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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hit and run location
3 pedestrians died in car accidents in New York this week-end.

Staten Island Pedestrian killed in Brooklyn

65 year old Losif Morgenshteyn was fatally struck by a hit and run driver as he was changing a flat tire on the driver side of his car. The accident occurred on Saturday night around 6:30 pm. on Shore Parkway near East 28th Street in Sheepshead Bay. According to CBS News, the man was hit by a white Toyota minivan with Pennsylvania plates. 3 people came out of the van and checked on the condition of the pedestrian before speeding away. The van was found empty about a mile away and the police are still looking for the driver. When the EMS arrived they gave the man CPR and then rushed him to the hospital. Unfortunately he couldn’t be saved and he was pronounced dead upon his arrival.

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A pedestrian was killed and six other were injured by a reckless driver on Canal Street in Chinatown, New York last week.  A surveillance video of the accident shows 70 year old Henry Herman of Monroe, NY, backing up for at least half a block and then crashing into pedestrians on the busy sidewalk near the intersection of Forsyth and Canal Street. People were in shock as was the driver. He came out of his car, checked on the people he hit and said “My god” according to a witness. It was raining at the time of the accident and it may have affected the driver’s vision. The police believe the driver was accelerating into a parking spot and he might have lost control and jumped the curve. He was arrested and charged with failure to yield to pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.

56 year old Chun Deng Zhang from Queens died in the accident. Two other people were critically injured. Four others suffered non-life threatening injuries.

See video surveillance in the NY Post

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On the Christmas Eve of 2015 around 4:00 pm, 84 year old Olegario Pabon stepped in his elevator at a Bronx NYCHA development in New York City. As he was getting inside, the elevator zoomed upward trapping the man’s leg and hand and then dropping him on his head. He died from his injuries.

The deadly elevator accident was preventable. An hour and half earlier a concerned tenant of the building had called in a complaint saying “the lift is going up and down by itself with its door open and when the door closed it slams really hard”. Nobody did anything about it it and no inspector was sent to check it out.  This act of gross negligence killed Olegario Pabon.

The DOI investigation following the death of Olegario Pabon found out that the brake monitor had been disabled. According to the DOI report, it seemed like a NYCHA elevator mechanic had clipped the wires on the device and closed off the electrical connection by covering it with black electrical tape.

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teens riding with teensA recent study by the AAA Foundation found that crashes involving a teen driver with other teen passengers in the car are 515% more deadly for road users than crashes involving a teen driver with passengers older than 35.

When teens ride together in a car and they are involved in an accident the fatality rate increases by:

  • 17% for pedestrians and cyclists
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Medical Malpractice Attorney Christopher_DonadioOur Personal Injury Law Firm is proud to announce that our attorney Christopher J. Donadio obtained a $3 million verdict in a medical malpractice case in New Jersey.

The case involved a 74 year old plaintiff who sought treatment with a gastroenterologist due to a cyst on his pancreas. After visiting the gastroenterologist, the plaintiff underwent a blood test to check for evidence of cancer, but did not undergo any further testing. Sixteen months later, the plaintiff underwent testing due to his inability to control his blood sugar. It was determined at that time that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, the plaintiff passed away from his cancer eleven months after being diagnosed.

A claim was brought against the treating gastroenterologist for failing to recommend further testing for the plaintiff’s pancreatic cyst. Plaintiff claimed that had further testing been done, specifically an endoscopic ultrasound, the pancreatic cancer would have been diagnosed sixteen months earlier and would have given him a much better chance at surviving the disease. A claim was also brought against a radiologist who plaintiff claimed failed to point out worrisome features of the pancreatic cyst when reviewing a CT scan of the abdomen.

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location of the deadly car accidentA man died and a woman was injured in a car crash in New York City last Friday night. According to the NY Daily News the driver of a white 2001 Nissan Sentra was driving East on Rockaway Boulevard around 10:30 pm. He was planning to make a left turn onto Guy R Brewer Boulevard. When he arrived at the intersection the left turn light was red and a tow truck operated by Onpoint Collision and Towing Services was in front of him. The tow truck driver told the News that the reckless driver went around his truck on the right and then proceeded to turn left to get onto Guy R Brewer Boulevard. In order to do so he had to cross several lanes of traffic. He was T-boned by a white BMW that slammed in the car’s door. The tow truck driver confirmed that the woman who was driving the BMW had the green light. He saw the entire accident including when the EMS arrived and pulled the driver out of his car. The emergency team tried to resuscitate him but according to the tow truck driver, the man seemed dead. He was transported to the hospital where his death was confirmed. The BMW driver was also taken to the hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Read more in the NY Daily News

Picture: Courtesy of Google Map

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Thankfully nobody was injured in a Manhattan gas explosion. An electrical malfunction in a Con Edison transformer caused a carbon monoxide leak in a building located on 2465 Broadway between 91st and 92nd Street in the Upper West Side. The leak started around 4:00 pm and was discovered when the alarm of the Equinox gym located in the building went on.  90 people including clients at Equinox and three other businesses as well as 15 tenants were swiftly evacuated before an explosion shattered the windows of the building. Witnesses said they saw a big orange flash followed by the explosion. Glass and debris flew across Broadway. People living in the area felt their apartments shake. Animals at next door Petco were all safe as well.

The firefighters thought the alarms had been triggered by a smoking transformer inside the Equinox Gym basement but then they detected high levels of carbon monoxide and found that a carbon monoxide leak from defective ConEd equipment under the sidewalk. The gas and electricity were shut off on the block. Yesterday morning the gas was still turned off as investigators were still figuring out what happened.

It was fortunate that everybody could be evacuated before the explosion occurred. Carbon monoxide gas leak are extremely dangerous and very easy to ignite.  Any spark caused by even a telephone ringing or a light switch being turned on can trigger an explosion.

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ThanksGivingWhile Thanksgiving is usually a day of joy,  many unexpected events can result in injuries during that day. In fact all around the country emergency rooms experience a spike in visits on Thanksgiving day. Here are a the most common injuries occurring on that day and a few tips to avoid them:

  • Knife injuries are among the most common injuries occurring during Thanksgiving holidays. Please be careful not only when you carve the turkey but also during all the food preparation.
  • Food poisoning is also extremely common on Thanksgiving day. If you are the one cooking the turkey, use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature in the innermost part of the thigh, of the wing and the thickest part of the breast.  The turkey is cooked when all these spots have a temperature of 165 degrees and above. Properly cooking the turkey at 165 degrees kills all the harmful germs that might be present in the animal. Keep in mind that the CDC announced early this month that there was a major and widespread outbreak of multidrug-resistant salmonella infections linked to raw turkey products and live turkeys. 164 cases in 35 states were reported at the beginning of this month including 63 hospitalizations and 1 death. 12 cases were reported in New York.
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Dragon's_breathDipping dessert items into liquid nitrogen right before consumption can cause severe injury and should be avoided. A trendy dessert called Dragon Breath, Heaven’s Breath or Nitro Puff that consists of a cereal snack that taste like fruit loops dipped into liquid nitrogen right before consumption is being sold at malls, fairs, food courts or ice cream parlors. When you eat the dessert your mouth smokes like a dragon which makes for some cool Instagram pictures. However liquid nitrogen even though it is not toxic can cause severe injuries if not handled proprely because of its extremely low temperature. It can be as cold as minus 320 degrees and if it is still present in the food when someone ingests it it can cause severe burns to tissues.  Not only fingers but the mouth or the throat and even the stomach can be burned. Last year a 14 year old had to be hospitalized after burning her thumb. In India a man who swallowed a cocktail with liquid Nitrogen too quickly ended up at the emergency room with a hole in his stomach.

Dangerous for people with asthma too

Additionally people may also experience problems with breathing especially those who suffer from asthma. In the video below a mother explained how her son, 20 minutes after ingesting a few dragon breath treats at a fair went into a full blown asthma crisis and had to transported to the hospital to be treated.

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NYC construction workers Failure to provide fall protection to workers  continues to be the most frequent violation found by OSHA inspectors while visiting construction sites or any other work site of other industries. From October 1st 20017 to September 20 2018, OSHA issued 7,270 violations to employers who failed to provide their employees with appropriate fall protection. Falls are also the number one cause of death on American construction sites. One of the most serious violators was Kasper Roofing & Construction in Florida. OSHA proposed a fine of $134,510 after the death of a roofer. Roofers for this company were working with no protection at all and without any safety training on fall hazards.

The second most common OSHA citation was related to hazard communication. Companies using toxic or dangerous chemicals and substances are required by law to proprely identify and label these products. They have to make sure that their employees know about the potential danger of these products by providing them with appropriate training on how to work with or near these products. At the beginning of this month an employee at a drilling company in Alabama died after flammable welding gas stored in an unventilated storage container exploded when he opened the door of the container. The employer, Legend Directional Services LLC, was cited by OSHA for failing to train employees on hazards associated with flammable chemicals. The company is facing a $28,455 fine.

Scaffold violations were the third most common violation found by OSHA inspectors. 3,336 companies were cited over the last year for unsafely using scaffolds. The highest proposed fine was $120,320 to Appleton roofing contractor Hector Hernandez. Hernandez employees were neither trained on fall hazards nor provided with fall protection equipment. The contractor also failed to install an extension ladder for safe egress  and failed to provide required ladder jack scaffold components.