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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defective harness tagSome of the Graco My Ride 65 convertible car seats may be defective and may not restrain a child in a car crash. Improper restraint of a child significantly increases the risk of severe injury or death of a child in a car accident.  Improper restraint is one of the most common causes of pediatric fatality in motor vehicle accidents in the US (see more info in our other blog published  Today).

In previous tests of the Graco My Ride 65 car seat, the National Highway traffic Safety Administration found that in some cases the harness webbing restraining the child wasn’t resistant enough ant that it could break in the case of a serious car crash.  After internal investigation, the manufacturer Graco concluded that the defective harness webbing were associated with a single batch of sewn webbing and that an estimated 10% of the recalled seats were defective.

The recall affects model numbers 1871689, 1908152, 1813074, 1872691, 1853478, 1877535, 1813015, and 1794334. Only units manufactured on 7/22/2014 and that have a webbing code 2014/06 on a tag on the harness webbing are affected.

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seatbelts prevent children from dying in car accidentsToo many children are dying in car accidents in the US  because they are not adequately restrained. Improper restraint is the number one cause of children fatalities in car accidents in the US. A recent study published in The Journal of Pediatrics found that if the percentage of children unrestrained or inappropriately restrained while riding in  a car in the US  decreased from the actual estimated figure of 20% to 10%, 232 children deaths would be averted every year. The study by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas and the Department of Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX,  looks at car accident data by States from 2010 to 2014.

Important variations were found from state to state. Globally 52% of the children who died in a car accident in the US camme from the South, 21% from the West, 19% from the Midwest and 7.4%  from the Northeast. While looking at factors that may increase the risk of children deaths in car accidents, the researchers found that in New Hampshire only 2% of children who died in a car accident were improperly restrained while in Mississipi 38% of the children who died in a car crash were improrely restrained.

The type of roads as well as the absence of legislation in regards to red light cameras are also important factors in children mortality in car crashes. Rural roads are the type of roads where children have the highest risk of being killed in a car accidents. Several factors such as poorer road quality, limited lighting or visibility, lesser enforcement of speed or long distances to trauma centers may explain why more children are dying on the road in rural areas. Researchers also found an increased risk of pediatric mortality in car accidents in States that didn’t have legislation for red light cameras.

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ABScan prevent fatal motorcycle accidentsApproximately one-third of all fatal motorcycle accidents in the US could be avoided if motorcycles were equipped with mandatory ABS according to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. ABS stands for anti-lock brake systems. This technology which is used on most cars prevents the wheels from blocking when a driver brakes abruptly and vigorously. It is also helps controlling the vehicle while braking for emergency conditions or on slippery roads.

The NYPD and the California Highway Patrol bikes are all equipped with this system which has proven to be very effective to decrease motorcyclist deaths and injuries. ABS is now mandatory on all new bikes sold in Europe and soon they will be mandatory on all new bikes sold in Japan, India and Brazil.

In the US, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulators came very close to making ABS on motorcycle mandatory in 2009. ABS was put on the NHTSA regulatory agenda in July 2009 with the agency citing ” potentially large benefits for braking improvements”. The regulators then suddenly changed their mind and decided “there wasn’t enough proof that the lives saved and the decrease of injured motorcyclists would outweight the additional cost to manufacturers”. Now with the anti-regulatory Trump government, motorcyclists will continue to die on American roads before regulators make the right decision.

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accident sceneA woman died and 3 other people suffered personal injury in a car crash in New York City early Monday. The victim was identified as 48-year-old Wazeda Banu. She was a passenger in a 2009 Nissan Sentra driven by a 51-year-old man. Another 59-year-old woman was riding with them. The trio was driving North on 164th Street near the Grand Central Parkway service road in Queens, NYC, when a 2012 Toyota Scion SUV t-boned them.  Wazeda Banu who was sitting right were the car was T-Boned was rushed to the emergency with severe chest pain. She died from her injuries at the hospital. The driver and the passenger who were riding with Wazeda Banu also suffered  injuries and were transported to the hospital. Their lives are not in danger. The 36-year-old driver of the SUV suffered minor injury and was also sent to the hospital to be treated.  The accident is still being investigated by the police.

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prevent drowning in poolsToo many kids are still fatally drowning in swimming pools and spas every year in the U.S.. According to a new report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, drowning continues to be the number one cause of death among children between 1 and 4 years old and the second leading cause of death among children 5 to 14-years old.

Families need to be constantly educated about the risks of fatal and non-fatal child drowning in spas and swimming pools. Therefore the “CPSC Pool Safety Campaign” team and the Michael Phelps Foundation recently announced that they were joining forces to fight this serious public health crisis. In a recent joint press conference of the CPSC and the Micheal Phelps Foundation, Micheal Phelps told media that the CPSC pool campaign would be integrated into his IM Program. The program encourages children to be healthy and active by offering swimming lessons, water safety courses and other recreational activities around the pool. At a recent event, children learned to swim and how to be safe in the water. Every child also took the pool safety pledge to

  • never swim alone
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A worker died and another one was injured in a construction accident in Long Island, NY, last Wednesday. Edward Sinnott, an employee from the construction company Antonio and Sons, was buried to death in 15 feet of dirt. The accident occurred as the 59 year old man was standing on the top of the hole, directing the digging of a new cesspool system for a private home on Beech Place, in Hutington, NY. All of a sudden around 1pm, the cesspool collapsed, submerging Sinnott alive. Another construction worker who was standing next to him was able to survive by grabbing the bucket used to dig in the area. Crews used all types of equipment to try to find the construction worker quickly but his body was recovered  6 hours later. OSHA is now investigating the accident. The house was also reported unstable and unsafe. Read more in the Gothamist Our Partner Howard Hershenhorn recovered $3,500,000 in Suffolk County for the family of a man killed when the cesspool at his home collapsed.

 

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OSHA logoThe announcement of safety actions against employers who recklessly put their employees (particularly construction workers) at risk of deadly or dangerous accidents is one of the tools used by OSHSA to prevent workers from being injured on the job. Last year more than one hundred of theses announcements were made by OSHA over the months of February and March. This year only 4 of them were released by OSHA since Trump took over.

The threat of bad publicity has proven to be a good tool to fight safety and health hazards on the job. Now that the Trump administration has been slacking on announcements of major safety actions some Senators are worrying that  OSHA is unable to do its job properly. In a letter to the Department of Labor, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Patty Murray, Al Franken, Robert Casey Jr., Christopher Murphy and Bernard Sanders are expressing their concerns about OSHA’s recent behaviour. The six Senators are asking the Department of Labor to conduct a review in regards to what seems to be a change of policy at OSHA in regards to the announcement of major safety penalties against employers. The Senators also asked the Department of Labor why OSHA recently postponed the planned implementation of a new safety regulation protecting workers exposed to silica and beryllium which have proven to cause lung cancer and other respiratory diseases.

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A pedestrian died in a truck accident in New York City early Sunday morning. The truck never stopped after he hit the pedestrian and neither did several vehicles who also hit him after he fell on the ground. The truck hit the pedestrian around 2:30 am on Sunday morning as he was walking on the Northbound lane of the Cross Bronx Expressway near Castle Hill Ave.  The pedestrian died at the scene of the accident. The police are still investigating the hit and run.

Truck accidents have been on the rise in New York City over the last few years. Up until the beginning of 2016, the number of accidents in the city was contained below 1,000 a month, usually between 500 and 700 at the most. Over the last year, the monthly number of truck accidents has doubled and sometimes tripled in New York City. According to the most recent statistics from the NYPD, there were 1,571 truck accidents recorded in March 2017, compared to 1,017 in March 2016, 733 in March 2015 and 573 in March 14. Several factors such as the recent economic boom and the increase in the number of consumer goods being ordered through the internet may have contributed to this alarming increase in truck accident in NYC.Truck accidents NYC March 2017

 

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A motorcyclist almost lost his foot in an accident in New York City. The motorcyclist was driving on Cropsey Ave in Gravesend, Brooklyn, when he was T-boned by a speeding van. The van driver was making a left turn from Cropsey Ave onto Canal Ave. According to a witness the driver thought he could make it but instead he slammed into the motorcyclist which was driving North. The accident occured on Sunday night around 8:45 pm. The van driver stayed at the scen of the accident and wasn’t charged despite his recklessness. The motorcyclist’s leg was completely mangled and he was rushed to the hopsital. He may lose his leg according to the NY Daily News. Motorcycles being struck by left turning vehicles is all to ccomon. Drivers must be eductated to be on the lookout for motorcycles. In N.Y.C. especially motorcyclists, if possible, should slow down when entering intersections and not depend on vehicles to yield the right of way.

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accident sceneA 46 old pedestrian died in NYC after a drugged driver struck him as he was crossing the street. 67 year old Jihne Niu was crossing the street at the intersection of 46th Ave and 149th Street in Flushing, Queens when the accident occurred. The driver, a 46 year old man who was drugged behind the wheel hit him with his car. He stayed at the scene of the accident and was arrested shortly after the police found out he was under the influence of drugs. Jihne Niu was rushed to the emergency room but couldn’t be saved. Read more in the NY Daily News.

Unfortunately, more people than usual were driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol during the celebration of Memorial Day. On Friday, Governor Cuomo announced that the New York State Police would be cracking down on this type of dangerous driving behaviour over the long week-end. Patrols were added all over the State of New York and sobriety check points were use to identify and arrest people driving under the influence. Unfortunately they couldn’t prevent all accidents. Last year during a similar operation over the Memorial Day Weekend York State Police arrested 225 drunk drivers and issued 12,000 tickets for various other violations  during the Hoilday. New York City also targeted drunk drivers. (read more here). In New York City, the NYPD, the DOT, the TLC and mayor de Blasio announced on Friday that the NYPD would also be cracking down on drunk drivers. Additionally the City of New York was offering  $10 off the ride of anyone taking a taxi on Friday night or Saturday night. Entitled “Know your limit” the campaign was encouraging New York City drivers to ride home in a taxi rather than drive back home under the influence. It seems strange though that the rebate was dd  not apply on Sunday night, one of the most busy nights of the long week-end (read more here).