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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Personal_Injury_Lawyer_Jerry_Katz.jpgOur Partner New York Car Accident Lawyer Jerry Katz obtained summary judgment on the issue of liability for a plaintiff in this “pedestrian struck by car” accident.

This action arises out of a pedestrian/vehicle accident which occurred on December 22, 2011 at approximately 11:00 p.m. at the intersection of First Avenue and East 68th Street, New York, NY. At that time, the plaintiff, a 76 year old woman, was crossing First Avenue in an eastbound direction with the traffic signal in her favor. There were six lanes of travel on First Avenue proceeding in a northbound direction. The plaintiff was struck by the defendants’ vehicle which was making a left turn from East 68th Street onto First Avenue while she was in the third lane. Therefore, the plaintiff had successfully crossed two lanes of traffic and was nearing the third lane when the defendants’ vehicle, which was making a left-hand turn from East 68th Street onto First Avenue to go north struck the plaintiff. The defendant driver admitted to the police and subsequently in his deposition that although his view of the crosswalk was unobstructed, he did not see the plaintiff until impact, and there was rain and a glare from the road obstructing his vision.

The plaintiff sustained a comminuted fracture of the left olecranon process and proximal ulna; posterior displacement of the proximal major fractured fragment; impacted fracture of the left radial head; joint effusion; extensive peri-articular soft tissue swelling; sub-articular cystic changes of the radial head requiring surgery on December 29, 2011 in the nature of an open reduction and internal fixation of the fracture with the insertion of a T7 reconstruction plate, compression screws, coronoid screw and a long home run screw and surgery on May 16, 2012 for the removal of the hardware from the left upper extremity.

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More than 35,000 potentially unrepaired trucks and buses could be putting New York road users at risk of dangerous accidents.

A recent audit by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found that The New York Department of Transportation is not doing enough to ensure that commercial bus and truck companies whose vehicles or drivers have been found to have violations serious enough to warrant their removal from services, are making timely repairs or corrections.

The audit looked at inspections conducted from September 2008 to 2012 and found that out of 448,842 inspections conducted 20% of them or 90,368 vehicles were cited for one or more out of service violations. 76,229 of them were out of service violations on vehicles (trucks or buses) and 21,417 on drivers.

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FMCSA.jpgTo prevent bus and truck accidents caused by negligent motor carriers the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration just published a final rule that addresses motor carrier management companies with a pattern of safety violations.

Starting February 21st 2014, the FMCSA will have the authority to “suspend or revoke the operating authority registration of for-hire motor carriers that show egregious disregard for safety compliance, permit persons who have shown egregious disregard for safety compliance to exercise controlling influence over their operations, or operate multiple entities under common control to conceal noncompliance with safety regulations“.

This new rule will prevent bus and truck operating companies that have been previously placed out of service to submit a new registration under a new name to continue operations or to avoid other negative consequences of non-compliant behavior including a poor safety history.

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Every year 850,000 people are injured by needles or other sharp medical devices that have not been discarded properly. Sharps is the medical term for any device with a sharp point that can puncture or cut the skin for example, needles, syringes, lancets, auto injectors, infusion sets or connection needles.

An estimated 9 million patients in the US have medical conditions such as diabetes, allergies, arthritis, cancer, hepatitis or AIDS and use sharps at home, at work, at school and also while traveling. These patients and their caregivers need to properly discard needles and other sharp devices to protect others from injuries and infections spreading such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV.

The FDA estimates that 7 billion sharps are loosely discarded yearly in regular trash instead of being safely discarded in a dedicated container.

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Elder abuse and elder fraud by family caregivers or acquaintances are unfortunately getting more and more common and not enough is being done to stop this epidemic.

Family members are often the first appointed guardians and serve as representative payees when a person is declared incapacitated. In the US 85% of the 5.9 million Social Security payees are family members. Unfortunately payees are not being thoroughly checked and abuse is on the rise.

In a recent article BARBARA LAKER and WENDY RUDERMAN from the Philadelphia Daily News describe recent cases of elderly or disabled people who have been abused and neglected by family members or acquaintances who stole their money.

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Pedro Santiago who recently died in a bicycle accident during which he was struck by a bus was more than the usual anonymous face of a bicycle delivery man traversing the streets of NYC.

The New York Times wrote an excellent obituary about this gregarious former bicycle delivery man who had become friends with his clients and was reading Dostoevsky and Cervantes in two languages during his downtime.

Read the complete Obituary here

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Last Friday afternoon 3 pedestrians were seriously injured in a car accident on the Upper East Side. A taxi driver lost control of his vehicle, jumped the curb and plowed into a group of pedestrians on East 86th Street and Third Ave. (see New York Post)

This accident should be fully investigated according to new police regulations recently announced by NYPD Police Commissioner Bratton. In a recent speech Bratton said that not only vehicle accidents leading to death but also vehicle accidents leading to serious personal injury would be fully investigated. (see our previous blog)

On Sunday, a 67 year old pedestrian died in a car accident on Staten Island after being hit by a drunk driver. The pedestrian, James Benedict, was about to enter his car parked on Lily Pond Avenue when he was struck by a 39 year old drunk driver who lost control of his SUV, resulting in the death of Mr. Benedict. The driver was arrested and charged with drunk driving. Read more in silive.com

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To prevent Bicycle Accidents on the Bergen Street bike lane, NYPD officers including CO Deputy Inspector Michael Ameri were spotted shoveling the bike lane of the 78th precinct in NYC.

Even though it is extremely cold in New York, people are still riding bicycles, especially the restaurant delivery crews who are bringing food to the many New Yorkers who choose to stay home because of the inclement weather.

Read more in Streetblog.org

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A 30 year old patient who checked in last Sunday night at 10PM at St Barnabas Emergency Room for a rash was found dead in a waiting room chair at 6:40 the next morning by a security guard. According to an ER employee, there is no policy in place to check the waiting room to see if people who are waiting to be seen are still there or are still alive. The employee added that the man had been dead for several hours before he was found.

Read more here
Delay in treatment can be medical malpractice click here to learn more about it.

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When a pedestrian is hit by a car he or she will usually suffer severe personal injury. In most accidents, the car bumper hits the pedestrian’s pelvis and legs shattering his or her bones explains Dr. Kaushal Shah, the residency director of emergency medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Often the pedestrian is “scooped” off the ground by the front of the car and smashed onto the hood and the windshield causing traumatic brain injury. It’s usually at this point that the driver stomps on the break, a move that will then eject the pedestrian to the ground, causing further brain injury as well as neck and pelvis injury.

Read more in the New York Daily News

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