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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70 people died in traffic accidents in New York City during the third quarter of 2022. Among the victims were 26 pedestrians, 4 cyclists, 15 motor vehicle passengers and 25 motor vehicle operators. Pedestrians and motor vehicle operators accounted for most of the deaths while passengers fatalities reached a record high.

Since Vision Zero started in 2014, auto accident fatalities gradually declined from 82 during the third quarter of 2013 to a record low of 56 fatalities during the third quarter of 2019. However, everything changed during the Covid19 crisis of 2020 when NYC streets were almost empty and speeding caused traffic fatalities to peak again and reach 77 during the third quarter of 2020. Since then, the number of fatalities during Q3 never went back below 70.

Auto accident fatalities NYC Q3 2022

While fatalities remained higher than usual, car accident injuries stayed lower than usual

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accident sceneReckless driving was a factor in multiple deadly crashes in New York City that occurred at the end of last week.

  • The first accident occurred Friday early morning, around 2:30 am when a 23 year old driver identified as Ravinder Singh who was drunk behind the wheel killed his 29 year old passenger Harjot Singh,  in a wrong way crash on the Brooklyn-Queens-Expressway. The driver is now facing several charges including criminally negligent homicide and drunk driving. (read more in the NY Daily News)
  • A few hours later. around 6:30 am  another deadly wrong way accident occurred, involving a car and an ambulance that was transporting a victim that was previously hit by another car (see previous blog). The victim, a mother of two young children, died and several EMS members were injured and hospitalized.
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ocation of the deadly crash in Staten IslandA woman died and 4 others suffered personal injury after a car crashed into an ambulance. The accident occurred last Friday morning around 6:30 am in Westerleigh, Staten Island, NYC.

The pedestrian was first  injured after being struck by a car as she was stepping out of her home

35 year old, Maria Martinez, a mother of two children had just stepped out of her home and was walking to the bus stop when she was struck by a car while crossing Jewett Avenue. The car was a Dodge charger and the driver remained at the location of the accident and was questioned by the police. So far he has not been charged. When the emergency team arrived with the ambulance at the location of the accident, they found the victim in critical condition. Paramedics quickly got her in the ambulance they were driving down Maine Avenue in the wrong way in an attempt to reach the hospital faster and save Maria’s life. Ambulances are authorized to do so when the life of someone is endangered.

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NYPDA police officer driving a NYPD car and responding to a call for a stolen car lost control of his vehicle, jumped the curb and slammed his the cruiser into multiple pedestrians that were on the sidewalk. Among them were a mother, her 5  year old daughter and the grand-mother who were on their way to the grocery store.

The crash occurred Thursday afternoon around 3:pm in the Longwood section of the Bronx at the intersection of Westchester Avenue and Hoe Avenue. A surveillance video shows the NYPD cruiser travelling at a high rate of speed, crossing the yellow line and driving against traffic. As the NYPD cruiser approached the intersection, a civilian car started to make a left turn. The cruiser clipped the front of the car and careened toward the sidewalk. It then jumped the curb and hit 4 pedestrians and a traffic pole that fell onto two other pedestrians. Among the 4 pedestrians that were directly struck by the NYPD cruiser were  the 5 year old daughter, mother and grand mother and another man. Additionnally 2 people in the car that was about to make a left turn were injured and one of them was a 2 year old child. The two police officers in the cruiser also suffered injury. A total of 10 people were transported to the hospital. According to the NYPD 4 of them suffered life-threatening injuries including the 5 year-old child and the man who was ran over by the cruiser.

Read more in the NY Daily News

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car in bike lanes can cause deadly bicycle accidentsNew York cyclists are facing higher risk of getting injured or killed in accidents every time they have to go around vehicles parked in a bike lane.  To deter drivers from doing so, the city is proposing a new law that would allow citizen not only to report truck and cars parked in the bike lanes but also to get a percentage of the money the city will make by ticketing the offender.

New bill would pay back citizen $43.75 per vehicle reported to the DOT

A bill proposed by NYC councilman Lincoln Restler wants to use citizen enforcement to fight back against the multiple motor vehicles obstructing bike lanes. Bikers encountering violators would snap a picture of the vehicle and submit it to the department of transportation for review. If legit, the vehicle owner would then receive  a $175 ticket. The city would then give back 25% or $43.75 to the person who reported the violator.

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17 pedestrians, 4 cyclists, 14 passengers and 22 motorists died in auto accidents in NYC  during the two hottest months of the summer. Truck accidents were close to record highs while bus accidents were slightly lower than usual.

35 people died in car accidents in New York City in July and 22 in August for a total of 57 fatalities compared to respectively 51, 42, 39, 32, 43, 44, 41, 50 and 56 during the months of July and August 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. The number of fatalities was even higher this summer than what it was during the summer of 2013 before Vision Zero started.

The month of July was particularly bad with a record 35 people dying during this month. The only time since 2013 that this number of people were killed in traffic accidents was in September 2020. Since the Covid19 crisis of 2020, traffic accidents fatalities have been much higher than what they were the years before. Among those who died in July were 11 pedestrians, 3 cyclists, 7 motor vehicle passengers and 14 motor vehicle operators. The number of motor vehicle operator deaths in July reached a level never seen since the beginning of Vision Zero except again in September 2020.

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The poor maintenance of a NYC residential building caused a woman to fall to the basement of her building after a bathroom floor collapsed. The woman was injured and is now recovering in the hospital. After the accident occurred, the Department of Buildings came to the premises located on Shakespeare Avenue in the Bronx and started an investigation of the premises. They found that a lack of maintenance lead to a collapse of the portion of the bathroom floor to the basement. A partial vacate order was issued and the landlord was issued a violation for failure to maintain his property. The DOB also ordered him to hire a professional engineer to produce a report on the structural stability of the other floors of the apartment.

Other tenants are scared for their life

While the DOB focused mostly on the apartment where the accident occurred, a CBS crew went to visit the tenants on other floors and the video below shows that the entire building is in serious need of repair. Other tenants are concerned that the same accident may occur to them as well and do not feel safe in their apartments. They have been complaining to the landlord for years about the need for maintenance but the landlord has not done anything. Leeks are everywhere, bathroom ceilings are destroyed,  and when it rains, water is pouring on the stairways and in the apartment of a tenant. Doors that can not be closed so damaged they are by water, broken sink, tiles that barely hold on the walls of showers in multiple apartments visited by the tv crew show a building in total disrepair and in real need of maintenance.

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3 pedestrians are in critical condition after a drunk driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into them in Jackson Heights, Queens, NYC.

The accident occurred around 4:20 am early Saturday morning at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and 86th Street. A video surveillance shows the 3 young men aged 25, 28 and 32, chatting at the corner of the intersection of the two streets when suddenly a SUV traveling at a high rate of speed lost control of his vehicle as he was trying to pass another car and slammed into the pedestrians.

The 23 year old driver of the SUV was taken into custody and is expected to be charged with DWI.

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Truck Smart Guide NYCWhile trucks remain essential in new York City, they pose a serious risk to other road users in particular to pedestrians and cyclists.  According to statistics, 67% of  truck accidents involving a cyclist or a pedestrian result in serious injury or death.

The largest the truck, the most dangerous it is

Large blind angles can hide pedestrians and cyclists when they stand in front or on the side of a truck. Additionnally the heaviest a truck is, the longest it will take for the truck to stop.

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lithium-battery-can-be-deadly-2An e-bike battery explosion caused a deadly fire in Harlem, NYC, inside NYCHA’s Jackie Robinson Houses.

5 year old Erika Williams was sleeping in a an apartment with her dad Erik Williams and his 36 year old girlfriend Chanise Anderson when a little after 2:30 am on Wednesday morning, the lithium battery of an e-bike stored next to the apartment entrance door exploded and created a fire.

The fire and heavy smoke prevented the toddler and the girlfriend to escape while the father covered in flames ran into the hallway screaming for help. He is still in the hospital in critical condition. The 5 year old girl and the girlfriend both died. 3 dogs also died in the fire.