A 22 year old man died in a motorcycle accident in Queens, NYC around 5:45 am on Sunday morning. 22 year old Nathaniel Gomez was riding on Steinway street near 23rd Ave when he lost control of his bike. He was rushed to the hospital where he died. Read more in the NY Daily News
Hypoglycemia (low blood glucose level) at birth can lead to brain injury and intellectual development disabilities. Therefore when a child is born with a low level of sugar in his blood, he or her is immediately treated to maintain the blood sugar level above a certain threshold. Treatment usually consists of additional feeding and or oral intravenous glucose. A new study involving more than 404 newborns shows that not only maintaining a level of sugar above a certain threshold but also keeping it from swinging too high too fast is essential to prevent neurosensory impairments.
During the first 48 hours of their life, all 404 infants were fitted with a device that would read the blood sugar level every 5 minutes. 53% of the infants participating in the study had blood sugar levels below 47 milligrams per deciliters and needed treatment. The rest of them didn’t require treatment.
The blood sugar monitoring device showed that during the first 48 hours of life many infants including those who didn’t need treatment, experience low blood sugar episodes.
Qualified and competent 
OSHA construction site safety inspectors play a very important role in preventing workers from being injured or dying on construction sites. Unfortunately with the recent boom in the construction business in New York City, these inspectors are very hard to find and their rates have been increasing significantly.
Certified Site safety inspectors have taken a safety course with OSHA and must meet specific criteria before receiving a OSHA certification. However these last years many unscrupulous workers just blew off the classes and presented falsified OSHA cards to contractors in order to become site safety inspectors.
Since the beginning of the year the City has been cracking down on these workers.
The recent construction boom in New York has lead to a significant increase of hard hats dying on construction sites. These deaths could have been prevented if safety measures were proprely implemented and workers better protected. Among the workers who died this year, 9 fell because they weren’t proprely secured and several of them were crushed by improperly braced walls.
Unfortunately while the number of new construction sites has expanded significantly, the number of available site-safety inspectors has dropped. According to a Daily News investigation, there were 1,171 available inspectors in NYC in 2011 compared to 1,105 in 2014, a decrease of almost 6%. During that same period of time building permits increased by 18% from 121,000 in 2011 to 142,000 in 2014.
According to the NY Daily News, the rarity of site-safety inspectors has led to a tremendous increase of their rates. Some of them are routinely jumping to better-paying jobs in the middle of ongoing projects to snag higher pay creating dangerous conditions because there is no continuity. Retired inspectors are also coming back on the market because of the high rates but they are often too old for the job and sit behind a desk instead of actively inspecting the construction site. In some cases, contractors used fake safety inspectors. Last year the city busted two contractors who had hired a cook, a hotel bellhop and a hairdresser to sign off on safety reports.
Last May, 34 year old Marino Nunez, a father of two, died after being struck by 44 year old Jorge Heraiz, a retired NYPD cop who was drunk driving. That night Hernaiz drank a bottle of vodka and a bottle of Colt 45 before driving. He is accused of fatally striking Nunez with his car as he was exiting the Henry Hudson Parkway onto W. 254th Street and Broadway in Riverdale, Bronx, NYC. After the accident happened, witnesses who saw Hernaiz trying to remove Nunez’s body from under his car called 911. The ex cop pleaded not guilty to drunkenly causing the pedestrian’s death. He is facing a maximum sentence of 25 years if he is convicted of aggravated vehicular homicide. Read more in the NY Daily News
Defective front disk brakes and quick-release levers installed on 1.3 million bicycles in the US may pose a risk of injury to bicycle riders. An open quick release lever on the bicycle’s front wheel hub can come into contact with the front disc brake rotor causing the front wheel to come to a sudden stop or separate from the bicycle. Therefore the following companies are recalling some models from the following brands:
If your bicycle is from one of these brands, the video below can help you determine if your bicycle is affected and if so what to do about it.
A fire in an apartment building in New York City injured 3 people and left one dead. The fire erupted around 9:45 pm yesterday night in a a 3-story building on Hancock Street near Bedford Ave in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. a 56 year old man was taken to the hospital and died from his injuries. 3 other people were also taken to the hospital. All 3 suffered from smoke inhalation and were treated and released. The FDNY are investigating the cause of the fire. Read more in the NY Daily News
Three people suffered personal injury in New York after a pane of glass fell from the 17th floor of a building. A 33 year old woman, a 23 year old woman and a 25 year old man were walking on the street near a building on Fifth Ave and East 28th Street when a pane of glass fell next to them and shattered. Construction work at the building dislodged the glass from the window. Read more in the NY Daily News
This is not the first time that non construction workers were injured or died near construction sites this year. Last June 8 people were injured after a crane dropped a giant AC unit in the street. In April two tenants died in a suspicious explosion in an apartment building where plumbers were working on gas lines. In March a pedestrian died after being hit by flying debris from a construction site in Manhattan.
The intersection of Fifth Ave and East 28th Street where the accident happened, picture: courtesy of Google
An 81 year old woman was in critical condition after she was hit by an unlicensed 36 year old driver yesterday night in New York City. The accident happened at the intersection of Targee St. and Narrow Rd in Staten Island. The elderly woman was crossing the road when the driver struck her. The driver was issued a summons for unlicensed operation of a vehicle. This accident is the third serious pedestrian accident in Staten Island, NYC, this month.
The intersection where the accident happened
Recent statistics show that 41% of teen drivers who died in car accidents were intoxicated. While drunk driving has been declining, driving while impaired by other substances such as weed, other illegal drugs, prescription and OTC medication has increased significantly. The National Teen Driver Safety Week that will kick off on October 18th will focus on this particular issue. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in association with the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has developed material for schools and for parents to increase teen awareness about impaired driving. Under the theme “Avoid the Regret – Avoid Impaired Driving” the campaign is seeking solutions to prevent teens deaths and injuries on the road.
Read more here
New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog