New York Personal Injury Attorneys BlogA decorative stone arch on the top of the front door of a residential brownstone in Brooklyn collapsed on the stoop and destroyed it, prompting the Department of Buildings to evacuate the building. Luckily nobody was around when the accident occurred. Three families living in the building were evacuated and temporarily relocated by the Red Cross. The owner of the building located on Carlton Avenue in Prospect Heights was issued a ticket for failure to maintain the building. The owner was also ordered to immediately install a sidewalk shed to protect pedestrians from further potential collapse and to repair the building.
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Heat Injuries and how to protect yourself
Heat injuries can have serious consequences including disability and death. Heat injuries affect not only people practicing sports during the summer but also workers such as construction workers or landscapers. Anyone who practices a strenuous activity in warm conditions is at risk and should understand the body mechanism behind a heat stroke and how to prevent it.
When someone exercises in the heat, the body reaction is to sweat to cool off the body. Therefore the body looses a lot of fluids that need to be replaced by water or hydrating drinks. The body also needs to cool off. If someone doesn’t let his or her body cool off properly and hydrate proprely, the body becomes dehydrated and heat injuries occur.
Heat injuries come in many forms from mild to acute:
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More fatalities and injuries in NYC car accidents related to speed
Two people were killed and two others were injured in car accidents related to speed in New York City these last days. Yesterday night, 34 year old Joseph Edlawn, was speeding North on the Harlem River Drive when he lost control of his vehicle while attempting to take the East 125th Exit at high speed. He was on the ramp leading down to 125th Street when he hit the curb violently. The car flipped over and rolled over several times before landing on the roof. The driver was not wearing his seatbelt and was ejected from the car. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. A 28 year old woman who was a passenger wearing a seatbelt only suffered minor scrapes. (Read more in the New York Post)
On Saturday morning around 3:30 am a man behind the wheel of Maserati was speeding on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the pole of the elevated train line at the intersection of Rochester Avenue in Crown Heights. The car flipped in the air and split in two before catching fire. Firefighters ran to the rescue. A man who is presumed to be the driver died at the scene of the accident and another man who was presumably the passenger was rushed to the hospital with critical injuries. (Read more in the NY Daily News)
Injuries and death related to speed are on the rise in New York City since last year. According to the most recent data, NYPD collision data, unsafe speed was a contributing factor in 450 NYC traffic accidents that resulted in injury or death during the month of June. As a comparison during the same month, distracted driving, failure to yield-the-right-of-way, and following too closely were respectively the contributing factor in 2,850, 788 and 773 crashes that resulted in injury or death.
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4 year old pedestrian seriously injured by hit-and-run moped driver in Queens, NYC
A hit-and-run moped driver crashed into a 4 year old pedestrian and seriously injured him last Sunday in New York City. The accident occurred in the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park near the Boathouse at the end of the afternoon. 4 year old Jonathan Beauchamp was hanging in the park with his parents and other children and relatives when dirt bike and moped riders showed up and started to do donuts. A mope rider struck 4 year old Jonathan and fled away. The boy was rushed to the emergency room by his dad and was diagnosed with acute head trauma. He remains in critical but stable condition. The police are still looking for the moped driver.
Hit-and-run drivers get away with murder all the time in NYC
In New York City, very few hit-and-run drivers are being found by the police and even in cases resulting in serious injury, many of the hit-and-run drivers face no consequences. Less than a quarter of hit-and-run drivers involved in accidents resulting in death or serious injuries are indeed arrested. 47 people were critically injured or died in hit-and-run accidents in New York City during the first six months of 2021 and only 11 arrests were made which represent 23% of all the serious cases. While looking at all hit-and run accidents including those that only result in property damage only 1% of the hit and run drivers are being arrested in New York City.
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Ambitious long term plan for the Northeast Corridor Railroad
The Northeast Corridor had one of the worst train accidents in decades when the Amtrak 188 train connecting Washington DC to New York City derailed killing 8 people, injuring 200 including 11 of them critically. The accident could have been prevented if the train was equipped with up to date technology such as “positive train control” that automatically limits the speed of the train or if the track were equipped with “Automatic Train Control” however like many other rail systems in the US, the Northeast Corridor railway system is outdated and its infrastructure is crumbling. As a result, trains are often delayed and passengers safety questionable.
15-year long modernization plan
To address these issues, the Northeast Corridor Commission was created in 2010 after approval by the Congress in 2008 with the mission to develop an implement a modernization program for the Northeast Corridor. Yesterday, this Commission released a 15-year plan including 150 projects to improve the conditions of the actual system. The plan entitled “CONNECT 2035” includes among the multiple projects a 5 year renovation project of the Portal North bridge over the Hackensack River, repairing the North River tunnel, build 4 new stations in the Bronx.
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Record number of car accident deaths in New York City during the month of May
1 bicyclist, 15 pedestrians, 11 motorists and 3 passengers lost their life in crashes in New York City last May. That is a total of 30 fatalities. Since Vision Zero started in 2014, this is the first time that such a high number of traffic accident fatalities were recorded during a month of May. Last year because of the Covid-19 lockdown, only 5 fatal crashes occurred in May and during the previous years respectively, 18, 13, 11, 18, 28, 25 and 15 people died in NYC traffic accidents in May 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, the de Blasio administration seems to have given up on all the efforts deployed during Vision Zero and the recent traffic accident fatality numbers are similar to the numbers reported during the pre-Vision Zero era.
4,927 people were injured in crashes in New York last May compared to 2,437 during the Covid-19 lockdown in May 2020 and 5,554 in May 2019. The number of car accident injuries last May is a little bit lower than what it was during May 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
While looking at fatalities by category of road users, pedestrians and motorists accounted for the majority of the fatalities last May. Bicyclist fatalities have been lower than usual and passenger fatalities remained somewhat stable. It is the first time since 2013, before Vision Zero started, that road fatalities in New York City are above 25 for two months in a row. Over the last 12 months, monthly traffic accident deaths in New York have been 5 times over 25. Even in 2013, before Vision Zero started, monthly auto accident deaths only went 4 times over 25 during the entire year.
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Bicyclist killed by postal service truck driver in Manhattan
A 71 year old cyclist was fatally struck by a postal truck at the intersection of 86th Street and Central Park West in Manhattan, NYC.
Last Tuesday around 5:40 pm, Jeffrey Williamson, an avid cyclist, was commuting back from his work downtown to his house in the Upper West Side when a postal truck making a right turn from Central Park West onto the 86th Street traverse hit him. The cyclist, a marketing professional who was close to retirement, was in the bike lane when the truck struck him.
He was rushed to the hospital where he died a few hours later from body trauma. He leaves behind his wife, 68 year old Chris Brimer and two children.
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New report from the NYC DOB highlights recent construction accident fatalities and injuries prevention measures
In an effort to reduce construction accident deaths and injuries in New York City, the Department of Buildings has been deploying new strategies and increasing its staff. It just released a new report about it.
New inspection unit
The DOB role is not only to deliver wok permits for new construction or renovations but also to make sure that construction workers are being fully protected when they do their job. In order to do so the DOB created a new inspection unit called the “Construction Safety Compliance”. Inspectors in this unit are targeting mainly large NYC construction sites and making sure that all workers have been following the Site Safety Training and contractors are respecting all construction safety rules.
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Alarming increase in construction accident fatalities in New York City in April and May
5 construction workers died on the job in New York City between April 1st and May 31st. This is the highest number of hard hat fatalities over a 2-month period since at least 2015. 2 fatal accidents occurred in Brooklyn, 1 in Manhattan, 1 in the Bronx and 1 in Queens. So far, since the beginning of the year, 7 workers died on NYC construction sites compared to respectively 1 and 8 for the same period of 2020 and 2019. (click on the graphs for full view)
64 NYC construction workers suffered injuries in April and 38 in May. Between January 1st 2021 and May 31st a total of 223 workers were injured on the job in the city. It is more than during the same period of 2020, when 186 workers were injured, but less than during the same period of 2019 when 502 hard hats were injured.
Manhattan remains the borough with the highest number of construction accidents as well as the highest number of injuries and deaths related to these accidents
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322 NYC construction sites shut down for lack of safety
Hard hats working at 322 construction sites in NYC were at risk of getting injured or dying in construction accidents because their jobsite was not safe.
These 322 sites including 113 in Brooklyn, 83 in Manhattan, 69 in Queens, 54 in the Bronx and 3 in Staten Island were issued a stop work order and fines by the NYC Department of Buildings after its inspectors conducted a massive safety sweep. (See previous blog).
