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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Daniel-Pollack-1Failing to call an expert witness in criminal child maltreatment cases can be legal malpractice that can result in a substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice. In  a recent article Daniel Pollack, a professor at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work in New York City analyzes when a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel may be supported in the child welfare legal arena.  To do so, Pollack uses the example of People of the State of Michigan v. Ackley (2015). In this specific case Leo Ackley was convicted by a jury of first-degree felony murder and first-degree child abuse following the death of his girlfriend’s young daughter. During the trial five medical experts testified the daughter died as the result of injuries that were caused intentionally. Ackley’s attorney didn’t call any expert to refute the prosecution expert testimony or to support the defendant’s theory of the case. Ackley’s attorney’s decision not to retain an expert witness for his client was considered by the Michigan Supreme Court  “ineffective assistance of counsel”.

Download the article here

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A NYPD officer suffered critical injury after being dragged by a car in New York City. The officer and five of his colleagues were responding to several 911 calls of shots fired in East Flatbush. The shots turned out to be fireworks going off at a private party. Officer Dalsh Veve was questioning the occupants of a black Honda Civic when the driver hit the gas and dragged the NYPD officer over two blocks. As he was dragged down the street the officer shot twice at the driver. It appeared that the car had been stolen and that the driver was a 15 year old boy. The teenage boy who was shot in the face was arrested after checking in at a nearby hospital. Officer Veve is still fighting for his life.

Read more in the NY Daily News 

 

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accident sceneTwo pedestrians suffered personal injury in two separate car accidents Sunday night in New York City.

A college student from Columbia University who was crossing Riverside Drive at the intersection of 115th Street in Manhattan was struck by a hit and run driver. The accident occurred around 12:25 am. The student who is believed to be in his twenties suffered critical head injury. He was transported to the hospital where he is still fighting for his life. Approximately 90 minutes earlier a 53-year-old male pedestrian was hit by a dark-colored sedan at the corner of E. Tremont Ave and Purdy St. in the Bronx. The pedestrian suffered two broken legs and head trauma. He was transported to the hospital. As of Today he was in stable condition. So far nobody was arrested in relation to the two crashes.

Read more in the NY Daily News 

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smallerimg_0361_007The Injury Science Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)  kicked off yesterday. Every year this 10 week program sponsored by the National Science Foundation is offering to a group of  selected undergraduate students the opportunity to prepare for a career in injury science. The program is highly selective and prior to be accepted students interested in this program have to submit detailed applications on their motivations and go through an interview process.

This rigorous internship  allows each student to participate in a research project of his or her interest. Additionally each student is allocated a highly trained pediatric injury researcher as a personal mentor. This one to one mentorship program is a great opportunity for motivated students to develop their skill in injury research and have the possibility to participate in fundamental research with their mentors. Through the internship and depending on their personal interest,  students will participate in hand-on experiences in areas such as science, engineering  or statistics in the field of pediatric injury.

The idea of this program is to plant the seeds for the future and to gather a group of international motivated students that may become the future new actors in injury prevention research with a focus on youth.

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defective harness tagSome of the Graco My Ride 65 convertible car seats may be defective and may not restrain a child in a car crash. Improper restraint of a child significantly increases the risk of severe injury or death of a child in a car accident.  Improper restraint is one of the most common causes of pediatric fatality in motor vehicle accidents in the US (see more info in our other blog published  Today).

In previous tests of the Graco My Ride 65 car seat, the National Highway traffic Safety Administration found that in some cases the harness webbing restraining the child wasn’t resistant enough ant that it could break in the case of a serious car crash.  After internal investigation, the manufacturer Graco concluded that the defective harness webbing were associated with a single batch of sewn webbing and that an estimated 10% of the recalled seats were defective.

The recall affects model numbers 1871689, 1908152, 1813074, 1872691, 1853478, 1877535, 1813015, and 1794334. Only units manufactured on 7/22/2014 and that have a webbing code 2014/06 on a tag on the harness webbing are affected.

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seatbelts prevent children from dying in car accidentsToo many children are dying in car accidents in the US  because they are not adequately restrained. Improper restraint is the number one cause of children fatalities in car accidents in the US. A recent study published in The Journal of Pediatrics found that if the percentage of children unrestrained or inappropriately restrained while riding in  a car in the US  decreased from the actual estimated figure of 20% to 10%, 232 children deaths would be averted every year. The study by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas and the Department of Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX,  looks at car accident data by States from 2010 to 2014.

Important variations were found from state to state. Globally 52% of the children who died in a car accident in the US camme from the South, 21% from the West, 19% from the Midwest and 7.4%  from the Northeast. While looking at factors that may increase the risk of children deaths in car accidents, the researchers found that in New Hampshire only 2% of children who died in a car accident were improperly restrained while in Mississipi 38% of the children who died in a car crash were improrely restrained.

The type of roads as well as the absence of legislation in regards to red light cameras are also important factors in children mortality in car crashes. Rural roads are the type of roads where children have the highest risk of being killed in a car accidents. Several factors such as poorer road quality, limited lighting or visibility, lesser enforcement of speed or long distances to trauma centers may explain why more children are dying on the road in rural areas. Researchers also found an increased risk of pediatric mortality in car accidents in States that didn’t have legislation for red light cameras.

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ABScan prevent fatal motorcycle accidentsApproximately one-third of all fatal motorcycle accidents in the US could be avoided if motorcycles were equipped with mandatory ABS according to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. ABS stands for anti-lock brake systems. This technology which is used on most cars prevents the wheels from blocking when a driver brakes abruptly and vigorously. It is also helps controlling the vehicle while braking for emergency conditions or on slippery roads.

The NYPD and the California Highway Patrol bikes are all equipped with this system which has proven to be very effective to decrease motorcyclist deaths and injuries. ABS is now mandatory on all new bikes sold in Europe and soon they will be mandatory on all new bikes sold in Japan, India and Brazil.

In the US, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulators came very close to making ABS on motorcycle mandatory in 2009. ABS was put on the NHTSA regulatory agenda in July 2009 with the agency citing ” potentially large benefits for braking improvements”. The regulators then suddenly changed their mind and decided “there wasn’t enough proof that the lives saved and the decrease of injured motorcyclists would outweight the additional cost to manufacturers”. Now with the anti-regulatory Trump government, motorcyclists will continue to die on American roads before regulators make the right decision.

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accident sceneA woman died and 3 other people suffered personal injury in a car crash in New York City early Monday. The victim was identified as 48-year-old Wazeda Banu. She was a passenger in a 2009 Nissan Sentra driven by a 51-year-old man. Another 59-year-old woman was riding with them. The trio was driving North on 164th Street near the Grand Central Parkway service road in Queens, NYC, when a 2012 Toyota Scion SUV t-boned them.  Wazeda Banu who was sitting right were the car was T-Boned was rushed to the emergency with severe chest pain. She died from her injuries at the hospital. The driver and the passenger who were riding with Wazeda Banu also suffered  injuries and were transported to the hospital. Their lives are not in danger. The 36-year-old driver of the SUV suffered minor injury and was also sent to the hospital to be treated.  The accident is still being investigated by the police.

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prevent drowning in poolsToo many kids are still fatally drowning in swimming pools and spas every year in the U.S.. According to a new report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, drowning continues to be the number one cause of death among children between 1 and 4 years old and the second leading cause of death among children 5 to 14-years old.

Families need to be constantly educated about the risks of fatal and non-fatal child drowning in spas and swimming pools. Therefore the “CPSC Pool Safety Campaign” team and the Michael Phelps Foundation recently announced that they were joining forces to fight this serious public health crisis. In a recent joint press conference of the CPSC and the Micheal Phelps Foundation, Micheal Phelps told media that the CPSC pool campaign would be integrated into his IM Program. The program encourages children to be healthy and active by offering swimming lessons, water safety courses and other recreational activities around the pool. At a recent event, children learned to swim and how to be safe in the water. Every child also took the pool safety pledge to

  • never swim alone
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A worker died and another one was injured in a construction accident in Long Island, NY, last Wednesday. Edward Sinnott, an employee from the construction company Antonio and Sons, was buried to death in 15 feet of dirt. The accident occurred as the 59 year old man was standing on the top of the hole, directing the digging of a new cesspool system for a private home on Beech Place, in Hutington, NY. All of a sudden around 1pm, the cesspool collapsed, submerging Sinnott alive. Another construction worker who was standing next to him was able to survive by grabbing the bucket used to dig in the area. Crews used all types of equipment to try to find the construction worker quickly but his body was recovered  6 hours later. OSHA is now investigating the accident. The house was also reported unstable and unsafe. Read more in the Gothamist Our Partner Howard Hershenhorn recovered $3,500,000 in Suffolk County for the family of a man killed when the cesspool at his home collapsed.

 

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