A woman in a SUV was almost crushed after falling rocks came sliding down on her car while she was driving on the Saw Mill River Parkway in Chapaqua, NY. The woman was terrified but didn’t suffer any personal injury. The car that was behind her was driven by a retired cop who came to the rescue and provided much needed psychological support to the victim. See video below
Gair Gair Conason Steigman Mackauf Bloom & Rubinowitz was featured in the New York Law Journal’s Top New York Verdicts of 2014 for obtaining the highest award for a verdict in a motor vehicle accident involving a bicycle. The case was tried by our Managing Partner Ben B. Rubinowitz, along with our Partner, Peter J. Saghir. The accident involved a 36-year-old woman who was riding her bicycle south on Broadway across East 14th Street when she was struck from behind by a New York City Transit Authority bus which was traveling southbound in the same direction as the plaintiff. After she was struck by the bus she was dragged into the intersection where the right rear wheels of the bus rolled over her legs. The bus driver claimed that he was in the center or left lane at the time of the accident and that the plaintiff suddenly and unexpe
ctedly rode her bicycle across two lanes of traffic from the right lane to the left lane and struck the right side of the bus. The plaintiff contended she was in the right lane as she approached the intersection. It was undisputed that the plaintiff ended up in the left-hand lane of this three lane roadway. The plaintiff suffered a degloving injury to her right leg as well as fractures to the distal tibia and fibula of her left leg. The plaintiff’s entire claim was based on pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. No claims were made for past or future medical expenses or past or future lost earnings. After two days of deliberation, the jury found the New York City Transit Authority at fault and awarded the plaintiff $8,570,000 ($3,250,000 past pain and suffering and $5,320,000 future pain and suffering over 40.9 years).
Child abuse and neglect not only have terrible consequences on the life of the victim but also impose a hefty cost on our society. Some interventions can change these personnally tragic and socially costly outcomes. A new website, Children Adversity Narratives (CAN) launched by Franck Putnam, MD, UNC at Chapel Hill, NC; William Harris, PhD, Children’s Research and Education Institute & New School for Social Research, NYC, NY; Alicia Lieberman, PhD, Sanfrancisco, CA; Karen Putnam, PhD, UNC at Chapel Hill, NC and Lisa Amaya-Jackson, Duke University. Durham, NC provides an in depth analysis of child trauma and adversities and propose to adopt a public health approach to prevent, screen and treat trauma related to child abuse and neglect.
When medical malpractice or medical error occurs at an American hospital or clinic, the victim of the malpractice or his or her family has the right to legally challenge the facility and obtain explanations and compensation. The story is very different for the 1.3 million active-duty service members of our nation. Not only are they captive of the military medical system and can’t get care elsewhere without special approval but also if medical malpractice is committed they have no legal right to bring a medical malpractice suit. In a recent article in the New York Times, Sharon LaFraniere investigates this issue and describes the nightmares that many military families are enduring.
A daughter was accused of financially abusing her ailing mother 2 years after her mom suffered a stroke in 2010, 62 year old Barbara Schwarz started to help her with her finances. However instead of helping her she started to steal money from her account to pay for spa treatments, fancy clothes and booze. Authorities were alerted to the theft by a sibling and an analysis of the suspect’s bank records allegedly indicated that none of the money was used to benefit the ailing woman. Read more in the NY Daily News and the Queens Courier
Last August an 80 year old nursing home resident suffered severe personal injury after she was physically abused by a nurse’s aid in a New York facility. The incident happened when 59 year old Marie Jeanty, a certified nurse aid was changing the resident at the West Lawrence Care Center, a nursing home located at 1410 Seagirt Boulevard in Far Rockaway, N.Y. According to Court documents, the nurse aid asked the resident to move to change her clothes and bed linen. Jeanty then allegedly pushed and hit the resident multiple times in the arm and shoulder with a closed fist and forcibly pushed her into the side of the bed rail, causing her face to hit the rail. As a result, the resident suffered a black eye and significant bruising and swelling to her left arm, right temporal area, and right orbital area, which required treatment at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital. The nurse aid was arrested at the beginning of this month and charged with second degree assault and two felonies for endangering the welfare of another person. Read more in the NY Daily News or read the press release of the New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman
A knuckle boom crane fell on a construction worker and killed him yesterday afternoon on a construction site located at 219 E. 44th Street near Second Avenue, New York City. The crane was fitted on a truck parked in front of the building and was used to unload material that was being delivered to the construction site. 40 year old Trevor Loftus , was standing on top of the flatbed truck holding his phone when the articulated arm fell on him and killed him. Loftus served as the crane safety coordinator for Kenry Contracting of Yonkers which is his own company. According to the Buildings Department, construction material was being lifted off the truck when a mechanical failure caused the arm to collapse and killed the construction worker.
Read more in the NY Daily News
Picture: Buck Ennis
40 people died and 10,069 suffered personal injury in a traffic crash in New York City between January 1st and April 1st 2015 compared to respectively 51 and 10,805 in 2014 and 69 and 11,676 in 2013. it is also interesting to note that there were more accidents during the three first months of this year compared to the same period of the 2 previous years. These numbers indicate that streets are getting a little safer for New Yorkers and that Vision Zero may be starting to show some results.
23 pedestrians died in traffic accidents in NYC during the first three months of the year compared to 31 for the first three months of 2014 and 44 for the same period of 2013. This number is still high but over the last two years it almost decreased by half which is a positive evolution. The number of pedestrians injured in a crash in NYC during that same period was 2,423 in 2015 compared to 2,847 in 2014 and 3,080 in 2013.
1 person died in a bicycle accident in New York City during the first trimester of 2015 compared to 2 the previous year and 1 in 2013. 355 cyclists suffered personal injury during the same period compared to 399 in 2014 and 510 in 2013. It is difficult to look at bicycle accident statistics for the months of January, February and March as it is the end of the Winter season and not many people use their bikes.
6 people were injured in a car accident during which a livery van collided with another car on Park Ave at E. 116th Street in Harlem, NYC. The collision was so powerful that the livery car flipped into the air. Two people were seriously injured and four others suffered only minor injuries. They were all rushed to the hospital.
Read more in the NY Daily News
Illegal products sold as synthetic marijuana are sending an average of 2 to 3 New Yorkers to the emergency room every day since the beginning of 2015. Users of these products can suffer serious personal injury as the herbal mixture sold as synthetic Marijuana as often been sprayed with harmful chemicals. When smoked these chemicals can create anxiety, sedation, rapid heart rate, vomiting and seizures.” Synthetic cannabinoids can even cause kidney failure or in the most extreme cases, heart attacks.
In New York City, these products are sold and consumed in East Harlem mostly by males of an average age of 35. Synthetic cannabinoids are known by several street names, including K2, Spice, Green Giant, Red Giant, Geeked Up, Caution, Smacked, Wicked X, AK-47 and “legal marijuana.” The packages can also be labeled “not for human consumption” and sold as “incense” or “potpourri.”
Read more in the press release from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog