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 Queens personal injury

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Reckless driving  and speeding caused 6 people to die and several to be injured in multiple car accidents all over the city. On Monday early morning, around 2:00 am, a black BMW landed on the Amtrak tracks below the Henry Hudson parkway around 183rd Street. The driver lost control of the vehicle and went over the barriers of the highway. When the car landed on the tracks it exploded, killing the driver and the passenger. The police was seen at the scene investigating the accident while Amtrak published a service advisory signaling delays for the trains travelling between Pen Station and Albany.

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drunk drivingA woman whose identity was not revealed and a 20 year old boy identified as Frankely Nunez-Payano both died in drunk driving accidents in New York City this week-end. Both were passengers in cars driven by young drunk drivers. Both accidents happened minutes apart from each other.

The first accident took place in Jamaica, Queens, on Saturday night around 4:10 am.  23 year old Gilberto Cordova, was allegedly drunk when he was speeding down 112th road in Jamaica, Queens, with 5 passengers in his car. As he was near the intersection of Guy R. Brewer Blvd, he lost control of the vehicle, struck a pole and crashed into a parked van. The impact was so intense that the van jumped onto the sidewalk. All occupants were rushed to the hospital. The female passenger died from her injuries. the other 5 occupants all suffered serious injury but were in stable condition. Cordova was charged with driving while intoxicated, vehicular assault, criminal negligent homicide and vehicular manslaughter.

A few minutes later in the Bronx, another drunk driver, 19 year old Andre Hatcher, crashed his car into a truck, killing his friend, 20 year old Frankely Nunez-Payano. The 19-wheeler truck was driving east on Manida street and Oak Point Boulevard when it was T-boned by the Infiniti driven by Hatcher. The car got crushed under the truck and the passenger suffered critical injury. He later died at the hospital. The driver was taken into custody and later on charged with criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated and driving while impaired.

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A man suffered severe burns in a sidewalk explosion in Queens last week.

57 year old Barry West was heading to his T-mobile store to pay his cell phone bill when a Coned underground transformer exploded sending a ball of fire through the sidewalk grate. The man was engulfed in the flames before he was able to move to safety. He suffered second degree burns in multiple areas of his face and body and was immediately hospitalized.  The man was still in the hospital a week after the accident. He told the NY Daily News that the explosion just came from nowhere. He felt he lost a lot of skin and was in so much pain that he could not work.

A similar explosion occurred at the same location exactly one day earlier and partially destroyed the front of a pizzeria next door  (read more and see video of the accident in the NY Daily News).

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accident sceneA hit-and-run moped driver crashed into a 4 year old pedestrian and seriously injured him last Sunday in New York City. The accident occurred in the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park near the Boathouse at the end of the afternoon. 4 year old Jonathan Beauchamp was hanging in the park with his parents and other children and relatives when  dirt bike and moped riders showed up and started to do donuts.  A mope rider struck 4 year old Jonathan and fled away. The boy was rushed to the emergency room by his dad and was diagnosed with acute head trauma. He remains in critical but stable condition. The police are still looking for the moped driver.

Hit-and-run drivers get away with murder all the time in NYC

In New York City, very few hit-and-run drivers are being found by the police and even in cases resulting in serious injury, many of the hit-and-run drivers face no consequences. Less than a quarter  of hit-and-run drivers involved in accidents resulting in death or serious injuries are indeed arrested.  47 people were critically injured or died in hit-and-run accidents in New York City during the first six months of 2021 and only 11 arrests were made which represent 23% of all the serious cases.  While looking at all hit-and run accidents including those that only result in property damage only 1% of the hit and run drivers are being arrested in New York City.

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Crash Mapp of ELiot Ave and Fresh Pound IntersectionA reckless drunk driver struck a car, killing the driver and injuring the passenger yesterday in Queens NYC. 22 year old Erik Chimborazo was drunk behind the wheel when he hit 47 year old Mohammed Hossain, a Lyft driver who was driving  the final passenger of his shift before returning home to his wife and three children in Borough Park, Brooklyn. Chimborazo who is unlicensed was speeding behind the wheel of a vehicle that had no insurance and  no inspection certificate. A neighbor told the NY Daily News that the impact was so intense that Chimborazo must have been driving at a speed of 80 or 90 mph when he T-Boned the Lyft car.  Further investigation found that the driver ran a red light and had twice the limit of alcohol in his system two hours after the accident.

The accident occurred at the intersection of  Fresh Pond Road and Eliot Ave around 3:50 am on Sunday.  The driver had texted his wife 30 minutes earlier that he was coming home. Both cars occupants were transported to the hospital. Mohammed Hossain was declared dead while his passenger was treated for minor injuries. The drunk driver was also transported to the hospital for evaluation before he was arraigned. He was charged with driving a vehicle that lacked insurance and an inspection certificate, driving without a license, DUI and vehicular manslaughter.

Houssain, a very quite man who loved his family immigrated from Bangladesh 12 year ago.  He was the only provider for his wife Kulsuma Jahan and their 3 children, 14 year old Samin, 7 year old Lybia and 2 year old Labeen. His family and friends were devastated by his death.

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apartment building that got on fire in Queens NYC21 people were injured in a massive NYC apartment fire last week.  The fire started around 1:00 pm last Tuesday in an apartment  on the 6th floor of a large building located on 34th Avenue near 89th Street  in Jackson Heights, Queens. While escaping, the resident of the apartment left the door open, allowing the fire to spread through the hallways of the building that housed 150 apartments and 90 families.

No life threatening injuries but more than 200 people displaced

Up to 350 firefighters fought for 12 hours to get the blaze under control. 16 of them were injured. Two of them suffered burns and the 14 others suffered minor injuries such as strains and sprains. Among the 5 residents who suffered injuries, 4 declined to be treated and 1 was sent to the hospital. No one was reported missing. More than 200 people living in the building lost their homes and were displaced.

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location of the crashA mother of six children suffered life threatening injuries in a car accident in New York City early Tuesday morning. The accident occurred a little bit after midnight. The 32 year old victim identified as Malka Braver was riding in the back of a Honda Accord driven by a Lyft driver. As their car was crossing the intersection of Dekalb Avenue and Bedford Avenue (see Google map picture on the left) with the light in their favor, a reckless driver speeding down Dekalb Avenue in a Dodge Charger blew the red light and T-boned the back of the Lyft car. The impact was so intense that the victim got ejected from the Honda which spun around, crashed into another parked vehicle and jumped the curb to finally stop right in front a the entrance of a deli. The victim was rushed to the hospital where she is still fighting for her life. The Lyft driver and the Charger driver both suffered minor injuries and were also transported to the hospital according to the police. The driver of the Dodge Charger was identified as 22 year old Ryan Ortiz from Middletown, NY.  The car driven by Ortiz was a souped-up dodge charger with vanity plates “SCR3AM” and a wrap-around design from the horror movie Scream. Videos of the car performing donuts in the Kings Plaza Shopping Center parking lot a few hours before the accident were found on social media. Ortiz was not arrested and the investigation is ongoing. Read more in the Gothamist  .

One day earlier another young driver killed his passenger and almost killed himself in reckless Queens crash

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location of the fire accidentAn overloaded power strip might have been the cause of a gigantic fire in a New York City residential building that caused 4 people to be critically injured. The fire occurred early last Friday around 12:15 am in a residential building located on 35th Ave near Rowan Street in Flushing, Queens, NYC.  When the firefighters arrived they were able to pull a 9 year old girl, a 24 year old woman, a 32 year old woman and a 56 year old woman from their bedrooms. They were all unconscious and required CPR. All 4 were rushed to the hospital with critical injuries. The young girl suffered smoke inhalation while the 3 women were treated for burn injuries and smoke inhalation. The firefighter also saved a small hamster that is now in the hands of the Animal Care Center of New York City.  Four fire fighters also suffered minor injuries while combating the fire and were also brought to the hospital to be treated.

According to preliminary investigations by the FDNY Fire Marshals, the inferno started on the first floor and might have been caused by a bad power strip to which an air conditioning unit was plugged into

Multiple extension cords plugged in with multiple devices might have overload the outlet and sparked the fire that quickly propagated to the entire two story building. The fire marshals didn’t mention if smoke alarms were installed in the apartments or not. In New York, the law requires that all apartments be equipped  with smoke alarms. They might not have been installed or might not have been working proprely.  Someone was seen on video throwing something at the home and investigators determined it was a good Samaritan trying to alert people inside that their house was on fire.

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location of the pedestrian fatality Bronx NYCThe number of pedestrian fatalities in New York City which had significantly decreased during the coronavirus lock-down peaked back up as soon as the city started to reopen.

Yesterday night around 9:30 pm a 50 year old man who was crossing the street at the intersection of Beach Avenue and Mansion Street in Parkchester was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver.  The man was rushed to the hospital but he could not be saved.

The Police are still looking for the driver who recklessly killed the pedestrian and sped away behind the wheel of a SUV. According to the police the driver was chasing another car when the accident occured.

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collision with injuries NYCA man died in a car accident in New York City yesterday. The driver who was speeding, lost control of his vehicle and crashed into two other cars, injuring both drivers before destroying a store front. Speeding continues to be reported all over the city and despite the drastic decrease in traffic the number of speed camera tickets even increase on some days according to a recent article by Gridlock Sam.  Our hospitals are overcrowded, our emergency workers are overwhelmed and NYC drivers should slow down!

The man who died yesterday was identified as 45 year old Khairul Chowdhury. He was driving his 2008 Silver Lexus Sedan on Jamaica Avenue, Queens, yesterday morning around 5:35 am when he hit a Toyota Camry driven by a 35 year old man. The crash occurred at the intersection of  Jamaica Avenue and Van Wyck Expressway Service Road. After he hit the Toyota, the car kept going crossing into the other side of the lane of Jamaica Avenue and striking a Toyota Odyssey driven by a 55 year old woman, before crashing into a storefront. Chowdhury who lived a mile away from the car accident was rushed to the hospital but he couldn’t be saved. The two other drivers were also injured and were transported to the hospital to be treated. Read more in the NY Daily News

266 people injured in NYC car accidents last week