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 truck accident nyc

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5,569 people suffered personal injury in 20,551 traffic accidents in New York City last May. Among them were 2,534 motorists, 1,755 passengers, 430 cyclists and 850 pedestrians.

While looking at past statistics,  we notice a seasonal factor that causes the number of crash injuries to always increase during the month of May compared to the previous months of  February, March and April. Last May the auto accident injuries in New York City increased to a record number.

In May 2013, before Vision Zero, 4,988 people suffered injuries in NYC crashes.  Then the Vision Zero program started and the number of crash injuries declined to 4,621 in May 2014. It increased again slightly to 4,788 in May 2015 but stayed below the Pre-Vision Zero number of injuries recorded in May 2013. In May 2016, it peaked above 5000 and never went back below that level for the last 3 years. 5,415 crash injuries were recorded in May 2016 and 5,314 in May 2017.

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Sanitation Salvage, one of the biggest New York trash haulers has a history of fatal accidents. The company was all over the news recently after one of their truck drivers killed two people in less than 6 months and lied about one of the person he killed pretending it was a homeless man while it was an off-the book worker.

Propublica and Voice of America took an in depth look at how the company is running its business and they recently published the result of their investigation.

Ruthless brothers

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Thankfully nobody was injured or killed in another NYC accident involving a garbage truck belonging to a private company. On Saturday morning, 40 year old Anthony Castaldo was drunk behind the wheel of his garbage truck. He was driving on 60th Street between 19th Street and 20th Street in Borough Park, Brooklyn, when he lost control of his vehicle, slammed into 8 cars, then a tree before ending up in the front yard of a private property. He tried to run away on foot but he was quickly caught by the police. He was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, drunken and reckless driving and resisting arrest. Castaldo was immediately suspended by his employer, Viking Sanitation, a private company with a garage in Bath Beach.

A month ago, a 78 year old woman had her leg crushed by a private garbage truck in Brooklyn (see previous blog). Two month ago a pedestrian was killed by another private garbage truck driver. The driver had killed another person with his truck 6 months before but was still behind the wheel (see previous blog).

Private carting companies are responsible for the deaths of 43 pedestrians between 2010 and 2017.  They have a terrible reputation, forcing drivers to work extended hours and cover large geographical zones. How many innocent people will still suffer terrible injuries or die until the City does something to strengthen the regulations for these reckless companies?

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MTA BX21 busA pickup truck crashed into a MTA bus injuring 13 bus passengers in the Bronx, NYC. The crash occurred on  Friday afternoon around 1:20 pm. 25 passengers  were on board of the Bx21 MTA bus. As it was making a stop at E. 180th St and Morris Park Ave, it got rear-ended by a pickup truck. The impact was so intense that 13 bus passengers suffered personal injury.  11 passengers were transported to the hospital to be treated. Among them, 6 were seriously injured. Two other passengers who were also injured refused medical attention. The driver suffered from lower back pain. The police are still investigating the cause of the accident. The pickup driver wasn’t arrested.

Read more in the NY Daily News

Picture: Courtesy of Wikipedia

 

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Location of the garbage truck accident in BrooklynA private garbage truck struck and seriously injured a 78 year old woman who was crossing the street yesterday in New York City . The hauling truck that belongs to MIST Entreprise was making a left turn from East Fourth Street onto 18th Ave in Kensington, Brooklyn, when it hit the pedestrian. The accident occurred around 11:00 am. Witnesses saw the victim being pinned under the wheel of the truck. She was screaming and her leg was completely mangled.  The 78 year old woman was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries.  The driver of the truck stayed at the scene of the accident and so far hasn’t been charged.

KILLING MACHINES

The truck that crashed into the pedestrian has a history of reckless driving. According to city records, over the last two years, the truck was cited 5 times for running red lights.  Privater garbage truck haulers have a very bad reputation in New York City. Drivers are forced to drive long hours and cover large routes, making them prone to reckless driving.  Between 2010 and 2017, 43 New Yorkers died after being struck by private carting companies’garbage trucks. Organized labor believes that the Business Integrity Commission that regulates them is not doing enough to prevent this carnage. Not even a month ago another elderly resident from the Bronx was fatally struck by a private garbage truck. Police investigated the accident and discovered that the driver had previously fatally ran over a colleague with his truck 6 months before. He lied to the police about it and was still allowed to drive without being charged. (see previous blog).

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In a previous post we mentioned that a pedestrian was fatally struck by a garbage truck belonging to Sanitation Salvage two weeks ago in the Bronx. Leon Clark, a man in his 70ies who was living in Adams Houses was walking on E. 152nd St. near Jackson Ave in Morrisiana when he was fatally struck by a private garbage truck driven by 33 year old Sean Spence. It is the second time in less than 6 months that Spence killed a pedestrian while driving his truck.

On November 7, Spence was driving his truck when he fatally ran over 21 year old Mouctar Diallo, an off-the books employee who was helping him. Diallo was standing on the the steps leading to the passenger’s door when he lost  his grip,  fell under the truck’s rear wheels and died. Spence initially lied to the police and claimed that the victim was a crazy homeless man who tried to jumped on the side of his truck.

Sanitation Salvage has a history of safety violations

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location of truck and bicycle accident on Webster AveA cyclist died after he was hit by a truck that never stopped. The accident occurred at the intersection of Webster Ave and the ramp of the Cross Bronx Expressway in the Tremont section of the Bronx.  The bicyclist was riding to the right side of  a white box truck when the truck made a right turn to get on the expressway ramp.  The truck hit the cyclist but never stopped. He just continued on his way onto the ramp and headed south toward I-95 New Jersey.  According to witnesses the cyclist who was in his twenties was knocked off his bicycle. He was rushed to the hospital but he couldn’t be saved. He died there from his injuries.

Sparse and dangerous unprotected bike lanes offer little protection to Bronx Bicyclists

Too little is being done in the Bronx  to prevent bicycle accidents. Webster Avenue was redesigned in 2012 to implement “Select Bus Service” but  bike lanesSouth Bike Lane Gand Concourse implementation were not part of this re-design.

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NYC Fatal traffic accidents were at their lowest last January. During the first month of 2018, 11 people died in a traffic accident compared to respectively 18, 17, 13, 21 and 28 in January 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. The only months when the number of monthly fatal auto accidents in New York City was this low was in March 2016 and in May 2017. The monthly number of traffic deaths never went below 11 in the city.

While traffic fatalities have been on a declining trend since Vision Zero started, the opposite occurred with traffic injuries. They have been on a rising trend. However recent numbers seem to show some signs of stabilization.  4,351 people were injured in a car accident in New York City in January 2018. That’s a little bit less than the 4,383 people injured in January 2017 but more than respectively the 3,654, 3,449, 3,899 and 3,993 people injured in January 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.

Globally, traffic accidents continue to increase in New York City. Despite being lower than most previous months, the number of traffic accidents in New York City reached 17,762 in January 2018 compared to respectively 17,126, 17,798, 15,977, 16,597, 15,599 in January 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. January  is usually a month during which traffic accidents are lower than other months. The number of accidents is usually below the trend line in January.

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accident sceneAn alleged drunk truck driver crashed into the car of a pizza deliveryman in Brooklyn, NYC. Thankfully the deliveryman had gotten out of his car seconds before the crash. The accident occurred around 3:30 am last Thursday morning in Williamsburg. The deliveryman had just parked his car on Borinquen Place near Rodney Street. As he just exited it, a white box truck slammed into it. The truck driver who was allegedly drunk previously struck a fence at Public School 319 on Rodney Street and was speeding away from this first accident. He then struck the car, took down a tree and ended into a scaffolding structure causing it to partially collapse. Read more in the NY Daily News

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Auto accident deaths NYC 2017In 2017, 102 pedestrians, 20 cyclists, 24 passengers and 63 drivers died in auto accidents in New York City compared to respectively 134, 18, 17 and 54 in 2016.

According to the traffic collision data released monthly by the NYPD, a total of 209 people died in traffic accidents in 2017 compared to a total of 223 in 2016 and 286 in 2013 before Vision Zero was launched. This is the lowest number of motor vehicle accident fatalities ever recorded since the city started to create statistics in 1910.

The decline in traffic fatalities is mostly due to the decline in pedestrian deaths that went down by 39% from 168 in 2013 before Vision Zero to 102 in 2017. During that same time fatal bicycle accidents almost doubled going from 11 to 20. Passenger deaths stayed almost stable from 23 to 24 and motorists fatalities declined by 25%.