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 personal injury nyc

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NYC Bicycle accidents preventionDuring the pandemic, NYC bicycle accident injuries and deaths have reached record highs.

Many New Yorkers who switched their Metrocard for a bike lock learned that commuting in New York City by bike remains challenging especially in some areas of the city where bicycling infrastructures are still limited.

To help newbie cyclists and offer a refresher to more experienced ones, the NYC Department of Transportation recently released  “Bike Smart”, a guide to safely ride a bicycle in  New York City.

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location of the pedestrian accidentA pedestrian got his leg severed in a freak car accident in Brooklyn last Sunday night. The 33 year old victim was exiting a livery car at the intersection of Elton Street and Atlantic Avenue in East New York when a 58 year old woman driving a Lexus crashed into him and pined him between the two vehicles. The pedestrian’s leg was severed just below the knee. The front of the Lexus was destroyed suggesting that the driver was travelling at a high rate of speed. The pedestrian was rushed to the hospital. His injury was severe but he was  in stable condition. The driver of the Lexus was also taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The cab driver was ok.  Read more in the NY Daily News

6 other people injured in another Brooklyn car accident involving a livery car and a SUV

6 other people, including two pedestrians were also injured in a car accident a few days earlier after the driver of a SUV  jumped the curb. Friday afternoon around 1:00 pm a male driver with another young male passenger jumped the curb at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Flatland Avenue in Brooklyn and slammed into a pole, hitting two pedestrians.

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It is very disappointing to see how some motorists in NYC have so little concern about pedestrian safety. In the video below, a man driving a pick up truck makes a right turn without yielding to an elderly pedestrian in Brooklyn, knocking him down to the ground and just continuing on his way as if nothing happened.  The police are now looking for him.

location of the Boulevard of Death accidentAnother pedestrian recently died from the injuries he sustained in a similar accident.  Last Friday afternoon , 55 year old Jaipaul Persaud was crossing Queens Boulevard, also nicknamed “Boulevard of Death”, when a motorist making a left turn off 84th Drive onto Queens Boulevard fatally struck him (see location of the accident on Google map picture to the left). The pedestrian was in the crosswalk with the light in his favor. The 33 year old woman who struck him also travelled at the green light but was supposed to yield to pedestrians while making her left turn. The impact was so intense that Persaud who was hit by the front bumper of the car, flew onto the windshield and then crashed down on the street. Persaud was rushed to the emergency room but he died from his injuries on Sunday. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident and so far has not been charged (read more in the Daily News and in the LIC Post )

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workers on suspended scaffoldRepairing facades can be dangerous. Many construction workers died or were injured while repairing facades in New York  without counting the multiple close calls where workers find themselves dangling out of suspended scaffolds  like the worker in the below video who was lucky he could get back on. Sometimes workers are left dangling in the air until FDNY comes to the rescue.

The NYC DOT recorded 4 deaths and 61 injuries related to accidents during facade work since 2015 and recently released a worker alert to raise awareness about the danger of using a suspended scaffold to repair facades.

Here are a few steps that workers should follow to reduce the risk of accident when doing facade repair

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accident sceneA reckless unlicensed 18 year old driver, behind the wheel of a stolen car, blew a stop sign and crashed into another car, killing the passenger and seriously injuring the driver last week in Staten Island. He then fled on foot. The police found him later on. He was arrested and hit with multiple charges.

Last Tuesday night, around 6:15 pm, Shahzad and Krauzer Akund were driving their Mercedes-Benz East on Lambert Lane in Bulls Head, Staten Island, when they got T-Boned by a reckless driver who blew a stop sign. The driver who was driving a Honda completely destroyed the front of his vehicle and ran away on foot, leaving behind him the couple dying in the street.

When EMS arrived they found the couple in critical condition

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502 construction workers were injured on NYC construction sites last year conpared to 596 in 2019 and 761 in 2018. The number of construction accident injuries in New York is at its lowest since 2015.  The COVID  lockdown and the global slowdown in the construction industry contributed to this decline.

More than half of the injuries occured on construction sites located in Manhattan (289) while Brooklyn sites had the second highest number of injured workers (107). Queens came third with 43 workers injured last year followed by the Bronx with 43 injuries. Only 2 workers were injured on Staten Island construction sites last year.

Except for Staten Island where injuries dropped from 25 in 2018 to almost none over the past two years, all boroughs saw a gradual decline of construction accident injuries. In Staten Island, 2 worker injuries were reported to the DOT in 2020 and 3 in 2019 compared to 25 in 2018. These numbers seem unusually low.

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construction site NYTo reduce injuries and deaths on NYC construction sites, Mayor de Blasio signed Local Law 196 in 2017. This law requires that workers can only be allowed to work on a  construction site in the city if they  attended a minimum amount of hours of safety training.

Construction superintendents, Site safety managers and site safety coordinators are all required to have  62 hours of safety training that includes the regular OSHA 30-hour safety class and additionally 8-hour fall prevention training, 8-hour on chapter 33 that covers safeguard during construction and demolition work, 4-hour scaffold safety, 2-hour site safety, 2-hour tool box talks, 2-hour safety meetings organization and preparation, 2-hour general electives, 2-hour specialized electives and 2-hour drug and alcohol awareness.

Other construction workers are required to attend the OSHA 30-hour safety class or the OSHA 10-hour class with 20 hours of additional training consisting of 8 hours of fall prevention training, 4 hours of scaffolding safety training and the option to choose between 8 hours of Chapter 33 training,  4 hours of general electives or 4 hours of specialized effectives.

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the overpass where the bus fell from8 passengers and a driver were injured in a MTA bus accident last week. The driver lost control of the bus and  plunged from an overpass, leaving the articulated bus dangling over an expressway in the Bronx.

The accident occurred as the articulated bus was on the University Avenue overpass above the Cross Bronx Express Way. According to preliminary investigation speed was a factor in the accident. As he made the turn to get on the  overpass, the driver’s speed was between 17 and 26 mph while the safe speed for such a large bus should have been 3 to 4 mph.  He lost control of the bus, teared through a metal gate and plunged 50 feet over the overpass, leaving the accordion bus dangling from the overpass with its nose on the expressway below. The bus driver was able to extricate himself from the bus and help other passengers to get out of the bus. he suffered jaw, leg and knee injury. 8 other passengers were injured including two seriously. They were all transported to the hospital.

https://twitter.com/ADiLorenzoTV/status/1350026084398600194

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116 bicyclists, 504 pedestrians, 1,116 motor vehicle passengers and 1,795 motor vehicle drivers were injured in traffic accidents in New York City during the month of November for a total of 4,039 people injured. Another 28 people died in similar circumstances, among them were 6 cyclists, 13 pedestrians, 1 passenger and 8 drivers. (click on graphs for full size)

Traffic Accident Injuries NYC November 2020
New York Auto Accident Death November 20
While the total number of monthly deaths reached a record high for the month of November since Vision Zero was launched in 2013, the total number of monthly injuries was at its lowest since 2013 for the month of November.  Since the beginning of 2020 when the Covid pandemic started, the streets of New York City are less busy than usual which might explain why the monthly number of people injured in traffic accidents for the entire year stayed below the trendline. However less traffic has lead to speeding and other reckless activities  which resulted in more traffic fatalities.

Car accident injuries in New York in November with trendline
car accident death in NYC in November with trendline
Because of the pandemic, the city saw an increase of people using bicycles to commute. However riding a bike in New York City remains dangerous despite new bike lanes that are being implemented all over the city. While cyclists infrastructure are decently developed in Manhattan it is not the case in the other boroughs especially in the Bronx where Citi Bike has implemented new bike shares but protected bike lanes are still rare. As a result the number of NYC bicycle accident injuries and deaths are exploding. Last November 6 people died in bicycle accidents compared to respectively 1,0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 2 and 2 in November 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. This is the second time in the last 3 months that the monthly number of bike accident deaths reached a record high. The number of injuries also jumped to 504 last November compared to respectively 246, 285, 366, 346, 276, and 280 in November 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. The number of bicycle accident injuries more than doubled from November 2019 to November 2020. The total number of bicycle accidents was also on the rise with 537 accidents in November compared to respectively 367, 375, 400, 465, 454, 383 and 368 in November 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. While  the graphs below clearly show that the total number of bicycle accidents and the resulting injuries are seasonal and reach their peaks during the summer all trendlines are on the rise and over the recent months bicycle accidents injuries and deaths have all reached record highs.

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location of the Queens pedestrian accidentA pedestrian was transported to the hospital with critical injury after being struck by a car in New Yok City.  The pedestrian, a young woman in her twenties was struck by a Mustang around 11:30 pm last Friday at the intersection of Cross Bay Boulevard and 163rd Avenue, in Queens (see Google map picture on the left) . The  31 year old driver stayed at the scene of the accident and was not charged. The pedestrian was found by EMS unconscious with critical injuries to her legs and head. She was rushed to the hospital to be treated. Read more in the Post

The day before also in Queens, a 16 year old Mustang driver died in a car accident after he lost control of his vehicle. Thursday afternoon around 2:50 pm, 16 year old Dylan Moreno was found dead a few blocks away from his home after he lost control of his black Mustang. The teenager was speeding down 80th Avenue near 265th Street in Glen Oaks when he lost control of his sport car and hit a tree on the side of the road.  The young man had a passion for fast cars. Before he hit the tree, the teen driver blew two stop signs and almost hit a pedestrian. Read more in the Daily News 

Another young driver lost control of his car, flipping it over and crashing into a house in Long Island. The 19 year old man has been arrested by the police and is facing DWI charges. Thankfully the person inside the house at the time of the accident was not injured.