New York Personal Injury Attorneys BlogWishing all a better 2021. Stay strong!
Published on:
Happy New Year 2021 from all of us!
Published on:
Cross-Examination: Exploring the Process That Leads to the Choice
In every case, someone makes a choice that gives rise to the claim. For the attorney conducting a cross-examination of the person or persons who made the choice, dissecting the thought process that led to that choice will provide fodder for cross-examination and lead to success in the courtroom.
In their Trial Advocacy column published Today in the New York Law Journal, New York trial lawyers Ben Rubinowitz and Evan Torgan explore Question and Answer techniques for eliciting useful responses.
Read more in the New York Law Journal
Published on:
2019 Construction Fatalities at their highest since 2007
1,061 construction workers died on the job in the US in 2019, 5% more than in 2018 according to the annual National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries report recently released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The private construction industry remains one of the most dangerous industries with a fatality rate of 9.7 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2019 compared to 3.5 deaths per 1000.000 average for all industries in 2019. In 2018, the rate of fatality in the private construction industry was 9.5 per 100,000 workers.
Roofers and and construction trade helpers have the highest rate of fatality among all construction workers
Published on:
Summer program for undergraduates interested in injury science research
Preventing personal injuries and saving lives is a component of safety and public health. Every year, the Center for Injury Research and Prevention is offering several summer programs to undergraduates who are interested in injury science research. Students who have limited access to research opportunities such as American Indian Natives, Alaskan Natives Black and Latino students as well as women, vets and people with disabilities are highly encouraged to apply.
The 10-week program takes place over the summer and provides students with hands-on research experience, participation in multidisciplinary research approach and one-on-one mentoring by leading scientists. Students receive a $5000 stipend as well as help for their travel expenses and will be housed for free in separate units for projects requiring in-person participation. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many of the projects will be held remotely but the situation may change depending on the evolution of the pandemic.
This summer the projects will be split in 3 areas: Engineering, Behavioral Science and Epidemiology.
Published on:
Study shows construction workers and correctional workers have the highest positive rate for Covid-19
A recent study of 730,000 Covid tests found that workers in the construction industry had the highest positive rate of all workers in any industry including healthcare workers. The study was conducted in Los Angeles between August and October by the testing firm Curative. Each person that was tested was required to fill a questionnaires that include their type of occupation. 5.7% of asymptomatic construction workers and 10.1 % of construction workers who had symptoms tested positive. The positivity rate among asymptomatic construction workers was the highest and well ahead of any other type of occupation. “Sick construction workers may still be coming to work if they have symptoms because some have no paid sick leave according to Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor at UCLA’s School of Public Health who co-authored the study.
While the study didn’t find any case of asymptomatic correctional workers, among those who got tested because they had symptoms, 12 % were positive. That was the highest rate of positivity among symptomatic workers among all industries.
Workers in food services came 3rd with a positivity rate of 3.8% for those tested who were asymptomatic and 7.8% for those who had symptoms.
Published on:
The National Traffic Safety Administration is falling asleep at the wheel
The National Highway Safety Administration was created 50 years ago in an effort to curb the number of Americans dying or getting injured in car crashes. Its role was to create safety standards for motor vehicles, supervise recalls in case of defects, educate people and conduct research on traffic safety as well as allocate safety grants to states.
Back in the days, when the agency was created, more than 50,000 people were killed very year in car accidents in the US. It went down to 32,479 in 2011 and then gradually went back up to 36,120 last year.
Over the years the Agency had its ups and downs, the last four years were among the worst
Published on:
Food Emporium worker killed in elevator accident
A worker died in an elevator accident at a Manhattan grocery store last week. 49 year old Maria Sanchez, a mother of four children who worked two jobs to support her family and her mom in Mexico City was killed by an elevator that was illegally installed in the building of the Food Emporium in Hell’s Kitchen.
Last Tuesday afternoon, Sanchez was in the basement of the Food Emporium supermarket located at 452 W. 43rd Street in Hell’s Kitchen. She was loading a small dumbwaiter elevator with merchandise when suddenly the elevator moved up and crushed her head. Sanchez suffered major head trauma and died at the scene of the accident.
The elevator was illegally installed and had recently been repaired after previous malfunctions
Published on:
Ithaca construction workers falls 5 stories into dumpster and survives
A NY construction worker who fell 45 to 50 feet from a roof survived after he fell in a dumpster full of debris. The 37-year-old man was working on a construction site located at 709 West Court in Ithaca, NY. The accident occurred just after 5:00 PM. The worker who was wearing a fall protection gear had just unclipped himself after finishing his work and was about to go home when he fell from the roof. He landed in a dumpster full of debris and survived. It is not exactly clear how exactly the accident occurred and what were the extent of the injuries he suffered.
The firefighters, the police and an emergency staff in an ambulance showed up to the scene of the accident shortly after. EMS workers were able to get in the dumpster, secure the worker on a back board with a cervical collar and splint his injured arm before taking him out of it. Because of the inclement weather, it was impossible to transport the injured construction worker by helicopter to a hospital. He was transported by ambulance to a trauma center in Pennsylvania.
So far neither the name or an update on his condition have been provided. The accident is under investigation. The weather conditions might have played a role in the fall.
Published on:
How the corporate dialysis industry is preventing patients to get kidney transplants so they keep their profit highs
The corporate dialysis industry is resorting to unethical tactics and medical malpractice to prevent patients getting the kidney transplant they need to survive and to keep them on dialysis for years. As a result, many patients who had to go to dialysis centers several times a week during the pandemic, caught Covid19 and died. In a recent investigation, ProPublica describes the multiple obstacles that JaMarcus had to go through to be able to get on the list for a kidney transplant before the covid19 pandemic hit and he ultimately died from contracting the virus at a dialysis center.
In the US, two companies, DaVita and and Fresenius, control 70% of the dialysis market
Patients who require dialysis are mostly patients who suffer form diabetes and who develop end stage kidney failure. While many of these patients could be saved by receiving a kidney transplant, two corporate dialysis companies are spending millions in heavy lobbying so they can continue to get multi billion dollar revenues from mostly Medicare patients who are getting dialysis multiple times a week instead of receiving the transplant they need. According to a recent article in Kaiser Health News, over the last 4 years DaVita and Frenesius spent $212 million just in California to influence voters and politicians and fight a ballot initiative that would have capped their profits.
Published on:
Family seriously injured in Long Island carbon monoxide accident
A woman and two children suffered carbon monoxide poisoning last week in Dix Hills, Suffolk County, NY. The accident occurred at a residential home located on Pineland Court. A crew of workers were doing some roofing work while a mother and her two children were inside the house. The roofers used a generator that was positioned too close to the door causing fumes to get in the house and poisoned the family. The woman and the two children started to get really dizzy and she called 911. When EMS arrived the 3 of them could not walk anymore and firefighters found a vey high level of carbon monoxide in the house. The mother and her children were transported to the hospital to be treated.
The silent killer
Carbon Monoxide is an invisible gas that has no smell and no color and therefore is very hard to detect by human. It is deadly. Firefighters nickname it “the silent killer”. This why in New York State, it is required by law that any house or apartment with at least one fuel-burning appliance or heater has working carbon monoxide detectors installed. The following precautions should be taken to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning:
