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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location of the Harlem accidentA mother and her son were critically injured in a horrific car accident in NYC yesterday afternoon that was caught on video surveillance (see below) .The 38 year-old mother was walking and holding the hand of her 6 year old son on a  Harlem sidewalk when the driver of a car lost control of his vehicle, jumped the curb at high speed and mowed them down. They were both critically injured and rushed to the hospital. The 69-year-old driver driver was also injured and according to the police he might have suffered a medical episode.

The accident occurred in the middle of the afternoon right by the West 145th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard bus stop. The video surveillance shows the red car jumping the curb and driving on the sidewalk at a high rate of speed  right behind the unsuspicious mom and her son.  After hitting them, the car then destroyed a flower shop and a few other vehicles.

Witnesses are still horrified by what they saw and are still wondering what can be done to prevent such horrifying accidents. Police are still investigating the accident and at this point it is still unclear what kind of medical episode the driver suffered.

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Construction accident fatalities and injuries in New York City in 2021 were a little bit higher than in 2020 but lower than during the years preceding the Covid19 crisis according to the New York City Department of Buildings statistics.  The DOB only reports construction worker fatalities that are caused by  building code violations. Brooklyn and Manhattan had the most fatalities, 3 each while the other boroughs all recorded one fatality each for a total of 9 worker fatalities compared to 8 in 2020 and 11 in 2019.

Construction accident deaths NYC 2021
7 out of the 9 hard hat deaths were caused by fall and 2 of them were caused by accidents related to mechanical construction equipment failure. Despite construction workers now being required to follow safety training, fall related fatalities were at their highest since 2017. Most fall accidents are preventable. They usually occur when safety rules are not respected.

Factors in New York construction worker deaths in 2021
Almost the same number of injuries were reported to the DOB in 2021 compared to 2020. 505 workers were injured in construction accidents in New York City in 2021 compared to 502 a year earlier and 596 in 2019. Most injuries’ occurred on Manhattan construction sites (300) followed by Brooklyn (105), Bronx (48), Queens (45) and Staten Island (7).

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Grand Street bike lane67 people were injured in bicycle accidents on the Grand Street bike lane in Brooklyn since it was implemented in 2019. The bike lane is only protected by plastic bollards and as a results is constantly obstructed by vehicles  illegally parking on it.   The Grand Street bike  lane is one of the busiest bike lanes in Brooklyn and is used on a daily basis by numerous cyclists commuting between Bushwick and downtown Manhattan though the Williamsburg bridge.

Before being elected, Eric Adams promised he would add 300 miles of protected bike lanes in all five boroughs

After his election, the mayor also promised he would reinforce 20 miles of bollard protected bike lanes in the first 100 days of his tenure.  This promise no longer applies and the DOT has now announced that this task would be finished by 2023.

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440 HarmanA Nassau contractor whose negligence caused the death of a 5 year old child in Brooklyn, NYC, in 2019 has been indicted on  manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, offering a false instrument for filing and falsifying business records. He is due back in court in May.

Alysson Pinto-Chauman had her skull crushed in front of her mom

The accident occurred on August 29 2019. 5 year old Alysson Pinto-Chaumana was with her mom and a group of friends standing in front of the high wall of a property located on Harman Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn when part of the wall suddenly collapsed on the toddler. Her skull was crushed in the accident. Her mom who was standing next to her witnessed the entire scene and said the vision will be engraved in her memory forever.

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hospital patientEvery year the ECRI institute releases a list of top main concerns that may lead to patient harm and medical malpractice. While cybersecurity was one of the main concerns in the previous years, the ongoing Covid 19 crisis put a lot of pressure on hospital staffing and “staffing shortages” is now at the top of the concerns  followed by worker’s mental health and racial disparity in treatments.

The pandemic emphasized concerns that were already latent in the American healthcare system but that have worsened during the pandemic:

  1. Staffing shortages: the registered nurses median age is 52 year old with 20% of them being older than 65 year old. Young nurses are needed but nursing schools are missing proper resources such as faculty, clinical sites, classroom spaces and budget. As a result 80,407 nursing school applicants were turned down in 2019.  In the coming years, staff shortages will be experienced at all levels of the healthcare system from nursing assistants to technicians such as laboratory technicians as well as critical care doctors, hospitalists, pharmacists and respiratory therapists.
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using the wrong ladder can result in accidentInjuries and deaths resulting from ladder accidents are extremely common. According to the most recent CDC statistics, over the last decade, 81% of fall injuries treated in American ERs were resulting from falls from ladders. Ladders were also involved in 43% of all fall fatalities.  Thousands of people are injured and hundreds are dying every year in ladder accidents. Year after year, our construction accident attorneys are helping construction workers injured in ladder accidents getting compensated for their injuries. Most of the time, construction workers fall from ladders because they are not provided with the adequate ladders to perform the task. One of our recent clients was a carpenter who was standing on a 6-foot A-frame ladder while pinning studs above his head. The ladder that was provided to him was not proper for the work he was doing. As the carpenter was working, the ladder kicked out and the man fell. He suffered a spine injury and had to undergo a microdiscectomy to his lumbar spine. Our attorneys were able to obtain a $1.250 million settlement on his behalf.

In New York, the law requires that workers using ladders be provided with the adequate equipment to execute the task and that ladders are not defectively maintained, placed or operated. However despite that law, many negligent contractors continue to provide workers with inadequate, broken or old ladders that put them at risk of dangerous accidents.

Ladder accidents are not only common on construction sites but also at home. From changing a smoke alarm, to cleaning gutters, home owners also use ladders and get injured frequently.

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car accident scene in ManhattanIf you were injured in a car accident in New York City or NY state, you should be able to obtain at least $50,000 compensation for your medical bills,  loss of  earnings and other out-of-pocket costs regardless of who was at fault in the accident because New York is among the 12 States in the US that have a No-Fault coverage. One can also purchase excess no-fault coverage up to $175,000.

The New York’s automobile No-Fault Law was enacted in 1970 with the goal to get insurance benefits quickly to anyone involved in a car accident regardless of who was at fault in the accident. It was initially a straight forward process that helped victims getting quickly compensated without having to go through long and complicated litigation.  However, under the pretext of abuse, insurance companies have made it so complicated to file a claim that you may need the help of an attorney to help you navigate the process and make sure you obtain proper compensation.

What does the No-Fault cover in NY State?

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accident sceneA man crossing the street in a wheelchair was  killed in a truck accident in New York City.  The accident occurred on Saturday morning at the intersection of Central Avenue and Nameoke Ave in Far Rockaway, Queens.  A video shows the 73 year old victim proceeding to cross Central Avenue in front of the box truck while the driver waits at the red light. As the man slowly crosses in front of the truck, the driver pulls ahead and crushes the man on the wheelchair.  The truck driver then continued to drive while dragging the victim and the wheelchair down the block before stopping.

The victim was rushed to the hospital but he could not be saved. Locals who knew the victims said he was a very nice and pleasant man.

The driver was identified as 42 year old Freddy Saquisili from Long Island.  He remained at the scene of the accident and police found out that he was driving the 2013 International Harvester delivery truck with a suspended license and should have never been behind the wheel of the truck. He was arrested and charged with aggravated unlicensed driving.  He was later released without bail after his arraignment. He is facing up to 4 years in prison.

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victim of personal injuryIn a city like New York, people are getting seriously injured because of the negligence of someone else on a daily basis. Being injured is always very stressful as victims endure not only physical but also emotional pain and have to deal with all the financial and organizational hardship that result from being injured.

Therefore it is important for personal injury victims and/or their family to do their homework when looking for an adequate personal injury lawyer to represent them.  Taking some time to “shop” for the right attorney will save you time in the future and help you get fully compensated for your case.

Here is a step by step approach on how to find the perfect New York Personal Injury Lawyer for your case:

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657 pedestrians, 161 cyclists, 870 passengers and 1,429 motorists were injured in motor vehicle accidents in New York City last January. 19 other road users died in crashes the same month, including 11 pedestrians, 5 passengers and 3 motorists. This is the highest number of fatalities for a month of January since January 2019 and the highest it ever got during a month and more than half of them were motorists. Last year during the same month, 13 people were killed in traffic accidents in the city.

auto accident fatalities NYC January 22
auto accident deaths by category of road users New York January 22
The total number of  people injured in motor vehicle accidents in January 2022 in the city was a little higher than in January 2021 when it reached 3,028 however this number remained lower than numbers recorded during the months of January before the pandemic.  The graph below illustrates well the seasonality of car accident injuries with the month of January being usually a month during which there are less injuries reported than during the summer months. The graph also shows a big drop during the lockdown.

Motorists and passengers are the two categories of road users that usually sustained the most injuries of all auto accidents reported in the city.