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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imageA drunk off duty cop killed a pedestrian and injured 3 others in Brooklyn, NYC, Sunday around 3:00 am.  21 year old Andrew Esquivel (photo ), a MIT student interning in New York for the summer , was walking home when he was hit by an out of control car that jumped the curb. Another man and two other women were seriously injured in the accident. The driver of the car was off duty NYPD Officer Nicholas Batka who was allegedly drunk but refused a breathalyzer test. He was charged with vehicular manslaughter, three counts of assault, driving while intoxicated, driving with impaired ability and driving on a sidewalk. Read more in the NY Daily News 

 

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Cy VanceLast year 22 year old Carlos Moncayo died in a  construction accident in New York. The young worker was crushed to death by a collapsing  wall on the site of the former Pastis restaurant in the Meatpacking district, in lower Manhattan, NYC. Prior to the accident, Harco, the contractor, had been warned by an  independent engineer  that the construction site was unsafe and that it should be closed.  The contractor refused and Carlos died. (See previous blogs here and here)

A coalition of 22  groups including District Attorney Vance and then Building Trade Employers’ Association (BTEA) are asking the judge to impose the maximum sentence on  Harco.  Harco was found guilty of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment by Judge A. Kirke Bartley.  The D.A.  Also requested that the contractor pay for an advertising campaign to promote  worker safety this fall in New York.

Read more in the Real Deal 

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A man was seriously injured after a piece of plywood from a security fence at a  construction site fell on him. The man was walking on the sidewalk at the South East  corner of 30th St. and Fifth Avenue in NYC yesterday around 4 PM when the accident happened. An 8 feet long piece of plywood that was not properly secured fell on him, knocking him down to the ground. He was transported to the hospital in serious condition.  See video below for more.

A similar accident happened in the West Village at the beginning of the year. A woman who was passing by was killed by a piece of plywood that detached from a construction site security fence. See previous blog 

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A pedestrian was  fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver  Tuesday night in New York City. According to DNA info the man was intoxicated. He had just come out of a limo and he fell on the ground before being hit by a car. The fatal car accident happened on Jerome Avenue near the Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.  The limo driver called 911 after the accident. The man was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. The police are still looking for a white Chevrolet Impala.

Read more in  DNA info 

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Crane ReportFollowing the fatal collapse of a crane in  lower Manhattan last February, Mayor de Blasio and NYC building commissioner Rick Chandler created the Crane Safety Technical Working Group. The mission of this independent group of experts was to assess actual New York crane safety regulations and provide a set of  recommendations to improve existing regulations and limit further crane accidents in New York City. A few days ago the group released a report that includes  23 recommendations to improve crane safety in New York City.

The group noted that despite having some of the most comprehensive crane safety regulations in the world, the NYC  Department of Buildings hasn’t comprehensively revised and updated these regulations since 2008. In between technology and best practices have evolved tremendously. A new effort to update regulations was launched by the DOB  last year but nothing has been released yet. Therefore the Crane Safety Technical Working Group proposes that the Department of Buildings integrates the Crane Safety Technical Working Group recommendations with their ongoing efforts to update the existing crane regulations.

In its recommendations, the group suggests:

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car in bike laneA few weeks after a bicyclist died after being intentionally hit by a car in Brooklyn, NYC, another enraged car driver chased a bicyclist in a Brooklyn protected bike lane and tried to  intentionally run over him. The incident happened last Thursday night on Kent Ave. Two friends where riding on the bike lane when they passed a car that was parked on the bike lane forcing bicyclists to get in the traffic to get around it. The driver of the car was behind the wheel and one of the bike riders told him to “get the fuck off the bike lane”. The hot blooded driver got upset and started to chase the bicyclists. He threw a bottle of water at them. As the car was chasing them on Kent Ave, the two bicyclists made a turn onto a two ways protected bike lane on Flushing. The enraged driver recklessly drove right into the protected bike lane using both lanes and seriously endangering any potential bike riders. Bike riders took pictures of the incidents and were able to get the car plates number and identified the driver. They went to the police hopping they would do something about it but the cops politely told them off… Read more in the Gothamist

Picture from Anna Maria on Instagram

 

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A pedestrian died after being hit by a car in NYC.  The accident happened early Monday morning a little bit before 1:00 am. The 22 year old man had just stolen beers at a Bodega in the Bronx and  was running across Bruckner Boulevard near 149th street. He was struck by a SUV driving west on the boulevard. The pedestrian was found unconscious at the scene of the accident. He was transported to the hospital where he was declared dead. The police are still investigating the exact cause of the accident.

Read more in the NY Daily News

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A pedestrian was  fatally struck by a car as he was walking along a Queens Highway . The accident occurred Friday night around 11:30 p.m. on the left shoulder of the Van Wyck Expressway heading north near the Liberty Avenue exit. The unidentified man was fatally struck by a Lexus sedan. The driver stayed at the  scene of the accident and wasn’t charged.

Read more in the New York Daily News

 

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A man in his 70s suffered serious injury after being struck by a tractor-trailer truck in Queens, NYC. The man was crossing Jamaica Ave. near 168th Street around noon when he was hit by a dairy truck. His legs got pinned under the wheels and were severely mangled. An airbag was used by the first responders to lift the wheel from the man’s leg. He was then transported to the hospital. The pedestrian suffered massive leg injury but he was expected to survive. The truck driver who stayed at the scene of the accident wasn’t charged.

Read more in the NY Daily News

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20 people died and dozens suffered personal injury  after two trains collided  head-on on a single track. The accident took place in Corato, near Bari  in Italy. The two trains that collided belong to a local private rail company, Ferrotramviaria SpA. The company operates around 20 electrical trains in the region. It connects Bari, the capital of Puglia with regional towns to the north and the airport, operating about 20 small electric trains. It serves mostly students and commuters.