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.

Articles Tagged with new york car accident

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3 year old Mariam Dansoko was killed in a car accident in New York at the beginning of the week. Mariam was crossing the street with her mom who was pushing her brother in a stroller. All 3 pedestrians were in the crosswalk when a car made a left turn and fatally hit the little girl who was right behind her mom. According to Streetblog, despite evidence that the driver didn’t yield the right of way, he hasn’t been charged yet. The accident occurred in the Bronx. The car was travelling on Gerard Avenue and made a left turn onto E. 164th Street when it struck the toddler. According to witnesses the driver of the car was going too fast.

Read more in Streetblog

Picture, courtesy of Goggle Map, shows where the car was turning from and the location of the accident

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car accident ManhattanSeveral pedestrians were injured in a car accident in New York yesterday.  The  chain reaction crash took place on Broadway between 61st street  and 62nd Street yesterday afternoon. The driver of a black Honda Sedan intentionally hit a yellow cab twice from behind. The yellow cab careened onto the sidewalk, hitting a halal food cart which fell into a Con Edison truck that was parked next to it. A female pedestrian was trapped under the food cart and was severely injured. According to the NY Daily News she almost lost an arm and is now in critical condition. 3 other pedestrians were sent by ambulance to the hospital. The vendor who was inside the food truck was also injured. The cab driver suffered minor injuries and the two passengers were fine. The police are still looking for the driver of the black Sedan which may have been a stolen car.

Picture: courtesy of Alex Silverman on Twitter

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In New York City there are around 3,500 motor vehicle accidents related to distracted driving every month. It is the main cause of accidents in the city. Many New York drivers consider their cars like a second office and handle all kinds of businesses that require using their phone while they are behind the wheel. Despite multiple campaigns to try to convince drivers not to text and drive, a recent At&T survey indicates that Americans continue to illegally use their mobile phone while they are driving. They are not only texting but they are also engaging  in social media, surfing the web and even having video chats.

The increase in car accidents related to texting and driving can be somewhat compared to the drinking and driving crisis in the 80ies. Several road safety advocates who have previously been involved in campaigns to reduce the number of accidents related to drunk driving are now working on campaigns to reduce distracted driving.  These advocates believe that distracted driving so far hasn’t been treated as seriously as drunk driving and that more needs to be done including at the legislative level.

In New York, lawmakers are considering introducing a textalyser.  Just like the breathalyzer is able to check alcohol blood level, the textalyser is be able to check if the driver was texting behind the wheel. According to lawmakers the textalyzer does not access private data but only checks if the driver was using the phone to text, email or do anything else illegal under New York’s hands free driving laws.

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There are usually less personal injuries and deaths related to motor vehicle accidents in New York City during the month of January than during most other months. This January there were 17,798 traffic accidents compared to 15,977 in January 2015, 16,597 in January 2014 and 15,599. Even though motor vehicle accidents decreased from January 2014 to 2015 the number of monthly accidents has been on an increasing trend. It is the first time that the number of traffic accidents is above 17,000 for the month of January.

Traffic Accidents NYC January 2016
Despite an increasing number of traffic accidents the number of injuries and deaths related to theses accidents have decreased. This is hopefully related to the introduction of various initiatives to make the streets safer launched under the NYC Vision Zero project. As motorists are driving slower and in a safer way, accidents still happen but less road users are injured or die.

3,624 people were injured in a traffic crash in New York this past January.  This is more than in January 2015 (2,449) but less than in January 2014 (3,899) and in January 2013 (3,993).  Globally over the last 3 years the monthly number of people injured in NYC auto accidents has been decreasing. However during the last few months, the number of injuries have been picking up again. For example, In December 2015 there were 4,519 people injured in auto accidents in NYC compared to 4,117 in December 2014 and 4,277 in December 2013. It was the first time that the number of injuries related to traffic accidents in NYC was above the trend line in December.

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A 77 year old woman died after being hit by a car in New York. The pedestrian accident occurred at the intersection of Madison Avenue and 36th Street around 8:30 am on Monday morning.  77 year old Carol Dauplaise, a Manhattan jeweler, was crossing Madison Avenue from east to west. She had the green light and was in the crosswalk. As she was crossing, Buddhi Gurund, a limo driver for Tel-A-Car, made a left turn onto Madison Avenue from 36th street and struck her.  Other pedestrians who witnessed the accident rushed to the rescue and lift the car off to try to save the woman. She was transported to the hospital where she later died from her injuries.

Carol Dauplaise was a successful jeweler who had developed her own business into a multi million-dollar business. She started her own company in 1979 with only two other employees: a sales person and a design assistant.  Her company is now employing 50 people in New York City. Her store was located a block away from the accident on 37th Street.

The limo driver told the police that he didn’t see the victim.  According to the Gothamist he was arrested and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.

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a 68 year old pedestrian died after being hit by a SUV in New York. The car accident happened last Thursday on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Andrea Kremen from Fort Lee (NJ) was crossing York Ave at East 78th Street in Manhatten when she was hit by a SUV. The SUV was making a right turn onto York. According to a witness the impact was so strong that the victim was thrown 70 yards away from the the initial impact. Witnesses rushed to help the woman before the FDNY arrived. She was bleeding heavily and was rushed to the hospital in cardiac arrest. She didn’t survive. Read more in the New York Daily News

Last year a total of 133 pedestrians died in car accidents in New York City compared to 139 in 2014. This is is the lowest number of pedestrians killed in traffics accidents in New York City in a year.  This decreasing trends in pedestrian fatalities in the city can be credited to the Vision Zero initiative launched in 2014 by the mayor de Blasio administration. The installations of speed cameras and the lowering of the city default speed limit are some of the measures that have helped in reducing the number of pedestrian deaths.

Safer street redesign by the DOT such as the creation of slow zones in residential neighborhoods, the redesign of many dangerous intersections in the city as well as the creation of arterial slow zones also  contributed to make streets safer for New-Yorkers.

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4,737 people were injured and 21 died in 18,862 traffic accidents in New York City in August according to recent statistics released by the NYPD. The number of motor vehicle accidents has been increasing steadily over the last three years however the number of deaths and injuries are both on a declining trend in the city (click on graphs for a larger view) which indicates that New York City streets are getting a little safer.

Motor Vehicle Accidents Injuries Deaths New York City August 2015
Pedestrians are the most at risk of dying in a traffic accident in New York City. They represent more than half of the traffic fatalities. Last month 11 of them died after being struck by a vehicle compared to 6 during the previous month and 10 in August 2014.

While pedestrian fatalities are on a downtrend, bicycle accident fatalities have been increasing since the beginning of 2013. Last August 3 cyclists died in accidents. 3 cyclists also died in July bringing to 11 the total number of people who died in a bicycle accident this year. During the same period of 2013 and 2014  there were respectively 7 and 15 bicycle accident fatalities.

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A woman in her 50s was seriously injured after being struck by a van this morning.  The accident happened at the intersection of 21st St. and fifth Avenue in Manhattan.  The pedestrian was crossing the street when she was hit by a white van making a left turn. The driver of the van was in shock and stayed at the scene of the accident while the victim was transported to the hospital  in critical condition. Read more in the New York Daily News.

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New York car accidentThe New York Daily News analyzed NYPD crash data from July 2012 to March 2015 to see if the Zero Vision Plan launched by Bill de Blasio was making the streets of New York City safer. According to the newspaper analysis that compared the road statistics after the Vision Zero Roll out from September to December 2014 with the same period of 2012, the results are mixed.  Some roads had very large decline in the numbers of vehicles accidents resulting in severe personal injuries or fatalities such as Broadway between 125th street to 95th Street in Manhattan but other roads saw an increase in accidents resulting in injuries or fatalities. For example during the months following a reduction of the speed limit on E. Gun Hill Road in the Bronx, car accidents on this road resulted in 50 fatalities or severe personal injuries while for the same period of 2012 this number was 33.

Read more in the New York Daily News

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A health condition problem is at the origin of  a fatal car accident in Long Island, NY.  92 year old Joseph Saccente was driving his taxi when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a house in Long Island. The elderly man died in the accident. Why was a 92 year old allowed to drive a taxi?  See video below