New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog

Published on: May 12, 2014

Worker at Gowanus Auto Body Shop killed by Hit and Run Driver

A worker who was repairing a car on the sidewalk in Brooklyn, NYC, was struck by a hit and run driver and died from his injuries at the hospital on Saturday afternoon. Felipe Castro Palacios was repairing a car that was parked halfway on the sidewalk in front of the Gowanus Auto Body Shop when the accident happened. The driver of a black Nissan Altima lost the control of his vehicle and crashed into the car that Felipe was repairing as well as two other cars. The driver took off but according to the New York Daily News a witness was able to write down the plate number. The car was a rental and the police are still looking for the driver.

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Felipe Palacio Castro and the Gowanus Auto Body Shop (Google Street Map)

Published on: May 12, 2014

Reckless driver loses his arm in an accident during which he hit a van injuring the 3 passengers and then tries to run away from the scene

By GGCRBHS&M

Miguel%27s%20flower%20shop.jpg 4 people suffered serious personal injury as a result of a car accident that happened at the intersection of the Cross Bronx Expressway and White Plain Road in the Bronx, NYC, on Sunday morning. A 38 old man crashed his car into a van parked by a flower store injuring the 3 passengers inside it. The crash was so strong that the car flipped on his roof and the minivan crashed into another vehicle. The reckless driver who suffered critical injury to his arm managed to get out of the wreckage and tried to flee the scene. He was caught 2 streets away by the police and brought to the hospital where his arm was amputated. The 3 passengers of the van suffered neck and back injuries and were also taken to a hospital for treatment. The accident happened in front of a flower shop (picture) where people were buying flowers for mother’s day. Read more in the New York Daily News

The night before a few blocks away a livery cab driver lost the control of her SUV and crashed into a barber shop injuring a child. Read more here

Published on: May 9, 2014

New York Mayor de Blasio’s executive budget allocates more than $40 million toward measures to reduce traffic fatalities

By GGCRBHS&M

Mayor de Blasio said that 286 traffic deaths in New York City compared to 333 homicides in 2013 compelled him to take action and launch the Vision Zero program. Last week the mayor announced that close to $30 million of his executive budget would be allocated to DOT initiatives to make the streets safer such as the installation of speed bumps in school zones and the development of additional slow zones as well as speed cameras and street redesign. $13 million were also allocated to NYPD traffic enforcement and $ 1.1 for a Taxi and limousine advertising campaign about safety.

OSHA says death of 23 year old NY construction worker was entirely preventable

By GGCRBHS&M

New York Construction worker Kyle Brown died because his contractor MTL Design Inc. failed to provide and ensure the use of fall protection safeguards according to OSHA. In its investigation OSHA discovered that Brown was wearing a fall protection harness but it was useless because the contractor didn’t provide workers with a mean to connect to an independent anchorage point to stop a fall.

Brown was installing a metal decking on the top of the roof of an automobile dealership in construction in Pulasky, NY when he was blown off the roof by a wind gust and fell 24 feet to his death.

Woman dies after being struck by a school bus in the Upper East Side of Manhattan

By GGCRBHS&M

A female pedestrian was fatally struck by a school bus with several children on board at the crossing of 93rd street and Second Ave yesterday afternoon. The victim is Jessica Schnieder, a woman in her 40s who was crossing 93rd Street. According to CBS New York, there were a lot of construction going on near the cross street and the bus started to back up because of traffic. The bus struck the woman as she was walking in the crossroad. She died at the scene of severe head trauma. See video for more

Published on: May 8, 2014

NYPD Motor Vehicle Collision data are now available in friendly format and are updated on a daily basis

By GGCRBHS&M

A new feed on NYC Open Data portal provides New Yorkers with easy to read data on traffic crashes that are updated on a daily basis. Previously data on traffic accidents were only available monthly on the NYPD website.

This new format allows users to filter the information by date, time, borough, zip code, latitude and longitude, street name and cross street name, number of persons injured and killed including number of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists injured or killed as well as the contributing factors of the accident for each vehicle involved.

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Published on: May 8, 2014

In New York City, the number of pedestrians killed in traffic accidents last March was 11, the same number as in March 2013

By GGCRBHS&M

It’s too early to say if the first Vision Zero measures to reduce traffic fatalities are effective yet. After a decrease of the number of people injured or killed in vehicle accidents in New York last February, the numbers are up again for March 2014 and are pretty much at the same level as they were a year ago according to the most recent statistics from the NYPD

people%20injured%20in%20vehicle%20accidents%20march%202014.jpg number%20of%20people%20killed%20in%20car%20accidents%20in%20march%202014.jpg The number of pedestriandeaths, 11, is exactly the same in March this year than it was in March last year. 952 pedestrians were injured in auto accident this march compared to 990 in March 2013 and 820 the month before. The number of bicyclists injured was also pretty much the same from one year to the other.

Pedestrians%20injured%20and%20killed%20in%20March%202014.jpg bicyclists%20injured%20and%20killed%20in%20March%202014.jpg Bus Accidents were slightly on the rise from one year to the other with 572 accidents in March 2014 compared to 523 in March 2013.

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Published on: May 7, 2014

28 year old motorcyclist dies after being struck by a truck in Uptown, Manhattan

By GGCRBHS&M

An accident between a truck and a dirt bike lead to the death of the motorcycle operator yesterday in East Harlem. 28 year old Shamel Jefferson was riding on an unregistered and uninsured dirt bike in the left lane on third Ave when a truck cut in front of him and struck him causing his death.

After a botched liposuction procedure lead to the death of a patient, Brooklyn plastic surgeon pleads guilty to criminally negligent homicide in exchange for light punishement

By GGCRBHS&M

Dr Oleg Davie, A Brooklyn surgeon whose patient died during a botched liposuction procedure will go to jail for two months and will be on probation for 5 years.
A medical examiner changed the manner of death from “undetermined” to “homicide (physician negligence)” after speaking with Brooklyn prosecutors, court records show.

Interview with 1996 Hard Hat Hero Nick Pavlou who was crushed by a crane boom shows that construction workers who have been injured in catastrophic accidents will often live a life of continuous pain and suffering

By GGCRBHS&M

Construction Accident Injuries are often catastrophic and the pain and suffering endured by the victims will last until the end of their life. In her recent blog for the Huffington Post “Astoria Characters; The Forgotten Hero”, Nancy Ruhling meets with Nick Pavlou, the construction worker who became known as the Hard-Hat Hero in October 1996 after he risked his life to save a woman’s and her son and granddaughter from a crane accident. His partner Paul Foti who was the crane operator died in the accident. Nick was crushed by the 6-ton boom and doctors thought he would never survive and if he would he could never be able to walk again. After 60 surgeries, Nick is alive and on good days he can walk for four blocks.But Nick’s life will never be the same again and the pain and suffering is present everyday..