wrongful death NYC

Published on: September 8, 2021

Pedestrian found dead in his home one day after being struck by a car and vanishing from the accident scene

A SUV driver struck a pedestrian in Brooklyn, NYC, and while he remained at the scene of the accident, the pedestrian who was hit, vanished from the accident scene. When EMS arrived, they looked for him but could not find him. The accident occurred in Bath Beach. The SUV driver was making a right turn from Bath Avenue onto Bay Parkway when he struck the pedestrian. He remained at the scene of the accident and was not charged. The next day, the police were called for someone injured in a house and found the 52 year old pedestrian dead in his apartment. They found out that the pedestrian stumbled home and suffered a massive head injury that killed him. Read more in the NY Daily News

While still on a declining trendline, over the past 8 years, NYC pedestrian fatalities have been on the rise this year compared to the previous years. 66 pedestrians died between January 1st and July 31st this year compared to 57 during the same period of last year and 57 during the same period of 2018.

Spike of pedestrian fatalities in New York City

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Published on: September 8, 2021

Pedestrian fatally struck by MTA bus in the Bronx

By GGCRBHS&M

A pedestrian crossing the street in the Bronx was fatally struck by a MTA bus last night around 8:30 pm. The bus driver was making a left turn at the intersection of Johnson Avenue and Kappock Street in New York City, when he struck a 68 year old woman whose identity has not been revealed by the police.

The victim was run over by the rear wheels of the bus and died at the scene of the accident.

The tragedy occurred in a residential area of Spuyten Duyvil where bus drivers should expect pedestrians and drive cautiously. According to officials, the driver has been withheld from further service and will have to take a fitness for duty test. (Read more in the NY Daily News)

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Published on: September 2, 2021

Record number of motorists dying in car accidents in New York City during the month of July

By GGCRBHS&M

8 pedestrians, 3 cyclists, 4 motor vehicle passengers, and 13 motor vehicle drivers died in auto accidents in New York City during the month of July. Usually, monthly pedestrian deaths account for the largest share of the road fatalities in New York City but since the pandemic started, monthly motorist deaths often account for the biggest part of the motor vehicle accident fatalities in the city. As a result of this increase in motorist fatalities, since the end of the lockdown, the number of auto deaths was above 20 for 9 months out of 14. As a comparison, in 2019, it was above 20 only twice during the entire year and in 2018, only once during the entire year. Speed and recklessness have been a factor in many of these deaths as well as an increased amount of New Yorkers travelling by car instead of public transportation because of Covid19 fears.

NYC traffic accident deaths in the month of July reached their highest since July 2014 with 28 fatalities. Since June last year, road fatalities have been out of control in New York City. For the 4th consecutive month, auto accident fatalities remained above 20 and significantly above the trendline. These high numbers of fatalities had not been seen since 2013 before Vision Zero started.

Traffic accident injuries lower than before the pandemic

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Published on: August 26, 2021

Out of control driver charged with manslaughter after killing 6 year old girl

By GGCRBHS&M

A 6 year old pedestrian was killed by a reckless driver in New York City yesterday afternoon.

Little Hiromi Tami was crossing the street with her mother near the intersection of 12th Avenue and 67th Street in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn when 30 old year old Qiuhua Zhu sped into oncoming traffic, blew a red light and slammed into the little girl. He then sped away, circled the block, came back and was arrested by the police. All 3 of them were living in the neighborhood where the accident took place.

Mother devastated by the accident

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Published on: August 25, 2021

NYC Construction accident fatalities at their highest during the second quarter of the year while injuries remain lower than usual

By GGCRBHS&M

A total of 5 construction workers lost their life on the job in New York City between April 1st and June 31st . Since 2015, this is only the second time that construction fatalities recorded by the NYC Department of Buildings during the second quarter reached such a high number. The other time was in 2019. 2 fatalities occurred in Brooklyn, one in Manhattan, one in the Bronx and one in Queens. 3 of the fatalities were falls and two were related to mechanical construction equipment. The last two weeks of May were particularly deadly. On May 19th, at around 8:20 am, two workers were cleaning debris on the 5th floor of a construction site located at 20 Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx. They loaded a new elevator car with the debris, got in the car with the debris and proceeded to head downstairs. The elevator had a mechanical failure and the car fell from the fifth floor. One of the workers was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident and the second was injured and transported to the hospital. Three days later in Queens, a deadly accident occurred when two workers were instructed to use an extension ladder from the sixth floor chimney shaft to the roof. One of the workers said he heard a “crush sound” as he was at the second or third step of the ladder and turned around, he didn’t see anything so he kept going and took the ladder by himself to the roof. His colleague was found dead almost two hours later on the second floor. He had fell in an elevator shaft. 5 days later on May 27th, a hard hat who was working on a roof during a demolition job, fell to his death at a construction site located at 1045 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. Two other workers died earlier in April, one of them came in contact with a live wire and was fatally electrocuted on a Manhattan construction site located at 555 West 22nd Street and the other one fell to his death from a dangerous scaffolding installation at a construction site located at East 53rd Street in Brooklyn. These recent fatalities were so alarming that the DOB organized a massive sweep of all major construction sites in the city and temporarily closed hundreds of them for not respecting safety standards. (see previous blog).

Falls remain the number one cause of fatal construction accidents in New York City. Again during Q2, 3 of the 5 fatalities were fall. Most of the time fall fatalities are the result of negligence by the contractor and could have been prevented. Fatalities often occur on sites that have a history of violations and complaints, for example, the construction site located at 1200 East 53rd Street in Brooklyn has so far recorded a total of 30 complaints, 50 DOB Violations including 8 open and 40 OATH/ECB violations including an open one for failing to notify the DOB after the death of the worker. A stop work order is still active at this location. The site located at 45-18 Court Square in Queens previously logged in 53 complaints, 54 DOB violations including 3 open and 39 OATH/ECB violations including 11 open. Before the deadly accident occurred at this site, the contractor was fined for failing to safeguard all persons and property affected by construction operations. This violation is still open. The same goes for the site located at 1045 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn which as of Today has a stop work order with 20 OATH/ECB violations open, most of them of the highest severity. Hard hats working on construction sites that are unsafe have a much higher risk to die in a construction accident.

The number of construction workers injured on the job was a little lower than usual during the second quarter. A total of 144 workers suffered injury in construction accidents in New York City during the 3-month period of April, May, June 2021 compared to respectively, 68, 150, 233, 170, 171 and 134 during the same period of 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015. Last year the numbers were lower because of the Covid19 lockdown and we can not compare them to any other year. Manhattan had the most injuries, followed by Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.

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Published on: August 20, 2021

Truck traffic in New York City: a new plan to prevent accidents and improve freight network

By GGCRBHS&M

Big trucks are dangerous in dense cities like New York. While truck accidents only account for a small percentage of all crashes in New Yok City, they are often deadly or result in severe injuries to pedestrians or cyclists.

The city recently published a plan to move freight in a safer and more sustainable way around the city

E-commerce drastically changed the way New Yorkers are getting their goods delivered and led to a significant increase of trucks in the city while at the same time the city is trying to be more sustainable and encourage people biking, walking or using public transportation.

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Published on: August 2, 2021

Three people died in two motorcycle accidents and one car crash caused by speeding

By GGCRBHS&M

Two men died in a two separate motorcycle accidents in Brooklyn, NYC, this week-end. A woman who was a passenger in one of the accidents is in critical condition. The first accident took place on the Williamsburg Bridge on Saturday night, around 9:40 pm. 48 year old Khayyam Jackson was riding his motorcycle at high speed going toward Brooklyn. As he was trying to pass a car he rear-ended it and as a result lost control of his bike and careened into a pillar of the bridge. The impact was so strong that the motorcycle driver was killed in the accident. The driver of the car remained at the scene of the accident and was not charged.

A few hours later, early Sunday morning, around 2:15 am, 30 year old David Fuller-Gist was riding his motorcycle with a 24 year female passenger on Atlantic Avenue in Crown Heights when he lost control of his bike. He crashed into a pillar of the elevated Long Island Rail Road tracks at the intersection of Troy Ave. Both riders were rushed to the hospital. David passed away and the female passenger was in critical condition. (Read more in the NY Daily News )

Speeding BMW driver kills 77 year old woman on the Van Wick Expressway

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Published on: July 28, 2021

NYC Car Accident Fatalities are Back at Pre-Vision Zero Levels While Crash Injuries Remain Lower Than Usual During The First Semester of 2021

By GGCRBHS&M

A total of 118 people including 39 motorists, 16 motor vehicle passengers, 5 cyclists and 58 pedestrians lost their life in crashes in New York City during the first six months of 2021. This is the highest number of traffic accident fatalities during the first semester since 2013 when 121 people died in crashes. During the 7 following years, after Vision Zero was launched in 2014, auto fatalities declined and oscillated around 100 during the first six months of the year with their lowest at 84 deaths during the first semester of 2018.

New York City auto accident injuries were lower than usual during the first semester of 2021. Since the beginning of the pandemic last year, less people have been on the road in the city which might explain the decline in injuries. A total of 22,898 people were injured. Among them were 10,975 motorists, 6,492 passengers, 2,303 cyclists and 3,128 pedestrians.

Pedestrian fatalities were at their highest since 2014 last semester with 58 deaths compared to respectively, 37, 51, 49, 49, 56, 34, 60 and 72 during the first six months of 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.It is very disappointing that after 7 years of multiple Vision Zero initiatives, the number of pedestrian fatalities is back at its 2014 level. Are more pedestrians dying because the streets are still less busy than usual and more people are speeding or driving in a reckless manner?

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Published on: July 23, 2021

Scooter rider dies in dump truck accident in NYC

By GGCRBHS&M

A scooter rider was fatally struck by a dump truck in Brooklyn, NYC, yesterday morning. The accident took place at the dangerous intersection of Canton Avenue and East 7th Street in Kensington, Brooklyn. The scooter rider that was killed yesterday was identified as 27 year old Frederico Zaput Palsa. The young man was working at the time of the accident, making a delivery for the pan-Asian restaurant Dao Palate in Park Slope. The truck driver, a 42 year old man, remained at the scene of the accident and so far has not been charged.

Both the dump truck and the scooter were trying to go around a double-parked car

According to the preliminary report of the Police, the scooter rider and the truck driver were both going East on Canton Avenue, the collision occurred as both the scooter and the truck were trying to go around a double-parked car. Zaput Palax suffered a critical head injury and died at the scene of the accident. His 21 year old brother, Alfonso was heartbroken. He told the News that he had already lost another brother to Covid19 last year. Frederico was the father of two sons and one daughter who live in Guatemala.

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Published on: July 20, 2021

More fatalities and injuries in NYC car accidents related to speed

By GGCRBHS&M

Two people were killed and two others were injured in car accidents related to speed in New York City these last days. Yesterday night, 34 year old Joseph Edlawn, was speeding North on the Harlem River Drive when he lost control of his vehicle while attempting to take the East 125th Exit at high speed. He was on the ramp leading down to 125th Street when he hit the curb violently. The car flipped over and rolled over several times before landing on the roof. The driver was not wearing his seatbelt and was ejected from the car. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. A 28 year old woman who was a passenger wearing a seatbelt only suffered minor scrapes. (Read more in the New York Post)

On Saturday morning around 3:30 am a man behind the wheel of Maserati was speeding on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the pole of the elevated train line at the intersection of Rochester Avenue in Crown Heights. The car flipped in the air and split in two before catching fire. Firefighters ran to the rescue. A man who is presumed to be the driver died at the scene of the accident and another man who was presumably the passenger was rushed to the hospital with critical injuries. (Read more in the NY Daily News)

Injuries and death related to speed are on the rise in New York City since last year. According to the most recent data, NYPD collision data, unsafe speed was a contributing factor in 450 NYC traffic accidents that resulted in injury or death during the month of June. As a comparison during the same month, distracted driving, failure to yield-the-right-of-way, and following too closely were respectively the contributing factor in 2,850, 788 and 773 crashes that resulted in injury or death.

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