New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog
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Happy Holidays!
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Construction Accident Prevention through Building Information Modeling (BIM)
20% 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.
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Bicyclist killed in truck accident in New York
A 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.
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Will consumers continue to be protected from dangerous and defective products under Trump presidency?
When 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.
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1 dead and 2 seriously injured in NYC car accident
3 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
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Two pedestrians injured in separate car accidents in the UES over the week-end
Two 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.
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Is failure to be cybersecure medical malpractice?
Failure to provide adequate cyber security in a healthcare facility can be medical malpractice. Last year, healthcare became the most frequently hacked industry in the US. According to a recent ECRI analysis, 90% of healthcare providers suffered security breaches in the past. With attackers spending an average of 200 days in a network it is estimated that 1 in 3 Americans will have his or her health records compromised by hackers in 2016. Every patient breached record costs an average of $363. Cyber attacks cost the healthcare industry yearly an average $6 billion. Last year hackers stole $88.4 million by hacking health records.
Quest Diagnostic, a medical laboratory based in New Jersey but handling tests for many New York City Healthcare facilities just announced that it was hacked. 34’000 patients had their data exposed according to the New York Times.
Health records are the main targets of cyber attacks but medial devices are also being hijacked putting patients at risk of dangerous health incidents. To make sure patients are safe and to avoid negligence lawsuits the healthcare industry has to fight back. Equipment needs to be proprely managed and security patches need to be timely implemented. Network security needs to be reviewed on a regular basis. Vulnerable medical devices must be identified. When reusing an electronic medical device on a new patient, the medical staff must make sure that all previous data are erased. Requests for Proposals to manufacturers or consultants must be exchanged in a cyber safe manner. New devices or patches that are added to the network must be tested before being released.
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NYC pedestrian dies after attempting to cross Van Wyck Expressway
A 49 year old man was fatally struck by a car yesterday in New York City. The man was trying to cross the Van Wyck Expressway near Jewel Ave in Queens. The man climbed the median and was about to cross the Northbound lane of the Highway when he was hit by a car. The victim died at the scene of the accident. The driver who stopped after the accident wasn’t charged. The accident occurred during rush hour yesterday afternoon. Both lanes were shutdown creating a major traffic jam up to JFK airport. (see video on PIX11)
Earlier during the week, on Monday, 7 pedestrians were injured by a reckless car driver who was fleeing the police in Brooklyn. 20 year old Diego Williams was chased by the police after fleeing a traffic stop. During the chase Williams crashed into a police car and 5 other vehicles. 7 pedestrians were also injured. One suffered severe injury and six minor injury. Williams tried to escape by foot but was captured by the police. (read more in the NY Daily News)
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Fire Accidents errupt all over NYC killing a baby and injuring many
A one year old boy died and six people were injured including two severely in a NYC fire accident yesterday morning morning. The fire started in a three bedroom apartment located on the 13th floor of a building located on Mother Gaston Blvd in Brooklyn NYC. Seven people were living in the apartment. Firemen rescued the bay boy but he died an hour later at the hospital. two other people are still fighting for their life and 4 others were injured but expected to survive. They were all transported to a nearby hospital. Read more in Brownsville Patch
Another fire broke at a new wing of the NYU Langone Hospital in Midtown Manhattan. Nobody was injured as the building was still under construction. Black smoke and massive flames caused by tar burning erupted from the rooftop. The smoke invaded the entire Kips Bay neighborhood. Read more in the NY Daily News
Yesterday 8 people including two firefighters were injured in a fire that erupted in a Bronx two-story houses (see NY Daily News). As the weather is getting colder in the City the number of residential fires has been increasing these last days.
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Man injured by defective E-cigarette battery in New York City
A defective e-cigarette battery exploded in the pocket of a man driving his car in New York City, seriously injuring him. 24 year old Ricardo Jiminez suffered a large second-degree burn on his thigh and right hand after the e-cigarette exploded in his jeans pocket. At the time of the accident, Ricardo was driving his car. As he felt heat in his pocket he put his hand in his pocket to take the battery out. At the same time the battery exploded. Smoke invaded the car. Quickly Ricardo put the car in park, jumped out of it and removed his pants. As he was doing so a police officer saw him and called for an ambulance.
Another man was burned by a defective e-cigarette battery in New York around two weeks ago. The man was working at a wine store in Grand Central Station when the accident happened.
Recently, an increased number of people have been severely burned by exploding E-Cigarette batteries all around the world. The explosions are usually caused by poorly manufactured lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are used in many electronic consumer goods. While many e-cigarettes batteries are produced in China by little known manufacturers, the recent lithium battery explosion also affected large worldwide manufacturers. Recently Samsung had to recall and stop the sale of its latest cell phone after multiple reports of defective battery explosions. Hover-boards batteries also have led to multiple explosions that sometimes led to the destruction of entire houses.
