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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To reduce pedestrian accidents at dangerous New York intersections, City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) wants to re-introduce an old crosswalk system named the Barnes Dance. The Barnes Dance is a system from the 60ies where all cars have the red light at the same time at an intersection so all pedestrians can cross safely without mixing with traffic. This type of crosswalk system was named after traffic engineer Henry Barnes. The bill which will be introduced tomorrow is asking the NYC DOT to look at the feasibility of a Barnes Dance system at the 25 most dangerous intersections of the city. Read more in the NY Daily News

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Three people died in a plane accident in Long Island, NY. The passengers, two men and a woman had taken off from Myrtle Beach, SC and planned to land in Plainville Connecticut later on during the day. The airplane made a distress call to air traffic control and reported an instrument problem. The plane then disappeared from radar. It crashed on a residential road in Syosset, Long Island, NY. Debris fell from the skies into a school backyard and in residential properties. Witnesses said it was terrifying. Very foggy weather conditions may also have been a factor in the fatal accident. Investigators are still working on finding the exact causes of the crash.

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A window washer died on Monday in New York. The 57 year old worker was cleaning the windows of a building in the Upper East Side located on East 81st Street between Lexington and Park Ave. He fell off a third-story ledge and died. In New York Window Washers are protected under both Section 240 and Section 202 of the New York State Labor Law. For a discussion of Section 240 see our New York Construction Accident page. Section 202 known as The Window Washers Law provides that ” The owner, lessee, agent and manager of every public building and every contractor involved shall provide such safe means for the cleaning of the windows and of exterior surfaces of such building as may be required and approved by the board of standards and appeals.” As a practical matter most window washing accidents are covered by section 240 which is a self executing statute which does not require violation of a provision of The Industrial Code and to which comparative negligence does not apply.

 

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The massive fire that dSerbian_Orthodox_Cathedral_of_St._Savadestroyed a 19th-century Serbian Orthodox cathedral in Manhattan is being investigated. The fire started Sunday a little bit before 7:00 pm at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava, on West 25th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. The orthodox Easter services had ended a little bit before and the church was empty. The roof which was made of wood was  one of NY’s largest Gothic timber hammer beam roofs.  It was completely destroyed.  The rest of the building is structurally sound according to the preliminary inspection of the department of buildings. Read more in the Gothamist

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A pedestrian died and two other people were injured in a car accident in NYC on Sunday. The accident occurred at the intersection of E. 94th Street and Avenue K in Canarsie, Brooklyn. The driver of a SUV struck another car, lost control of the vehicle that slammed into two pedestrians waiting to cross the road. The pedestrians were a couple living nearby. The wife, 51 year old, Chooi Tan  suffered severe injury. The couple as well as the driver of the car hit by the SUV were all transported to the hospital. Chooi Tan died at the hospital while her husband and the driver were in stable condition.

The driver of the SUV and a passenger fled the scene of the accident by foot. The police are still looking for them. The SUV was reported stolen last Friday.

Read more in the NY Daily News

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prescription drugThe fear of providing lawyers with new weapons for medical malpractice lawsuits and the idea that the FDA wants to tell doctors how to practice medicine are among the many reasons why most physicians are still opposed to mandatory training for prescription of painkillers .  In 2012 a recommendation by an expert panel to implement such training was rejected by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The American Medical Association was also against the recommendation.

However since 2012 the opiate addiction problem in the US grew so big that the government is looking at all possible solutions to fight this crisis. The role of the doctor is again taking center stage as, Today and tomorrow, the FDA is convening a new panel of experts to discuss the possibility of mandatory training for physicians prescribing opiates (see briefing document for the meeting).

The Obama administration and even some drug manufacturers have now stated that they wareere in favor of such mandatory training but other organizations such as the American Medical Association Task Force to Reduce Prescription Opioid Abuse are still against it.

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J&J Baby powderJohnson and Johnson failed to warned about the risk of ovarian cancer for women using its talc powder for genital use. Yesterday the company was order to pay $55 million damages to a female consumer who blamed her ovarian cancer on the use of of the famous baby powder for genital use. This is the second product liability lawsuit that Johnson & Johnson has lost for failure to warn about the risk of ovarian cancer. In February a similar lawsuit brought by the family of a woman who died from ovarian cancer at 62 years old led to a $72 million verdict against the company. J&J is now facing more than a thousand similar lawsuits.

The use of talc for feminine genital hygiene has been a controversial subject for decades. In 1971, British researchers looked at ovarian tumors under a microscope and found that 13 out of 10 were embedded with talc. A more recent study by Dr Daniel Kramer, a gynecologist and Harvard Medical School Professor found that women who used talc powder on their genitals had a 33% higher risk of ovarian cancer than women who didn’t use talc on their genitals.

So far 20 studies have found a relation between the use of talc for feminine hygiene purposes but other studies also found no association.

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Several bicyclists were injured in an accident with a motorcycle in Brooklyn, NYC. The bicyclists were all participating in the the popular Red Hook Criterium 30k bike race in Brooklyn. The motorcyclist who was supposed to ride ahead of the race stalled near the start of the men’s final race. A bicyclist struck the motorcyclist and then a second one obstructing the narrow passage which competitors were riding through, resulting in a massive pile-up of dozens of bicyclists (see video). Seven bike riders were taken to the hospital to be treated for non- life threatening injuries. The men’s final was restarted shortly after the accident.

Read more in the NY Daily News

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operarting roomA fire erupted in a New York hospital operating room while a patient was having surgery. The accident happened in 2014 at  NYU Langone Medical Center but the results of the investigation were only recently released by the New York Department of Health. The report was obtained by the NY Post under a Freedom of Information Law request. In the report State investigators indicate that the hospital lacked adequate safety procedures to prevent surgical fire. NYU Langone Medical Center also was not conforming with standard practices to protect patients from these type of fires.

Additional medical malpractice was also committed by the surgeon  and the anesthesiologist who failed to communicate proprely about which instrument would be used by the surgeon and which gas would be used by the anesthesiologist to check if there was incompatibility or danger.  According to the DOH report the surgeon used an instrument that sparked a fire in presence of the oxygen used by the anesthesiologist. The patient was injured but the the extent of the injury was redacted in the report received by the NY Post.

After  the accident happened at the beginning of December 2014 the hospital didn’t act to improve safety measures to prevent patients from being injured in a similar manner. It was only after the the Department of Health inspection, at the end of the same month, that the hospital instituted new safety measures related to operating room fires. The measures included changing the oxygen delivery method for surgeries posing a high risk of fire.

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grade crossingA Metro North train crashed into a car in Bedford Hills NY last Wednesday.  The driver of the car was crossing the Green Lane railroad crossing when the car stalled. As the crossing gate started to go down she immediately realized what would happen next. She and her passenger quickly escaped from the car before it got hit by the train.  Thankfully nobody was injured in the crash. The service on the line was disrupted for thousands of passengers. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo who has been campaigning for the Federal Government and the MTA to improve grade crossings reiterate its call for better safety measures. Read more in the Lohud

Picture: an example of grade crossing courtesy of Wikipedia