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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senior pedestrians3 pedestrians died and another one was critically injured in New York City last Tuesday. The carnage started at 6:00 am in the morning in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. 71 year old Joseph Ramieri was crossing Meeker Avenue between Bridgewater Street and Gardner Avenue when he was struck by a car. He was transported unresponsive to the hospital. He died there. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident and wasn’t charged by the police.

3 hours later, at 9:00 am, 81 year old Carmen Velez was crossing E. Fordham Road when she was struck by a car making a left turn from Hughes Avenue onto Fordham Avenue, Bronx. She was taken to the hospital with severe trauma to her body. She was declared dead upon her arrival. The driver of the car was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.

The third fatal pedestrian accident of the day occurred at night in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn. A woman in her 50s was fatally hit by a pick up truck at the intersection of Gerritsen Avenue and Whitney Avenue. No charges were filed against the driver.

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nursing home abuse“Sick, Dying and Raped in America’s nursing homes” is the title of a new investigation recently released by CNN. According to this investigation, sexual abuse at nursing homes is widespread and little is being done to stop it.

It is very saddening that many elderly that have issues with memory or who can not defend themselves because they are too weak are being sexually abused by the people who are caring for them.  Some of the stories revealed in the CNN investigations are extremely sad, sometimes terrifying. It is very difficult to get an accurate picture of how bad the situation is because predators choose victims with Alzheimer disease who have trouble with their memories or victims who are too terrified to talk. CNN found out that nursing homes are often reluctant to believe sexual abuse accusations or are trying to hide the truth to avoid lawsuits.  Additionally the police often dismiss the claim and blame the victim for being confused. On the top of it repeated caregiver offenders are often able to work in another nursing home after being fired from a previous one. There is a systematic failure to protect victims from sexual assault in nursing homes.

In the CNN investigation a daughter explained how her mother  who flew away from Indonesia to  avoid being sexually abused by Japanese soldiers was raped in her American nursing home at 83 years old. CNN also reports the story of a male nurse who was caught by a colleague raping an 83 year old patient in a nursing home in 2014. The man was sentenced by a judge to 8 years in prison. The nurse apologized to the judge and his attorney asked for leniency. CNN discovered that the man had previously been suspended 3 times from the same nursing home for sexual abuse accusations.  The earliest complaint was made in 2008, 6 years before. The nursing home continued to let the man work  there again despite knowing he was a sexual predator.

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A woman suffered critical personal injury after being hit by a MTA bus in New York City. The accident occurred around 9 pm last Monday. 61 year old Aurora Beauchamp was crossing E. Houston Street at Avenue D in the crosswalk  and at the green light when the bus struck her. She was transported to the hospital. Her sternum, ribs hip and pelvis were broken and she suffered internal bleeding. The bus driver was also transported to the hospital for trauma. He was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian.

It is not the first time that a pedestrian has been hit by an MTA bus at this location.  Just a few months ago, in October 2016, 73 year old Anna Colon was fatally hit by a MTA bus that was turning left from Avenue D onto East Houston.

While looking at the Twitter picture below, one can see that Monday’s accident occurred exactly in the same way: the bus was making a left turn onto East Houston as well.

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Falls_Are_Leading_Cause_of_Death_Map_InfographicEvery year more than 200 construction workers die and around 10,000 are seriously injured after falling on the job in the US. Falls are the number one cause of death in construction accidents. Most of them are preventable. Planning ahead, using proper equipment and being trained for the job are key to prevent falls from scaffolds, roofs or ladders.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) and the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Construction Sector Council are joining forces to organize the fourth National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction.

This awareness campaign will take place all over the Country from May 8th to May 12th. Construction companies as well as contractors and their employees are invited to halt regular activities and organize a workshop to develop awareness on safety measures to prevent falls on construction sites. 

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Traffic fatalities at Vision Zero priority locations in 2016 compared to previous Vision Zero yearsThe total number of traffic fatalities in New York City in 2016 was at its lowest since 1910 when the city started to keep records on traffic accidents. Mayor de Blasio recently released a new report covering the third year of “Vision Zero”.  According to the report, the first three-year period of Vision Zero is the safest period in New York City history.  The report highlights the recent initiatives launched under the Vision Zero program in 2016. It also provides the most recent statistics on car accidents fatalities and injuries, bicycle accidents fatalities and injuries and pedestrian accident fatalities and injuries in 2016.

In the Vision Zero Borough Pedestrian Safety Action Plans published in 2015, the DOT defined specific strategies to improve the most dangerous intersections and high-crash corridors in each borough.  Consisting of street redesigns, additional police enforcement, education and community engagement, the implementation of these action plans proved to be especially effective. Statistics showed that for the 5 years prior to Vision Zero there was an average 141  yearly traffic fatalities including 99 pedestrian fatalities at identified high-priority locations compared to 100 fatalities including 72 pedestrian deaths in 2016.

Various cross-agency studies have led to targeted safety campaigns. The most recent was an analysis of crash trends after sunset during the fall and the winter in New York City. The DOT and the NYPD who conducted the study together found that after sunset in the fall and the winter, there is an increase in 40%  of  pedestrians dying or being severely injured in car accidents. These findings led to an increase in evening and nighttime enforcement by NYPD officers and TLC inspectors.  This increase in enforcement combined with a mix-media campaign consisting of flyers and messages on television and drive-time radio led to a decline of 30% of traffic fatalities during the initiative.

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NYC DOT bike lane porposal Amstedam AvePeople riding bikes in New York City decrease their risk of being seriously injured in a bike accident by 75% when they are using a protected bike lane.  According to a 2014 DOT study, protected bike lanes have led to a decrease of 22% of pedestrian injuries and to a minor decrease of  bicycle accident injuries despite a dramatic increase in bicycle traffic in the city.  Recently a new DOT proposal to extend the Amsterdam Avenue protected bike lane with a painted bike lane above 110 street seems somewhat weak.

The Amsterdam Avenue segment that runs from 110th street to 162nd street is a busy two way 4 travel lane corridor with no bike lanes.  Columbia University, City College of New York, several senior centers as well as various commercial and residential buildings are located on this segment of Amsterdam Avenue.

Speeding, unsafe intersections and the absence of bike lanes are making the avenue unsafe for the community. Between 2010 and 2016, 4 pedestrians died on this segment of Amsterdam Avenue. Between 2010 and 2014 8 bicyclists and 28 pedestrians were severely injured.

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car that hit the bicyclistA 76 year old man was critically injured in a bicycle accident in NYC last Friday. The man was riding his bike North on Colden Street in Queens, New York City.  He was struck by a car at the intersection of Colden Street and Elder Avenue around 5:30 pm. The car driver didn’t stop. He fled the scene of the accident leaving behind a man suffering critical personal injury.

The NYPD is still looking for the suspect who was driving a teal-colored Honda CRV. He was seen fleeing South on Kissena Boulevard from Franklin Avenue.

If you have any information about the suspected hit and run driver you can call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS or for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577. Below is a video of the car just before the bicycle accident. Read More.

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OSHA logoWorkers especially construction workers may have a higher risk of getting injured on the job if the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) decides to definitely stop releasing enforcement news.  According to a recent article in Fair Warning, OSHA hasn’t published any enforcement press releases since Inauguration Day.

Because OSHA doesn’t have enough inspectors to cover all US workplaces, news releases related to penalties and enforcement of workplace safety are a powerful tool to prevent employers from committing safety violations. Usually the agency releases between 30 and 50 of  these type of announcements every month.  It has been a month and half since Trump was installed as the American President and not one single enforcement news has been released by OSHA. The same happened to the Wage and Hour division of the Labor Department which was previously releasing news on back wages paid to employees. Fair Warning contacted both OSHA and “Wage and Hour” to ask them about this six weeks period of silence but none of them replied.  Despite news releases being halted officials at the Labor Department have confirmed that OSHA inspections are still going on. An explanation for this silence may be the still ongoing and longer than usual transition at the Top of  the Labor Department. However looking at the past, never has such an interruption of news releases occurred during a change of presidency at the White House.

The policy of the Trump administration to fail to release enforcement news regarding unsafe work conditions is clear evidence that the Trump administration is not following through on campaign promises to protect the average middle class worker. Additional efforts to scale back or to delay workplace regulations are under way.  For example two days ago,  the Labor Department just proposed to delay a regulation aimed at protecting construction workers from beryllium, a toxic metal. Things are only going to get worse as evidenced by the proposed cuts for the EPA.

 

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cover of the NYC DOT Fifth Ave protected bike lane proposalBicyclists may soon be better protected from bicycle accidents on Fifth Ave between 23rd Street and 8th Street in Manhattan. Yesterday night the Community Board 2 endorsed a project from the New York Department of Transportation (DOT) to create a protected bike lane on Fifth Avenue between 23rd Street and 8th Street. The Community Board 2 also asked the DOT to extend the protected bike lane until Washington Square.

According to statistics from the DOT, the actual non protected bike lane that runs down Fifth Ave from 23rd Street to 8th Street gets more bike traffic than any other Manhattan avenue. Unfortunately the bike lane is often obstructed by double parked vehicles, forcing bicyclists to get in heavy traffic to ride around it. It is usually in this type of situation that bicyclists are exposed to a high risk of being struck by a car. Between 2010 and 2014, 1 person died and 24 of them suffered severe injury on this specific segment.

The new proposal will not only prevent bicycle accidents but also pedestrian accidents. In addition to switching the bike lane with the parking lane, the DOT also proposed the installation of painted pedestrian islands as well as the installation of  two split-phase signals. Split-phase signals offers a separate crossing phase for cyclists and pedestrians at intersections where motorists are making a left turn. The CB2 also endorsed these two proposals. They additionally asked that the painted pedestrian islands  be cast in concrete. The CB2 members also asked the DOT to consider adding loading and unloading areas to avoid double parking.

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New York Personal Injury Lawyer Rachel JacobsWe are proud to announce that only 3 years after graduating from Law School, our associate, New York personal injury lawyer Rachel Jacobs, is already chairing a Continuous Education Seminar (CLE) at Cardozo Law School on Tuesday March 21st at 6:30 pm. Entitled “Hot Issues in Personal Injury,” this seminar will cover the following subjects:

  • tort trends
  • new tort claims
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