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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excavation work in NYC streetsNew York construction site owners and contractors are responsible for their employees safety. While before the coronavirus crisis this meant that they had to take adequate safety measures to protect construction workers from accident injuries and deaths, now contractors are also responsible for applying the new covid-19 protocole. In New York where aggressive measures have been deployed by the Governor to reduce the spread of the disease, construction site owners and contractors have to follow a strict protocol to keep everybody safe.

The NYC Department of Buildings now has dedicated inspectors who are visiting  construction sites to make sure they are compliant

Since July 8th, any NYC construction site that doesn’t respect the Covid-19 protocol can be penalized with violations fines and stop work orders if necessary. During the first five days, inspectors issued 88 citations and 41 stop work orders to construction sites all over the city. During the previous months the inspectors had been reaching out to violators and provided them with guidance and material related to the application of the covid-19 protocol for construction sites in New York City.

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29 people including 4 cyclists and 9 pedestrians died in crashes in New York City last June. While truck and bus accidents remain lower than usual, reckless car driving and speeding continue to be a cause of many injuries and deaths.

After dipping to a record low of 5 deaths during the Covid-19 lock-down, traffic fatalities peaked to 29 in June. Since Vision Zero started in 2014, this is a record high number of fatalities that was only reached once previously in June 2016. Injuries were on the rise too in June compared to the previous months of May and April but not as dramatically as the fatalities.  The total number of accidents increased as well. One of the main reasons why the total number of accidents dipped so dramatically is because since last March the NYPD doesn’t dispatch officers anymore at the scene of minor accidents. As a result the big drop observed since March is not only related to the Covid-19 crisis but also to the the fact there are no more NYPD reports for minor accidents.

Auto Accident NYC Injuries Deaths June 2020
New York traffic accident fatalities were on the rise for all categories of road users. 11 motorists, 5 passengers, 4 cyclists and 9 pedestrians died last June compared to respectively 7, 0, 2 and 2 during the previous month and 6, 3, 3, 8 in June 2019. Many of these fatalities are related to speed and reckless driving. While the city has slowly started to get back to normal, the traffic is not as heavy as it used to be before the coronavirus crisis and many motorists are driving over the speed limit.

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Building that collapsed in ManhattanAnother building partially collapsed in Manhattan yesterday, The building that hosts a mix of residences and commercial spaces is located at 211 East 34th Street. It was completely empty and was undergoing construction work. Around 11:30 am yesterday morning a first part of the wall collapsed followed an hour later by another collapse.

Nobody was injured but the street was closed by the police and the residents of an adjacent  building were evacuated for safety.

The collapsed occurred in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan a few blocks away from another deadly construction accident that occurred a few hours later and during which a piece of parapet detached from the roof and landed on a hanging scaffolding, killing one construction worker and injuring 3 others.

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accident sceneFatal car accidents related to speed are on the rise in New York City and many of them are caused by young inexperienced drivers behind the wheel.

While New Yorkers witnessed or heard the noise of drag racing all over the city during the coronavirus lock-down that started at the end of March, the city is now about to enter phase 4 of reopening but many drivers seem not to have realized that they are not alone on the road anymore.

Two days ago a 21 year old driver was speeding on the southbound lanes of the Henry Hudson Parkway when he lost control of his Honda, slammed into the median, overturned and landed on the northbound side, hitting another driver in a Toyota

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location-of-the-fatal-scaffolding-accidentA construction worker died and 3 others were injured in a scaffolding accident in Manhattan. The accident occurred yesterday afternoon around 4:20pm at a 12 story condo building located at 136 East 36th Street near Lexington Ave in Murray Hill.

According to witnesses, two hard hats on a suspended scaffold were repairing the facade at the 11th floor level when a piece of the parapet fell into the suspended scaffolding. In a chain reaction, the rig then fell onto the street shed, destroying it.

According to the Daily News a 50 year old worker died in the accident. 2 other workers suffered serious injury and are in critical condition. Another one suffered minor injury.

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NITA-STUDIONITA is thrilled to present two of its leading instructors, nationally renowned trial lawyers Doris Cheng fromWalkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger  and our managing partner Ben Rubinowitz, in Killer Cross, a demonstration-based webcast on cross-examination. Learn – and watch – as Doris and Ben demonstrate various ways of discrediting a witness, discrediting an adversary, and setting up a powerful, compelling, and winning argument on summation. Not only will they show you how to cross-examine a lay witness, but Doris and Ben will offer portable techniques to cross-examine any expert, regardless of their field. This free, one-hour webcast will leave you with tools to secure admissions by demanding responsive answers to achieve the success you need in court.

This free live webinar will take place on July 23rd at 10:00 AM PDT/ 1:00 PM EDT. It is free but you still need to register here to attend.

If you can’t make the live presentation, this webcast will be available to view on demand, beginning the next day.

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New York CyclistsAfter a high number of deadly pedestrian and bicycle accidents in New York City, especially in Brooklyn, last year, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzales decided it was time to do something about it. The DA just announced that he has created a new unit that will be dedicated to investigate any fatal motor vehicle accident occurring in Brooklyn. Now anytime a motor vehicle accident involves a fatality not only the NYPD investigation squad will  investigate the accident (if they show up ) but also a prosecutor from the DA’s office will rush to the scene of the accident. The prosecutor will run his or her own investigation speaking to witnesses, collecting evidence, documenting and drafting warrants to collect evidence.This measure will hopefully bring more justice to the victims of reckless drivers who are too often being let go by the police with no charges.

Botched police investigations and poor follow up on deadly traffic accidents are common in New York City

In most accidents, including those in which people are killed, drivers are usually getting a free pass except if they were driving under the influence or if they committed an extremely reckless act.  With the new DA unit it will not be the case anymore in Brooklyn, not only drivers will be held accountable with detailed investigations but the unit will also work with lawmakers to pass new laws against reckless driving.

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construction workers are at risk of heat strokeInjuries related to heat stroke and dehydration can sometimes be life-threatening.

Therefore anyone active under the sun should always hydrate proprely and know the symptoms of a heat stroke so activities can be stopped before its too late.

Heat stroke or Hyperthermia occurs when the body didn’t get enough fluid and cannot cool down anymore or regulate its own temperature.

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Construction job with the highest risk of fall injuriesFall is the number one cause of death for construction workers. Every year in America, 10,000 construction workers suffer serious injuries and 200 die in fall accidents. To raise awareness about this problem, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) are organizing a yearly national campaign: The National Safety Stand-Down. The event lasts several days during which every construction company owner is invited to spend a day or at least a few hours with their employees to review fall safety protection.  Thousands of construction companies are participating every year reaching millions of construction workers.

This year the event was supposed to be organized  in May but many construction businesses were shut down because of the Covid-19 crisis. Therefore the 7th National Safety Stand-Down to prevent Falls has been moved to the 14th to 18th of September 2020.

For this year, the organizers suggest that the event be held virtually or that companies owners make sure that construction workers social distance during the stand-down. Video and webinar might be a good way to keep the stand-down safe for all.

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BOULDER, Colo., July 14, 2020 — The National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) released a statement on Monday, July 6, 2020, in support of maintaining future in-person jury trials and other adversarial proceedings with approved medical safeguards. In the statement, NITA maintains that in-person bench and jury trials are designed to seek and reveal the truth in a public forum and that virtual or remote proceedings deprives the litigant, judge, and jury from using all of their senses to weigh the evidence, thereby diminishing the parties’ ability to have a fair and impartial outcome that is supported by the Constitution.

“As trial lawyers, we are becoming increasingly concerned about the possible loss of the traditional in-person jury trial to the ‘virtual trial,’” says Ben Rubinowitz, Chair of NITA’s Board of Trustees and managing partner at Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf. “For well over 100 years, the in-person jury trial has served to ensure justice in both criminal and civil trials. It is unfortunate that based on current health concerns stemming from  COVID-19 and the temporary needs of the courts, some would permanently trade the long-established guarantees of constitutionally protected rights in exchange for the perceived speed, cost, and convenience of a virtual trial.” Mr. Rubinowitz further states, “I am proud of the NITA Board for recognizing the importance of in-person jury trials and ensuring that the time-honored tradition of in-person trials continues in our country.”

In the statement, NITA recognizes the need to move to online and virtual proceedings during the pandemic and will continue to train attorneys accordingly. Pamela Bresnahan, Chair-elect of NITA’s Board of Trustees and partner at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP states, “NITA has been and will continue to be the premier place to learn trial advocacy. While in person trials are always preferable, we commit to providing virtual training for lawyers during the uncertain times created by the COVID-19 pandemic. And we also commit to return to in-person training as soon as it is safe to do so.”