Our partner, New York Construction Accident Attorney Chris Sallay was the chair of the Litigating Construction Site Accidents NYC 2014 seminar presented by the New York State Bar Association last Friday . In this video Chris Sallay provides tips and demonstrates how to present an opening statement in a New York Construction Accident case.
To learn more about New York Construction Accident Law click here)
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=P46y1a_5Mu4
Prospect Park Residence, an assisted living home in Brooklyn, NYC, may have acted in an abusive manner when they contacted residents two weeks ago to let them know that they would have to vacate their residence in 90 days creating fears and anger among the residents and their families.
The nursing home told residents that unmanageable costs were forcing them to close the residence. However resident’s children argue that greed is the real motivation. The owners plan to sell the building to developers who will turn the building into deluxe apartments, with the enviable address of 1 Prospect Park West.
Read more in the New York Times
10 employees of a New York nursing home neglected and mistreated a resident who was completely dependent on the nursing home staff for his care. The patient was a double amputee who also suffered from partial upper body paralysis. An investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman revealed a disturbing pattern of pervasive neglect at Blossom North Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rochester, NY. According to the footage from a hidden video camera, “nurses allegedly failed to dispense prescription medications, measure blood sugar and blood pressure levels or properly care for the resident’s catheter. Aides allegedly neglected the resident’s incontinence care and his prescribed range of motion exercises and several are alleged to have transferred him in a potentially unsafe manner. In some instances, the resident had no hands-on care during the aides’ entire shifts and was left to lay immobile in his bed for hours at a time. The nurses and aides then allegedly falsified documents in an effort to conceal their neglect”.
The employees have been charged with falsifying documents, willful violation of the public health law and for some of them endangering the welfare of a physically disabled person. They may be sentence to up to 4 years in jail.
Blossom North Nursing and Rehabilitation Center has a below average rating of 2 stars by Medicare. An inspection report from last fall shows that the nursing home had mistreatment deficiencies, quality care deficiencies, resident assessment deficiencies, resident rights deficiencies, pharmacy service deficiencies, environmental deficiencies and fire safety deficiencies. Previous complaints also show a history of abuse, neglect and mistreatment. Not surprisingly under staffing is also a major issue at this New York nursing home where a registered nurse spends in average 19 minutes a day per patient compared to a New York State average of 48 minutes.
Several people suffered personal injury in a Brooklyn car accident during which a police officer who was chasing another car lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a van. According to the New York Daily News, the van was transporting other police officers. The collision was so violent that both vehicles burst into flames. People living nearby who ran to the rescue were able to pull the officers out of the vehicles.
Police chases in a busy urban area such as NYC are very dangerous. At the beginning of the months 7 people were injured a car accident related to a police chase (see previous blog)
Photo: New York Daily News
A motorcyclist died and two pedestrians suffered serious personal injury in a motorcycle accident in the Bronx, NYC. The motorcyclist whose dirt bike was unregistered and uninsured lost control of his bike as he was trying to speed around a car while making a left turn. The man was thrown off the bike which kept moving running into an 85 year old woman and a 55 year old man standing at a corner of the intersection.
Read more in the New York Daily News
In February 12 people died as a result of vehicle accidents among them 8 pedestrians, 1 cyclist, 1 passenger and 2 drivers. This is the lowest number of monthly traffic fatalities in more than a year. Last month a total of 21 people died in traffic accidents in NYC and a year ago in February 2013 there were 20 deaths.
It is too early to see a trend however it looks like the first Vision Zero initiatives may have helped to make NYC streets safer in February. We’ll see in the coming months if the trend continues.
The number of people who suffered personal injury in a traffic accident in NYC was also lower compared to the previous month and compared to the same month a year ago.
A 77 year old pedestrian was crossing a residential street in Brooklyn when she was struck and suffered injury leading to her death by a 2014 Mercedes Benz attempting to parallel park. Marlene Baharlias, 77, was jaywalking when she stepped off an East 19th street curb mid-block between Avenue U and Avenue T in Sheepshead Bay around 2:20 p.m. yesterday and was mowed down, cops said. Read more in the Gothamist.
Erratum (3/20): according to an in depth article from Streetblog that came a day after the accident was announced in the local media, Marlene Baharlias was killed Tuesday in Sheepshead Bay by a driver who witnesses say backed onto a sidewalk – contrary to anonymous NYPD sources who told the Post the victim was jaywalking. We apologize to our readers.
A similar accident happened two days ago, also in Brooklyn, when a young child was attempting to cross the street with his mother and a car backed into them killing the 5 year old boy (see previous blog).
1.18 million mid-sized crossovers are being recalled because a defective wiring harness of seat-mounted side airbags may prevent the side airbags from deploying. Another 303,000 full size vans are also being recalled to replace plastic material in the passenger instrument panel to meet federal head-impact crash standards for unbelted passengers and finally 63,9000 XTS models are also recalled because a brake booster pump wiring issue can lead to overheating, melting of plastic parts and a possible engine compartment fire.
Read more in Reuters
Documents related to the product liability lawsuits against J&J’s transvaginal mesh show that Vincente Lucent, a well-known urogynocologist who was paid $800,000 over 10 years by J&J, may have influenced the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists into changing the language of the product guidelines in their bulletin and have the word “experimental” removed.
Other documents related to the product liability lawsuits also indicate that that J&J tried to influence research papers by giving $750,000 to a Swedish University that was conducting a clinical trial of a transvaginal mesh procedure. The company tried to convince the professor who was doing the trial to sign a contract that would give J&J control of the trial but the professor refused.
Read more in the Wall Street Journal
A pedestrian struck by a car is twice as likely to survive if the car speed is 20 mph instead of 30 mph. To increase traffic safety and combat speeding in residential areas, the DOT started in 2011 a Community based Neighborhood Slow Zone Program which includes a reduction of the speed from 30 mph to 20 mph with signage, gateway and speed bumps (see previous blog). The program was an immediate success and the DOT received so many applications that not all of them could be immediately accepted. Also some of those that were accepted were vetoed by community boards.
Last week-end with the help of the Right of Way advocates, residents of 10 NYC communities who believed their applications have been unfairly rejected by the DOT or who have been waiting for more than 2 years for the city to implement the Slow Zone Program installed “20 is plenty” speed limit signs in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Greenpoint, Astoria, Jackson Heights, Jamaica, the Upper West Side, the Lower East Side, Tribeca and the West Village.
As part of Vision Zero, Mayor de Blasio has called for a rapid expansion of the Neighborhood Slow Zone. The communities are calling on the mayor to stick to his promise.
New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog