Street. As she tried to cross Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd a silver Sedan fatally struck her. She was rushed to the hospital but she couldn’t be saved.

Read more in the NY Daily News