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 wrongful death NYC

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FDNY rescuing children in fire caused by Ion lithium battery18 children were injured after a fire erupted in an unlicensed daycare located in Queens. The fire was caused by a defective lithium-ion battery that exploded in the basement.

Firefighters were called yesterday afternoon around 2pm for a fire in a basement located at 147-07 72 Drive in Queens, NYC. When they arrived on location, the basement was filled with heavy fire and smoke. They removed 18 children from the building, most of them on the first floor and one of them in the basement. They found out that an illegal daycare was operating on the first floor.  Most children suffered minor injuries and did not require to be hospitalized. One of them was critically injured and still remains in the hospital. Two adults also suffered injury in the fire.

A neighbor took care of the children as parents were alerted and asked to come pick up their young kids. The fire was controlled in 45 minutes.

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traffic fatalities map NYC16 children were killed in crashes in New York City last year according to a report recently published by Transportation Alternatives.  This is the highest number of child road fatalities in the city since Vison Zero started in 2014. 

Globally a total of 255 people were killed in traffic accidents in the city in 2022 compared to 275 in 2021. After last year this is the second highest number of road deaths in the city since Vision Zero started.

While Vision Zero studies clearly identified areas were safety improvements were needed, the city has left many of them unaddressed and as a result people continue to die. The numbers speak for themselves with 33% of all fatalities and 44% of pedestrian fatalities occurring in what Vision Zero calls “priority corridors”. These dangerous areas which have now been a priority for the last 10 years represent only 7% of all city streets. Fixing them proprely could lead to a significant reduction of traffic fatalities in the city.

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The New York City hospital where the deadly medical error occurredA mother about to give birth died from medical malpractice in a New York City Hospital.  On July 2020, Sha Asia Temple, a 26 year old pregnant woman was at Woodhull Medical Center about to give birth to her daughter. Dr Dmitry Shelchkov, the anesthesiologist who was in charge of giving her the epidural inserted the catheter to deliver the anesthesia 13 inches deep in her back instead of the recommended 4 inches and administered a full dose of anesthesia neglecting to first administer a test dose and check on the patient before administering the full dose. As a result the anesthesia liquid was injected into the cerebrospinal fluid. The patient complained that she could not breath anymore and died shortly after. According to the federal hospital inspection report, a doctor who rushed to the rescue screamed at Dr. Schelchkov “I can’t believe this is happening again!”. Sha Asia Temple died but her baby, Khloe, survived.

The causes of the death of Ms. Temple were only recently made public and the investigation report indicates that over the two years preceding the death of Ms. Temple, 6 patients in  labor at Woodhull Medical Center “suffered adverse outcomes related to the administration of anesthesia” and Dr Shlchkov was involved in most of them. The same errors of pushing the epidural  needle too deep and mixing the anesthesia with cerebrospinal fluid as well as not proceeding to a test before administrating the full dose were reported. Despite the obvious pattern, the hospital did not take any measures to monitor the doctor who was finally stripped of his medical license in 2021.

Epidural complications are rare and while epidural complications started to occur regularly at Woodhull Medical Hospital, the system was so dysfunctional that cases went unreported. It took the death of a mother for the administrators of the hospital to notice the pattern.

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children car accident prevention programCar accidents are the number one cause of death for young children in New York and in the US. According to a recent study, the likelihood of children getting injured or killed by cars in New York City is much higher in school areas than in other areas of the city. Statistics show that there are 57% more auto accidents and 25% more injuries per mile in streets near schools than in other streets in the city.

Not only to reduce these types of accidents but also to provide children with safe outdoor spaces for activities, less polluted air and a safer area for arrival and dismissal, schools can apply with the DOT to get a street adjacent to the school closed to traffic during school days. However, so far the program has not been really popular with schools. Streets safety advocate say that the difficult application process is the main cause of this low popularity.

Free webinar to launch the new School Street Toolkit

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The intersection where Fruchter was struck by the car

Norman Fruchter died from his injuries after being struck by a car near his home earlier this month. Street safety activists as well as grieving family members and friends gathered yesterday night in Bay Ridge’s Owls Head Park to honor the life of  the legendary education reformer and civil right activist. The vigil was also attended by Senator Andrew Gounardes, Comptroller Brad Lander and Council Member Justin Brannan.

The driver who killed Fruchter was backing up the wrong way

Norman Fruchter died on January 4th after two weeks of pain and suffering. The accident occurred on December 22nd. Fruchter was crossing 68th Street from Owls Head Park to get to Bliss Terrace where he lives, when he was struck by a careless driver who was speeding in reverse the wrong way on 68th street. The driver backed up over him and then allowed the car to roll forward, striking the pedestrian again.

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SST new cardNew York City construction workers and their supervisors who are working on large or complex construction sites will be legally required to have a Site Safety Training Card issued by the NYC DOB Training Connect Platform.

These cards are equipped with a chip and can be scanned to validate their authenticity. This new legal requirement will take effect on February 1st 2023. Workers who have a SST card issued before January 1st 2022 have to contact the facility that provided them with training and ask them to replace their card with a new card that can only be issued through the NYC DOB Training Connect Platform.

Since  2017, after a peak in construction accident fatalities in New York City, a new construction law was adopted in an effort to reduce construction workers injuries and fatalities. The law  requires every hard hat working on a New York City construction site to attend site safety training classes and to carry a card attesting that they did it.  Unfortunately, while every worker is supposed to sit in classrooms for a certain amount of hours and learn about site safety, some unscrupulous contractors didn’t want to allow their workers to spend so much time sitting in classes and just issued fake cards to them. Other workers got fake cards from unscrupulous individuals and unauthorized course providers started to proliferate issuing invalid certificates to workers.

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location of the fatal pedestrian accident in ManhattanA 20 year old pedestrian died after she was struck by a racing hit and run  driver sending her barreling toward a MTA Bus that also struck her. The accident occurred last Thursday around 6:30 pm at the intersection of Third Avenue and 96th Street (see Google Map picture on the left). A witness who was working near by said the impact was so loud that she could heard it. The bus driver stayed at the scene of the accident but the driver of the car that hit her, a black sedan, never stopped. The police are still looking for the driver. The victim was rushed to the hospital but the injuries were so bad that she could not be saved. (read more in the NY Daily News)

Two more pedestrians killed earlier during the week

A senior pedestrian was killed as she was crossing the street in Lower Manhattan, last Monday morning. The accident occurred around 9:30 am. An 83 year old woman was crossing Lafayette Street when the driver of a pick up truck who was making a left from White Street onto Lafayette struck her. The 35 year old driver remained at the scene of the accident and so far has not been charged. A certified nurse assistant who happened to drive by the scene of the accident told the NY Daily news that the victim was too injured for emergency care. Other witnesses mentioned blood everywhere on the sidewalk.  Paramedics still rushed the victim to the hospital but she could not be saved.

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location of the deadly crash on the Cross Bronx expresswayA car driver died in a fiery NYC crash that occurred in the Mount Even section of the Cross Bronx Expressway, underneath University Avenue, around 12:30 am on Monday night.

According to media, 49 year old Shelly Vilsaint from Bayonne, New Jersey, was driving her 2019 Range Rover west bound of the Cross Bronx Expressway in the middle lane when she rear-ended a tractor trailer contracted by the U.S. Postal Service.  Both drivers got out of their vehicles to talk.

The accident was a minor fender-bender for which usually the NYPD does not respond anymore but the woman insisted on waiting for the police. The driver of the truck suggested they pull over but she refused. Both got back in their vehicles and shortly after another tractor trailer rear-ended the Range Rover. The car was crushed between the two trucks and Shelly Vilsaint died at the scene of the accident.

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location of the fatal pedestrian accident in the RockawaysA 64 year old pedestrian was fatally struck by a car as he was crossing Seagirt Boulevard near Beach 31st Street in Far Rockaways, Queens, NYC, on Saturday  around 6:50 pm

Seagirt Boulevard is notoriously dangerous  and multiple crashes occurred on the 6-lane Boulevard in the past. Since 2019 one motorist died and 90 people were injured in crashes – including 19 pedestrians and 7 cyclists – on Seagirt Boulevard between Beach 9th Street and Rockaway Parkway. Speeding is so common that in 2019, one of the speed cameras installed on Seagirt Boulevard had the highest yearly amount of tickets recorded of all the speed cameras of New York City. Despite  this sad record it took the DOT until last September to announce that Seagirt Boulevard will finally be subjected to a road diet. (Read more about the accident in the NY Daily News)

Another pedestrian, father of 12 children, was killed by a hit and run driver in Manhattan on Sunday morning around 5:45 am

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location of the tractor trailer truck accidentA cyclist was killed in a hit-and-run tractor trailer accident in New York City on Thanksgiving day. The victim was riding her  bike East on Liberty Avenue near the intersection of the Van Wick Expressway Service Road in Queens, NYC when she was struck by a tractor trailer truck making a left turn onto the Van Wick Expressway Service Road.

The victim, a 43 year old woman, was knocked down from her bicycle, and fell under the truck where she got trapped.  She was then dragged several feet by the truck. The truck driver never stopped. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

The truck driver who was behind the wheel of a 2014 Kenworth T8 Series tractor trailer truck is a 48 -year old man who was later on identified by the police. The accident is still being investigated by the police. The intersection of Liberty Avenue and Van Wick Expressway is extremely dangerous, especially for people on micro mobility devices.

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