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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Cumberland Farm Convenince Store43 year old Kimmy Dubuque was about to enter a Cumberland Farms convenience store when she was fatally pined against the store wall by an out of control SUV.  The car accident happened in Chicopee, Mass, the hometown of the victim in 2010. Yesterday, the Dubuque family was awarded $32.4 million plus interest by a Massachusetts jury in a case that highlights the high frequency of storefront crashes and the negligence ofCumberland Farms in failing to protect clients from dangers they were previously aware of.

Cumberland Farms is a privately held chain of convenience stores and gas stations spread all over the state of Massachusetts. The Dubuque family sued Cumberland Farm on the basis that despite many previous issues with cars speeding in their parking lot, Cumberland  Farms failed to install safety barriers and bollards which are a common safety fixtures in retail parking lots.  The lawsuit revealed that the fatal accident was far from being an isolated event. According to records submitted during the lawsuit, between 2000 and 2009 there were 485 similar incidents at Cumberland Farms convenience stores. This is almost one incident every week.  Lawyers for the family produced evidence that Cumberland Farms had looked into the issue and found that the best way to protect their customers would be to install arrays of 6-inch-wide bollards in front of their stores. This would cost $3000 to $3500 per store. The company picked narrower posts and thinner steel to reduce costs. Additionally this protection was only installed in half of the locations.

Storefront car crashes are common crashes. Fair Warning reports that 7-eleven had more than 1500 incidents in seven years and that similar incidents occur frequently at Starbucks and Dunkin Donut locations.  There are no official statistics about this phenomenon but according to Fair Warning at least 16 people (employees or customers) died and at least 587 suffered personal injury including 121 who were seriously hurt between April 2013 and April 2014. Most of these crashes could have been prevented if the owners had installed bollards or other type of safety barriers in front of their stores. These types of safety measures usually cost less that $10,000.

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roy webbAfter sustaining minor injury in a car accident, a 27 year old man died during surgery at a New York Hospital.  This morning around 4:30 am Roy Webb, an employee for the catering hall Antuns in Quens Village, was driving a co-worker home. He was driving South on Laurelton Parkway when his lost control of his vehicle. He slammed into a guardrail near 130th Ave.  The car caught fire and the passenger died at the scene of the accident. The passenger suffered such bad burns that an autopsy will be required to formally identify her. The driver suffered a broken neck and was transported to Jamaica Hospital. His girlfriend and his family said that he went for a first surgery and that he woke up fine and was expected to survive. He then went for a second surgery and died during the procedure. According to the NY Daily News, the hospital told the family that his pulse dropped and that was all they could do. The family suspects that the hospital committed medical malpractice.

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Should primary care doctors be liable for medical malpractice if they fail to discuss the HPV vaccine with parents of teenagers? HPV (human papillomavirus) is a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer.  Because it is related to teenage sexual activity many doctors don’t discuss it with parents to avoid uncomfortable conversations with them.

A recent study published in Pediatrics shows that the HPV vaccine introduced 10 years ago is extremely effective in combating the virus and therefore in fighting cervical cancer. The study indicates that a comparison of the HPV rate between the pre vaccine period and the post vaccine period shows a decrease of two-thirds of HPV cases among girls aged 14 to 17. The decrease  occurred despite a very low immunization rate of 40% among 14 to 17 year old girls and 20% for boys of the same age. The rate of HPV cases among women between 20 and 24 years old also decreased by 34%. Among women older than 25 years the rate of HPV didn’t change.

Every year 14 million people in the US are diagnosed with HPV. According to the CDC there are approximately 100 strains of this type of virus. Around 40 of them can lead to an infection of the genital areas. Most of these 40 strains will turn into benign infections but a few of them can lead to serious conditions. Some HPV  strains such as types 16 and 18 can develop into oncogenic high-risk infections.  These specific infections cause most cervical, penile, vulvar, vaginal, anal, and oropharyngeal cancers and precancers. Other HPV strains such as types 6 and 11 cause genital warts and recurrent respiratory papillomatosis.

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new york taxi accident locationA woman suffered serious personal injury and a taxi passenger suffered head trauma after a taxi jumped the curb next to the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan. On Sunday morning, 41 year old Melissa Bernard was walking on the 84th street sidewalk next to the Metropolitan Museum with Bowen, her two year old son. Ahead of them her husband, Adam, was pushing their one year old daughter, Colette, in a stroller. As they were walking toward Central Park, Melissa told the New York Post that she noticed a taxi driving at a high speed toward them. She grabbed her son to protect him. The taxi jumped the curb and landed on the sidewalk just between her and her husband. The taxi then hit a light pole. The light pole fell on Melissa’s back head and neck leaving her with severe injury and a possible concussion. The child was not injured. According to the Gothamist,the passenger who was in the taxi at the time of the accident also suffered head trauma.

Mohammad Miah, the cab driver told the police that he tried to avoid another taxi who had cut him off. Mohamad said the other taxi was driving in the bus lane. He didn’t stop after the accident. The police are still investigating the causes of the accident. No citations have been issued so far. Pictures from the New York post show that surveillance video cameras were located at the the site of the accident. They should help the police determine exactly what happened.

The picture on the left  is from Google Map. It shows the location of the accident. Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum and families heading to Central Park make this intersection a very busy spot. The taxi jumped the curb and landed against the fence of the Metropolitan Museum to the left of where the pedestrian with the red shirt is located on the picture.

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New York personal injury attorney Stuart Schlesinger won $875,000 in a medical malpractice lawsuit for a client but the client never saw the money. Margaret Last, a a former executive assistant turned to attorney Stuart Schlesinger after a treatment from a podiatrist left her in so much pain that she had to start using a wheelchair or a cane to get around. She was relieved after Stuart Schlesinger was able to win $875,000 in a medical malpractice lawsuit against the podiatrist. However a year after, Margaret Last still hasn’t received any of her money according to a lawsuit that she filed against Schlesinger.

It is not the first time that Schlesinger has committed legal malpractice. He was arrested in December for defrauding clients of over $3 Million dollars in settlement proceeds.

The conduct of this NYC personal injury attorney is a disgrace to our entire profession. This is exactly what a lawyer should not be. Most of the lawyers who practice in the personal injury field, as we do, put their clients interest first and work to serve their needs. The fact that a lawyer could steal a seriously injured person’s money is unacceptable. The harshest possible sentence should be handed down against Stuart Schlesinger because he broke the most basic bond of trust between lawyer and client.

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Diane HoffmanCan medical malpractice lawsuits help reduce opioid addiction?  In a recent opinion in the New York Times Diane Hoffman  a law professor and the director of the Law and Health Care program at the University of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School of Law is warning about the consequences of erroneous criminal prosecutions of doctors who treat chronic pain patients. While she agrees that bad actors who are over prescribing drugs for profit should be punished, she worries that good doctors may under threat their patients for fear of being investigated and prosecuted.  While she recognizes that opioid addiction and abuse is a major issue that should be addressed by law enforcement, she also believes that the 100 million American patients who are suffering from serious pain condition shouldn’t be under treated. We agree that doctors who specialize in treating patients for chronic pain should not be subject to criminal prosecution. However, those doctors who run so called prescription mills and write narcotic prescriptions for anyone who walks in the door should be criminally prosecuted. Doctors who have no training in the field of pain medication and over prescribe narcotics resulting in fatal overdoses may be liable for medical malpractice. The fact is that lawyers who specialize in medical malpractice will not bring these cases unless the prescribing doctor blatantly over prescribed without any medical basis. Ms. Lane’s statement that doctors who under prescribe pain medication may be subject to medical malpractice law suits is based on one 15 year old case in which a doctor was found liable for elder abuse for under prescribing pain medication to an elderly man dying of cancer. In reality these types of cases are rarely brought.

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Running injuries are unfortunately extremely common. Over a full year, an estimated 90% of runners will temporarily stop training because they have been inured. It is not very clear why runners are getting injured. Some blame it on their new shoes, others on excessive body weight or some believe they were injured because they increase mileage too fast. It is difficult to clinically determine the exact cause of the high rate of injuries among runners.

A study published in the British Journal of Sport Medicine recently looked at pounding or impact loading. The researchers recruited 249 females who were experienced recreational runners. They studied their injury history  and used technical devices to determine their impact load. The researchers discovered that 21  runners had never been injured before the study and weren’t injured either during the two years observation time. This small group of non injured runners was compared to the group of runners who suffered the most serious injuries. They discovered that the never injured runners were landing much more lightly on their feet than the badly injured runners. One of the doctor mentioned being amazed by one of the woman they studied and who had one of the lowest impact landings. He said: “When you watched her run, it was like seeing an insect running across water. It was beautiful.” The woman ran several marathons and never sustained any injury.

If your are an avid runner, next time you are training try to make a conscious effort to land more lightly to avoid potential injuries. Doctors involved in the study also recommend landing closer to the mid-foot instead of on the heel. It may help soften the landing. You may also consider increasing the number of steps you take per minute. Smaller but faster steps are better. The study also demonstrated that increasing the cadence may reduce the impact loading. Imagine that you are walking over eggshells.

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car washA veteran car wash worker died two weeks ago in the Bronx, NYC, and “The Car Wash Campaign” is asking for a full investigation into the death of the worker to see if the chemicals that he used may have been the cause of his death. 36 year old William Alberto Castellano Gomez who had been working for the last nine years at C&P Car Wash in the Bronx, NYC started to vomit after work and told his family he suffered from general pain while at work. Two days later he was hospitalized for one night and then released. He died at his home several hours after he was released from the hospital.

On August 21, 2015 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report on Hydrofluoric Acid Injury from Car and Truck Washing. Hydrofluoric Acid is contained in many car and truck wash products. The report points out that, “Exposure to hydrofluoric acid (HF) causes corrosive chemical burns and potentially fatal systemic toxicity”. Read the full report here.

According to activists who are pushing for reform in the industry, car wash workers are using unlabeled chemicals that they are constantly inhaling while they are at work. Even though no proven connections have been established yet in this case, car wash workers have often been complaining about health issues that they believe are related to the inhaling of dangerous chemicals.

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United_States_Postal_Service_TruckA woman was killed in a truck accident in Brooklyn, NYC, early this morning. For some mysterious reason, 52 year old Dorria Campfield from the Bronx was lying face down in the middle of Fulton Ave near Roackaway Ave at 5:00 am this morning when a US postal truck ran over her. The driver said it din’t realized it was a person. He thought it was a bump.  After he realized what happened, the 66 year old driver stayed at the scene of the accident and wasn’t charge.

Recently our personal injury law firm obtained a $4.6 million verdict for the family of a woman who was killed by a postal truck while she was riding her bike. (see previous blog)

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Kew_GardensA commuter was killed after being dragged by a New York City Subway. The accident happened yesterday night at the Union Turnpike-Kew Gardens in Queens, NYC around 6:45 pm. The man was boarding the southbound F train when he got caught between the doors. The train then took off, dragging the man along the platform.  He was transported to the hospital where he later died. The New York Post reported the man may have been intoxicated. The police are investigating.

Door holding is something that New York Subway riders are practicing everyday but in this case a part of the man’s clothes apparently got caught in the closed doors and the engineer may have in fact received a signal that the doors were closed.

Picture: the subway station where the accident happened, source Wikipedia

 

 

 

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