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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Jeffrey-Bloom3On Wednesday, Our partner Jeffrey Bloom lectured and did a demonstration of a deposition of a defendant doctor in a medical malpractice case at Metropolitan Hospital Emergency Department Grand Rounds which was attended by New York Medical College emergency medicine faculty, residents, medical students and other observers and research staff.
Two days before Jeff was also invited by the NY Kings Supreme Court bench & court attorneys to present and discuss issues frequently encountered in the trial of a medical malpractice action in a “lunch and learn” program.

A co-chair of the Medical Malpractice Committee of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and a member of the organization’s board of directors, NYC Medical Malpractice Attorney Jeff Bloom has lectured extensively to law students and fellow lawyers on the preparation and trial of medical malpractice lawsuits. He has also lectured in New York State Bar Association-sponsored programs entitled “Medical and Legal Issues in Breast Cancer and Gynecological Cancers and Surgery” and “Woman’s Health Issues and Malpractice.”

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Fernando Vanegaz died in a NYC construction accident18 year old Fernando Vanegaz died in a construction accident in Brooklyn, NYC, in September 2015. Two of his colleagues were also seriously injured in the accident. The construction workers were hired by  Michael Weiss an unlicensed contractor who was running an illegal construction site. Michael Weiss asked the workers to dig in an area where the NYC DOB had ordered not to excavate. The workers didn’t have much experience in excavating. When they asked for back up, the contractor ignored them. He also refused to provide any underpinning, shoring or bracing  after workers noticed a crack in a wall. Several times the workers expressed their concern about the crack in the wall, fearing for their lives. The contractor continued to ignore them. Then the tragedy happened, the wall collapsed, killing the young Fernando Vanegaz and seriously injuring two other of his co-workers. Both of them had to go through multiple surgeries for injuries to their spine, skull and facial bones.  The reckless contractor is now facing up to 15 year in prison.

Read more in the New York Times

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NYC Construction Accident Attorneys Gair Rubinowitz DonadioOur NY personal injury law firm is proud to announce that our attorneys Ben. B. Rubinowitz, Anthony H. Gair and Christopher J. Donadio obtained a $5.85 million settlement in a construction accident that occurred in Queens.

The case involved a construction worker who was injured while performing asbestos removal work on a building rooftop in Queens, NYC. He fell 15-20 feet into the building when the roof collapsed in the area where he was working.

He was rushed to North Shore University Hospital where he was diagnosed with fractures to his spine. While in the hospital, he underwent a percutaneous fusion from the T10 vertebrae to the L2 vertebrae. He remained in the hospital for three and a half weeks after the accident. Following his discharge, he underwent several months of physical therapy and also received epidural steroid injections in his lower back.

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Inadequate, non existent or defective equipment are putting workers at risk of fall or other dangerous construction accidents. Today as part of the second day of the “Safety Stand Down to prevent fatal falls in the construction industry”, employers are invited to check with their employees if they are using the proper equipment for each job and if this equipment is in good working order.

OSHA requires the 3 following fall protection equipment for all construction sites:

  • Personal Fall Arrest Systems (PFAS) is the most crucial equipment to prevent falls. Anyone working at height including lower height should be using one. The PFAS consists of a fall arrest anchor, a shock absorbing lanyard or retractable lifeline and a full body harness. When used proprely this system can save the life of a worker should he fall. It is the responsibility of the employer to make sure that all employees working at heights of 6 feet or more are provided with this equipment and are using it.
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dangerous-NYC-bike-laneNYC Bicyclist advocates are warning that a fatal bike accident may occur if nothing is done to address safety on the Kent Ave bike lane in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC. The lane is constantly clogged with cars and construction vehicles forcing bicyclists to dangerously veer back and fourth into traffic. A recent video (click on the picture to access video) on Twitter by Transportation Alternative Advocate Maximillian Sholl shows traffic of trucks and cars casually driving on the protected bike lane forcing cyclists to ride on the sidewalk.

Out of the 319 complaints about blocked bike lanes that have been reported to the 311 number since last November when this service was created, 19 were related to clogging on the Kent Ave protected bike lane.

This dangerous situation comes from high traffic activity generated by dozens of waterfront construction sites. According to bicyclists some of the construction sites are very respectful of bicyclist safety while others don’t really care. Fore example the Domino Factory construction site has workers sweeping the bike lane regularly and workers are flagging the traffic to give bicyclists the right of way. Things are different with the 420 Kent Ave construction site. The bike lane in front of the construction site is often obstructed by trucks. Workers who are supposed to flag traffic don’t do it and sometimes curse at bicyclists.

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Falls are the leading cause of death in the construction industryThe Fourth National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction kicked off Yesterday and will take place everyday this week in New York and all over the country. Employers in the construction industry are invited by OSHA, NIOSH and NORA to take a break and conduct a discussion or a workshop on fall prevention with their workers.

52 workers fatally fell on the job in New York during the recent construction boom. (see previous blog). Fall are the leading cause of death in the construction industry. They account for 37% of all deaths on construction sites. More than half of these fatal falls occurred in small companies that have 10 employees or less. Construction workers aged 45 to 54 years old are the most at risk of dying in a fall.

Last year in the US, 350 hard hats suffered a fatal fall. 1 out of 3 fefalling from ladders preventionll from 15 feet or less and 1 out of 4 fell from a ladder.  Construction workers may have a false sense of security when using a ladder because it is “not that high” but if they are not using them safely they can get killed. Falls from ladders can be prevented by following safe work practices described below.

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NYC DOT proposal for bike lanes on Fourth Ave BKIn an effort to protect Brooklyn bicycle commuters from dangerous accidents, the DOT recently proposed to add a protected bike lane to Fourth Avenue. The bike lane would allow bicyclists to safely commute between Bay Ridge, Sunset Park and Park Slope. The DOT  presented the proposal after a first redesign of the Avenue five years ago led to a decrease of 61% in pedestrian injuries. The DOT believes that the addition of protected bike lanes may reduce bicycle injuries in a similar manner. Based on previous NYC statistics the addition of bike lanes usually results in a 20% decrease in all road users injuries including a 22% decrease in pedestrian injuries and 25% decline in motor vehicle occupant injuries.

If accepted the DOT proposal would lead to the creation of a 4.6 mile protected bike lane that would be the biggest one in New York City.  According to the DOT, the addition of the protected bike lane would be a life changer for many bicyclists who are commuting daily in Brooklyn. Because Fourth Avenue stays a busy Avenue despite the previous road diet, many bicyclists are still afraid to use it.

The first road diet implemented in 2012 consisted of the removal of one lane in each direction and the addition of additional space for pedestrian crossings in the middle of the Avenue. The new DOT proposal includes the addition of one bike lane on each side of the road protected from traffic by parked cars. Additionally concrete pedestrian islands would be installed at all four corners at intersections.

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accident scene34 year old Jonatan Segura was drunk and speeding the night he killed one pedestrian and injured another in a car accident in New York last January. Segura plead guilty to manslaughter, two counts of assault, homicide, leaving the scene, and drunk driving as well as misdemeanor assault and misdemeanor leaving the scene of an accident. He is facing 4 to 12 years in prison.

On January 30th around 4:00 am, Segura was driving on 181st Street near Amsterdam Avenue when he lost control of his BMW sedan. He was drunk and he was speeding. He hit a pick-up truck and two pedestrians. One of them, Encarnation died form his injury at the hospital, the other one, a 46 year old woman was seriously injured.

Segura fled the scene of the accident on foot leaving behind him two seriously injured people and his car completely destroyed by the high speed impact.

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GM logoAfter the scandal of the defective ignition-switch that lead to the death of at least 124 people, GM is again suspected of mishandling a recall related to defective headlights.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced this week in a report that they are now investigating a 2015 GM recall of  429,000 vehicles with a possible defective Headlamp Driver Modul (HDM). The 2015 recall occurred after customers complained that the HDM was not operating proprely and that the low beam headlamps and daytime running lamps were failing to illuminate. The following vehicles were recalled: model year (MY) 2005-2009 Buick LaCrosse, 2006-2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer/GMC Envoy/Buick Rainier, 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer EXT/GMC Envoy XL, 2006-2008 Isuzu Ascender/ Saab 9-7X, and 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix vehicles.

The NHTSA now suspects that the scope of the GM recall was too limited. Since the recall occurred the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) received 128 complaints related to issues with headlights of GM cars that were not included in the recall but built in the same year as the recalled models. Most vehicle owners complained that they simultaneously lost both headlights with no warning. The ODI also found out that vehicle owners whose cars were repaired after reporting that headlight failed to illuminate had the same component replaced as the component that was replaced in the recalled cars.

So far no crashes have been reported. In one of the reports the owner of a 2007 Chevrolet TrailBlazer said that both headlights failed as he was driving during a rainy night on a steep curvy highway. He explained that he was facing a truck in a curve and as he dimmed his headlights they both shut down and all he could hear was the horn of the truck trying to avoid his car. When he complained to GM, GM’s answer was:  ‘No recall. Your problem.’

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Amanda Miner killed in a NYC drunk driving accidentA 26 year old NYPD traffic agent was charged with drunk driving, vehicular manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide this morning when he appeared at his arraignment. Stefan Hoyt was drunk when he crashed his car into a divider of the Williamsburg bridge on March 16th around 3:15 am.   21 year old Amanda Miner who was sitting in the back seat (see previous blog ) was killed in the accident. While the speed limit is 35 mph, Hoyt was driving at a speed of 111 mph when he lost control of his vehicle. Videos from that night show Hoyt drinking at least 10 drinks including 8 shots of vodka. Hoyt’s bail was originally set at $100,000 but the judge reset it at $250,000.

Read more in the NY Daily News