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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Slow%20Zone%20New%20York.jpgIn New York City 81 people died in traffic accidents related to speed last year. Even though this number is one of the lowest ever recorded, speeding remains the greatest contributing factor in traffic fatalities in the city. In a continuous effort to make the city safer and reduce traffic fatalities, Mayor Bloomberg and Traffic Commissioner Sadik-Khan announced this week that the New York Neighborhood Slow Zone program would be expanded to 15 new communities.

In a previous post in May we announced that communities could apply for Neighborhood slow zones. The City received a total of 74 applications and selected 15 of them based on criteria such as crash history, community support, proximity of schools, and senior and daycare centers.

The 15 communities selected are: Alphabet City in Manhattan, Norwood in the Bronx, Clinton Hill/Bedford Stuyvesant and Brownsville in Brooklyn, and Jackson Heights, Queens in 2014; Sunnyside Gardens/Woodside and Sunnyside in Queens, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Parkchester in the Bronx and Manhattan’s West Village in 2015; and Midland Beach in Staten Island, Brooklyn Heights and Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, Westchester Square in the Bronx and Hudson Heights in Manhattan in 2016.

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A New York City public map of crash locations and traffic fatalities that would be updated monthly is a brilliant idea but the NYPD is reluctant to share this data with the public.

At a City Council transportation committee hearing on Thursday, the NYPD testified in opposition to a bill requiring NYPD to release a monthly crash map to the public. The NYPD said that it was already doing enough to release information to the public.

At present, crash and summons information is released in PDF and Excel formats that the police department must compile each time it releases data.

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Jose Torres, 57, died yesterday after being struck by a tow truck in a Crosswalk at East 181st Street and Southern Boulevard in the Bronx, New York. The police are still investigating the reason for the accident. Read more in the New York Daily News

Earlier this week on Wednesday afternoon 12 year old Samuel Cohen-Eckstein was struck by a van as he ran across a Brooklyn street in New York to chase after a soccer ball. The boy who suffered serious injury was rushed to the hospital where he died. Read more in The New York Daily News

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1 person died and 11 suffered serious personal injury and were hospitalized with two having to receive liver transplants following multiple non viral Acute Hepatitis cases in Hawaii. Out of a total of 29 cases, 24 were linked to a dietary supplement product labeled as OxyElite Pro.

The CDC is looking at other cases of liver injury nationwide that may be related.

The dietary product OxyElite Pro was pulled out from shelves nationwide and USPlabs LLC of Dallas stopped its distribution.Consumers who have bought this product should stop to use it immediately. Consumers who believe they have been armed by using this product or any other dietary supplement should contact their doctor immediately.

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Products%20with%20hidden%20drug%20ingredients%20Dr%20Mao.jpgHidden Drugs or Chemicals in dietary supplements or conventional food can cause severe personal injury and sometimes lead to death. According to the FDA, some products promoting sexual enhancement, weight loss, or bodybuilding and advertised as “all natural” may contain dangerous drugs or chemicals that have been previously removed from the market for safety reason.

For example, The FDA announced recently that Sibutramine was found in several weight loss products. These products go by the name of “Dr. Mao Slimming Capsules”, “Be Inspired”, “Perfect Body Solutions” and “Burn 7”, “Bella Vi Insane Amp’d” and “Bella Vi Amp’d Up”

Sibutramine is a controlled substance that was removed from the market in 2010 because it can increase blood pressure and/or pulse rate in some patients. Sibutramine can present a significant risk for patients with a history of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, or stroke. Sibutramine can also interact in life-threatening ways with other medications.

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Diagnostic errors are among the leading causes for Medical Malpractice Claims in the US. They cause personal injury to patients and waste resources.

Recently the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) announced that the Institute Of Medicine (IOM) had accepted the SIDM’s proposal to undertake a report on diagnostic error as the next volume in the Crossing the Quality Chasm series. The “Quality Chasm Series” started in 2000 with the report “To Err is Human”. The publication of this report is often associated with the beginning of the patient safety movement.

Other IOM’s Quality Chasm series includes Health IT and Patient Safety (2012), Preventing Medication Errors (2006), and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001).

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silica_dust.jpgExposure to silica significantly increases the risk of developing lung cancer according to a new study published in The American Journal of Epidemiology. The study measured cumulative silica exposure in a group of more than 30,000 workers over a 44-year period and demonstrated that silica is a human carcinogen. The study also suggests that current exposure limits in many countries might be insufficient to protect workers from lung cancer.

These findings are consistent with the preliminary risk assessment in OSHA’s new proposed rule to protect workers from occupational exposure to crystalline silica.

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Red%20and%20Grenn%20Bell%20Peppers.jpgOrange County produce is recalling three lots containing 1,208 cartons of 25 peppers. They were distributed to farmer’s markets and wholesale food service in Southern California between September 21st and 24th. The bell pepper are being recalled after a random sample of OC Produce Bell Peppers tested positive for Salmonella.

Read more in Food Safety News

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The defective products are being recalled because they can overheat, smoke and melt, posing a fire hazard. The firm has received 700 reports of the surge protectors overheating and melting and 55 claims of property damage from smoke and fire, including $916,000 in fire damage to a home and $750,000 in fire damage to a medical facility. There are 13 reports of peronal injuries, including smoke inhalation and contact burns from touching the overheated surge protectors.

Products recalled are APC 7 and 8 series SurgeArrest surge protectors manufactured by American Power Conversion (APC), now known as Schneider Electric IT Corp., of West Kingston, R.I. and sold at Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, and other stores nationwide from January 1993 through December 2002 for between $13 and $50.

Consumers who bought this product should stop to use it immediately and contact the manufacturer for a free replacement.

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A pedestrian died after he was hit by a car driven by a drunk off duty cop last Friday early in the morning on Richmond Terrace near Simonson Ave. in Mariners Harbor in Staten Island, New York.

William Hemphill, 51, a union operating engineer was crossing the road to go to work at the Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company shipping office, when the car driven by NYPD off duty cop Joseph McClean hit him so hard that he landed a block away. Paramedics rushed Hemphill to a Staten Island hospital, where he died.

NYPD cop Joseph McClean was charged with DWI.