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.
Published on:

Rubinowitz-Ben-B_12d7428b-27a7-4195-bebc-7788dce43088photo__2573607_christopher_donadioOur NY personal injury law firm is proud to announce that our attorneys Ben. B. Rubinowitz and Christopher J. Donadio obtained a $5 million settlement during trial involving a pedestrian injured in a van accident that occurred in Manhattan.

The case involved a New York City Department of Transportation van that struck and ran over the plaintiff on February 15, 2013 at the intersection of 6th Avenue and 31st Street in Manhattan.  The plaintiff, Hui Sang Park, was a college student on her way to class when she was hit by the van within the crosswalk. Following the collision, the driver of the van, city employee Richard Brooms, admitted to police officers at the scene that he never saw Ms. Park before he struck her and that he had no idea where she came from.

Ms. Park was taken from the scene by ambulance to New York Presbyterian Hospital. At the hospital, she was diagnosed with severe injuries including a comminuted open fracture of the tibia and fibula, a tibial plateau fracture, pelvic fractures, a sacral fracture, a right wrist fracture and a fracture to her shoulder. In addition to her fractures, while in the hospital, Ms. Park developed compartment syndrome in her lower leg, requiring an emergency fasciotomy. In addition to the fasciotomy, Ms. Park underwent multiple surgeries, which required the insertion of hardware in her leg, knee, pelvis and wrist.

Published on:

accident sceneA  NYC pedestrian was fatally struck by a dump truck. A bicyclist died after being clipped by a box truck. A pedestrian lost his life after being hit by a car. All 3 accidents occurred in Brooklyn Monday afternoon.

85 year old Rafael Nieves was walking back home from a trip to the supermarket around 1pm in Williamsburg. As he was crossing Grand Street near Lorimer a dump truck ran over him. The driver didn’t even stop. The police located him later on. According to their investigation the truck driver didn’t know he hit someone. Nieves, a Puerto Rican military veteran leaves behind him two children and five grand children.

A few hours later, around 4:45 pm, a 70 year old bicyclist died after being hit by a delivery truck. Iosif Plazinsky was riding his bike on Avenue X near Coney Island Ave. The bicyclist was hit twice by the truck. After the first collision he lost balance and fell. Then the truck veered to the right and struck him again. Plazinsky was rushed to the hospital but he couldn’t be saved. The truck driver stayed at the scene of the accident. Plazinsky was a retired construction worker from Odessa. He lived in Brighton Beach with his family. He had 3 grand children and one about to be born.

Published on:

nypd-chaseAn elderly woman was injured in  a car accident in New York City on Tuesday. The accident was caused by two police officers who were chasing a robbery suspect. The police officers received a radio order to stop the pursuit but ignored it. They continued to chase the suspect on Graham Ave, a busy Williamsburg street in Brooklyn. During the pursuit, the suspect lost control of his vehicle on Myrtle Ave. He hit two police cars and jumped the curb. He struck a 71 year old woman on the sidewalk. The woman and two other police officers were injured and transported to the hospital. According to witnesses talking  to the NY Daily News, it’s a miracle that no other pedestrians were hurt.

Published on:

After a young bicyclist was struck by a car in New York City, the Court of Appeals held the city of New York liable for failing to install traffic calming measures in a street the city knew was dangerous. The Court of Appeals decision  is related to a crash between a bicyclist and a car that occurred back in 2004  on Gerritsen Avenue in Brooklyn, NYC.

On December 5 2004 around 6:30 pm, 12 year old Anthony Turturro was riding his bike on Gerritsen Avenue. At the time of the accident, Gerritsen Ave was a four lane avenue with two lanes of traffic going in each direction.  As he was attempting to cross the avenue at mid-block, the young boy was struck by a car. The driver, Louis Pascarella, was speeding. The police investigation established that when the crash occurred, the driver’s speed was 54 mph, 24 mph over the 30 mph speed limit at this location. Turturro suffered serious injury. The driver pleaded guilty  to assault in the second degree.

RECKLESS DRIVING AND SPEEDING

Published on:

Near Missed event visualized with BMI20% of  the workers who die at work are construction workers but they represent only 4% of the employed workforce in the US. Hard hats are among the workers that have the most risk of being injured or even dying on the job. Sadly, most of these accidents are preventable.

As technology develops, the construction industry has been relying more and more on Building Information Modeling (BIM) to develop its projects. BIM is used throughout the life cycle of a construction project to digitally monitor the design, the plan and the construction itself. BIM can also be used for safety management.

A recent short study published by the Center For Construction Research and Training shows how “near miss accidents” can be visualized in Building Information Modeling.  The authors of the study are Dr Eric Marks and Xu Chen from the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alabama.  Dr Eric Marks recently hosted a free 30 min CPWR Webinar on this subject. The webinar can be seen here.

Published on:

bicycle-and-truck-accident-locationA bicyclist was fatally struck by a cement truck in New York last Thursday. The bicyclist was heading to the Greenway and was in the crosswalk of the West Side Highway at the intersection of West 55th Street. The cement truck was driving west and was making a right turn onto the West Side Highway when it struck the victim. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident. He hasn’t been charged so far. It is not clear yet if  he failed to yield to the bicyclist. The bicyclist was found by the police unconscious at the scene of the accident with severe head and bodily trauma.

According to the Gothamist, so far this year the police recorded 21 crashes at this location with 5 people injured in 3 of them. The previous year there were 20 crashes at this intersection 4 resulting in injury. Among the people injured was another bicyclist who had been struck by a car.

 

Published on:

Elliot-KayeWhen a company discovers that one of its products is defective, the potentially harmful product must be recalled and consumers must be warned about the products hazards. Companies that fail to timely do so may be subject to multi-million-dollars civil lawsuits by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

In the past the CPSC had a weak reputation but since Elliot Kaye took over as Chairman, the Commission became much stricter. While in 2009 the total amount of penalties imposed by the CPSC didn’t even reach $10 million, the total penalties for last year  was $26.4 million. So far this year, this amount reached $31.25 million.  The lowest amount of 2009 is also related to the fact that up to 2008, CPSC penalties were capped at $8000 per violation. In 2008, after several children died after ingesting lead tinted toys the Congress decided to increase the cap to $100,000. The Congress also increased the  aggregate limit of $1.825 million for a series of related offenses to $15 million. Nominated by president Obama, Kaye was hoping to increase penalties even further.

Companies have often considered potential civil penalties related to defective products as a “cost of doing business”. This is exactly what Elliot Kaye has been fighting.  During his tenure at the head of the CPSC, several companies including Johnson Health Tech, Philips Lighting, Teavana, Jarden Consumer Solutions and Gree Electric Appliances had to pay multi-million-dollars settlements for failing to timely report product hazards.

Published on:

accident scene3 men were struck by a minivan as they were changing a flat tire on a highway. One of them died and the two others suffered serious injury. They were expected to survive. The car accident occurred around 2:00 am this morning on a segment of the New England Thruway in the Bronx, NYC.  After one of their tires broke, 3 men in a car pulled over on a narrow shoulder of the highway. As they were changing the tire, a 52 year old man driving a minivan struck all 3 men. The driver remained at the scene of the accident. He wasn’t charged. Read more in AMNY

Published on:

84th street and York IntersectionTwo pedestrians were injured in car accidents at two dangerous intersections of the Upper East Side of Manhattan this week-end. Both accidents occurred after sunset. The first one took place at the intersection of 84th Street and York (see Google Map picture on the left) Saturday at 5:45 pm. A 76 year old lady who crossed the street against the light was struck by a car. She suffered broken bones in her face, leg and pelvis.  She was transported to the hospital in critical condition. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident and wasn’t charged. Since 2009, 7 pedestrians were injured in car accidents at this intersection.

The second accident took place at an even more dangerous intersection. 28 pedestrians were injured since 2009 at the intersection of East 86th Street and Third Ave. Another victim was hit by a car at this location on Sunday at 8:30 pm.

To prevent such accidents the city launched the Dusk and Darkness campaign to tell pedestrians and drivers about the higher risk of pedestrian accidents during the winter darkness. As part of this campaign The NYPD also increases enforcement against drivers speeding, failing to yield or being distracted while driving between 4:00 pm and 9:00 am.