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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Broken glass on NYC bike lanesAnti bike lanes activists intentionally put NYC cyclists at risk of  dangerous accidents by spreading broken glass on the  12th and 13th streets bike lanes in the West Village in Manhattan.  This is the second time that a bike lane has been intentionally vandalized for political reasons. In November, thumbtacks were thrown all over the 43rd Avenue bike lanes in Sunnyside, Queens by bike lanes opponents.

Yesterday afternoon, “bring back our parking!” graffiti and other anti-bike lane signs appeared on the 12th and 13th street bike lanes. Broken glass was also spread over the two bike lanes putting cyclists at risk of dangerous accidents.

According to Street Blog, the graffiti reflect the opinion of the anti-bike lane 14th Street Coalition. This group is asking the city to remove the two bike lanes on 12th and 13th street as well as the bus lane on 14th street.  The two bike lanes and the dedicated bus lane were implemented by the city in anticipation of the L subway lane closure. Now that the city announced that the L will not shut down, some anti cyclists neighborhood groups want their their street back to the way it was before.

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Netflix notice to prevent injuries

The new internet Bird Box Challenge can lead to serious injury. Named after a new Netflix horror movie starring Sandra Bullock during which the characters have to live their life blindfolded to avoid invisible creatures, the Bird Box Challenge has regular people and also many celebrities filming themselves doing all kinds of activities blindfolded.

While some keep it pretty much safe such as Michael Strahan from Good Morning America trying to put lipstick on Sara Haines while blindfolded, others like actors Jake Paul and George Janko even attempted to drive blindfolded during a 24h challenge. Some parents have been involving their children and some choking videos emerged of  children bumping into the walls or destroying furniture.

The challenge became so popular that Netflix had to issue a warning asking people not to put their life in danger for this challenge.

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New York Personal Injury Attorney Christopher DonadioThe partners at our personal injury law firm are proud to announce that Christopher J. Donadio has been named a partner at the firm.

Since joining the firm, working with Anthony Gair, Chris has proven to be an invaluable asset . Chris has demonstrated a remarkable ability in handling cases from inception through trial. He recently obtained a $3 million verdict in an extremely difficult medical malpractice case alleging a failure to diagnose pancreatic cancer.  He has been involved in resolving multiple 7 figure cases during the short time he has been with the firm. Among them he was co-counsel with Ben Rubinowitz in a case involving injuries to a construction worker which resulted in a $6.25 million verdict. He also settled a case for $5.85 million for a construction worker who suffered a spinal injury.  Chris has also lectured at numerous seminars in the field of personal injury litigation.

Prior to joining the firm, Chris  who is admitted to practice in both New York and New Jersey spent 7 years honing his trial skills in another personal injury law firm where he obtained over 40 jury verdicts.

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10 motorists and 7 pedestrians died in NYC traffic accidents in October. No fatalities were recorded among cyclists and vehicle passengers. Truck accidents reached a record high while bus accidents were unusually low for October. Motorcycle accidents started to decline compared to the summer months as the temperature drops and bikers keep their motorcycle in the garage.

The total number of monthly traffic deaths continues to decline despite a rise in the total number of monthly accidents in the city. Traffic injuries continue to rise as well.

Traffic Accidents Injuries and Deaths NYC October 2018
Over the last five years while Vision Zero initiatives focused mostly on making the streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists, distracted driving has led to a significant increase in accidents injuries and fatalities.

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NYC Personal Injury Lawyers Howard Hershenhorn and Diana CarnemollaCongratulations to our partners Howard Hershenhorn and Diana M. A. Carnemolla who obtained an $85 million Verdict for a man who was struck by a red double decker sightseeing tour bus owned and operated by Twin America, LLC, Gray Line Corporation, Gray Line New York Tours, Inc. Coach USA, Citysights LLC, Citysights New York LLC, and Calvin C. Wright, while crossing the street.

The plaintiff who was 54 years old was ran over by a red double decker sightseeing tour bus on July 3rd, 2015.  At the time of the accident, it was a sunny Friday afternoon. He had the walk signal in his favor when a 13 ton double decker sightseeing tour bus attempted to make a left turn from West 4th street onto 6th avenue striking him. He suffered serious injuries.  As a result of the crash  he spent 78 days in the hospital, having 9 operations. He also had two additional operations after he was discharged from the hospital.

Bus Accident NYPD Highway Patrol

$45 million for past pain and suffering and $40 million for future pain and suffering

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Negligent garbage truck company out of businessAfter two people were killed by Sanitation Salvage garbage trucks and ProPublica released an in depth look at the company’s dirty business (see previous blog the trash hauler came under intense scrutiny.

At the end of last month, Sanitation Salvage sent a letter to the Business Integrity Commission to announce that it had surrendered its license and was going out of business.

After years of exploiting workers and endangering New Yorkers, the company run by the ruthless and heavily politically connected Squitieri Brothers is finally going down. Street safety advocates, labor unions and elected officials are all celebrating the news.

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private garbage truck involved in New york fatal bicycle accidentOver the last two years private garbage trucks killed 5 people and were involved in 73 serious crashes.  Reckless drivers behind the wheel of unsafe trucks traveling long routes for extended hours are a danger for New York City residents without counting the resulting toxic emissions in the air. A recent study by New York Comptroller Scott Stringer looks at the weaknesses of the actual system and advocates for a new waste system prioritizing safety and sustainability.

Race to the bottom dynamic

While residential waste in New York City is collected by the City’s Department of Sanitation, 3 million tons of commercial waste coming from more than 100,000 New York businesses from restaurants to hospitals are collected by private trash hauling companies.  There is little oversight of the private companies and each business owner in New York City is free to pick any of the 273 private companies available in the city  based on prices, reliability and the ability of the hauler to remove the type of trash generated by the business. As a result the same block can be visited by multiple garbage trucks during the same nights. A previous investigation by the Investigative Fund and ProPublica found that a stretch of five blocks in Manhattan was visited every night by 27 different garbage truck companies.  Because each private truck hauler can pick up for clients all over the five boroughs of New York City, their trucks drivers are assigned incredibly long routes to visit all businesses. Obviously the competition is fierce and companies are forced to propose low prices to their clients to stay in the business.  As a result the margins are low for most trash haulers. Truck fleets are old and many trucks are unsafe and truck drivers and helpers are poorly paid for performing long routes in limited time. Additionally while travelling every year 23 million miles in New York City which is 96 times the distance from the hearth to the moon private garbage trucks are a major contributor of airborne pollution.

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Brooklyn Fatal Construction AccidentA hard hat died in a forklift accident in New York City last month. 44 year old Over Paredes was working on the construction site of a six-story condo located  at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn when a piece of metal-framed wall fell on him.

The accident occurred on the rooftop of the building during a day of high wind.  The large piece of sheet metal was extremely heavy and was being hoisted by a manual forklift. During the lifting operation, the forklift that, according to a worker, was lighter than the piece of wall, was knocked down onto its side by a gust of wind and the huge piece of wall fell on Paredes.  The construction worker died at the scene of the accident despite all the efforts of the EMS to try to rescucitate him.

The crane operator had previously refused to hoist the piece because of the high wind

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the church before the collapseA man was injured in the unexpected collapse of a building that was being demolished by a construction company in Harlem. Last Thursday  a large interior section of the three-story Mount Ararat Baptist Church located on 316 West 135th Street in Harlem unexpectedly collapsed as the building was undergoing what was supposed to be a planned and controlled demolition.

One of the construction workers suffered minor injury. A man on a motorcycle who was driving near the building at the time of the accident was injured after he was hit by debris. The man suffered shoulder injuries ans some cuts but his life is not endangered. According to the firefighter the motorist was lucky to be alive. If he would have driven there half a second earlier he would have been crushed to death.

Read more in the Amsterdam News