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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Hylan and Richard where the 3 teens died in a crash3 teenagers who were passengers in a Mustang driven by another teenager were killed in a car crash in New York City on Sunday night. The horrific accident occurred around 8:50 pm on Hylan Boulevard at the intersection of Richard Avenue in Pleasant Plain, Staten Island, NYC. The victims are Ashley Rodriguez who was planning to celebrate her sweet 16 next week, 15 year old Jessie Gil and 16 year old Fernanda Gil. All 3 were passengers in a red Ford Mustang driven by a 16 year old boy who only had a learners permit and was supposed to drive while accompanied by a licensed adult. The 3 passengers are dead and the driver remains in critical condition.

According to the SI Live the group of friends had just attended a birthday party in Tottenville and had decided to go grab snacks at a nearby store with another group of teens riding a Honda Civic. The Mustang departed the group at high speed according to witnesses.  The young driver was speeding east on Hylan Boulevard when a 47 year old diver behind the wheel of a Yukon attempting to make a left turn from Richard Avenue crashed into the side of the Mustang which then careened into a pole on the side of the road.

The driver of the Yukon was driving with a suspended license and was taken into custody while his four passengers, two women of 44 and 19 year old, a 23 year old man and an 11 year old girl were transported to the hospital. They suffered minor injuries.

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The New York block where a cyclist and two pedestrians were struckA reckless driver who tried to flee the police in Brooklyn, NYC, struck a bicyclist and two pedestrians, continued driving, struck three other pedestrians, crashed into a vehicle and then into a wall before running away with a passenger. One suspect is in custody while the other is still at large.

According to the police, two officers patrolling in Bedford-Stuyvesant saw a car with mismatched plates which is usually an indication that the car might have been stolen. They also noticed that the two people inside the car were smoking marijuana.   As they got out of the police car to talk to the driver after turning on their lights and pulling the car over, the driver of the vehicle took off.

As he was fleeing from the police, the reckless driver  first struck a cyclist and two pedestrians at the intersection of Macon Street and Ralph Avenue. He did not stop and continued speeding on Ralph Avenue. As he reached Hasley Street, the driver hit a grandmother and her grandson who were crossing the street. He then crashed into another car and careened into the wall of building. The driver and the passenger then got out of the car and ran away.

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NYC Medical Malpractice Attorneys Jeff Bloom and David LarkinOur NY Medical Malpractice attorneys Jeffrey Bloom and David Larkin settled a wrongful death case for $3 Million for the death of a man overdosed with narcotics

Our client, a man in his fifties, walked into the emergency department of his local hospital with complaints of abdominal pain.  He was dead within hours.  He left behind a wife and three grown sons.

The nurse receiving the telephone order from the pain management specialist transcribed it incorrectly and raised the dose for Dilaudid to a deadly amount

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Senior pedestrian zonesIn New York City,  45% of the pedestrians who die in a car accident are seniors while they make up only 15% of the total population of the city.

10 years ago senior pedestrian fatalities represented 33% of all pedestrian fatalities, but their numbers are gradually growing and as a result senior pedestrian fatalities are representing a higher percentage of  all pedestrian fatalities than they used to.

The DOT wants to address this problem and  yesterday, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez visited a senior center in Washington Heights to announced the release of an extensive study about senior pedestrian fatalities  and a plan to prevent them.

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Two 13 year old boys who skipped school last Friday and went to the beach instead, died after drowning in Jamaica Bay. The tragedy took place last Friday, 13 year old Daniel Persaud and his best friend Ryan Wong skipped the last day of school and joined a group of friends at Beach 121 in Broad Channel.  The 5 teenagers were seen by fishermen playing in and out of the water a little bit before noon. According to witnesses, Daniel and Ryan were standing on a sand bar when they got submerged in water.

The area is known to be dangerous and signs warn visitors not to swim in the water because of dangerous currents and sudden drop-offs. The two boys did not know how to swim and were swept away by the current. Their friends called 911 and a team of 9 rescuers were sent to the beach but it was too late. One of the boys was found pretty quickly and was still alive when rescuers pulled him out of the water. However he did not survive his injuries and died a few hours later.  it took rescuers another 45 minutes to find the body of the other boy. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

The dad was already mourning his son when he received the school’s notification that his son was absent

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Andrew_Gounardes wrote the speed camera billsIn an effort to reduce an increase in fatal car accidents in New York City, legislators in Albany have signed a deal to renew the existing cameras program and to have them running 24/7 instead of the current schedule of 6:00 am to 10:00 pm.

Safety advocates were pleased that the deal was signed and the new amended bill was on its way to be delivered to Governor Hochul and signed.  The signature of the bill allows the speed cameras program to be extended for 3 years. However the deal is a watered down version of the bill proposed by Senator Andrew Gournades (picture) who originally included several other propositions such as:

  • Requiring the DMV to notify car insurance companies about any car accumulating five or more speed camera tickets
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The intersection where Lin was fatally struckAnother pedestrian died in a crash in New York City on Saturday after the driver of a van failed to yield to her

62 year old Tian-Rong Lin was crossing Seward Avenue in the Bronx when a van making a left turn from Olmstead Avenue struck her. The accident occurred on Saturday morning around 11:00 am. The driver, 54 year old Ramon Cedeno-Ortiz, stayed at the scene of the accident. He was charged with failure to exercise due care and failure to yield to a pedestrian.

Drivers rarely charged when they kill a pedestrian

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Location of the deadly MTA Bus AccidentA pedestrian was fatally struck by a MTA Bus in Staten Island, NYC, last Friday early morning and the bus driver never stopped.

69 year old Patrick Varriale, a New Springville resident and the the electronic media services division director for the American Federation of Musicians of US and Canada, an instrumental musicians union, was crossing the intersection of Forrest Hill Road and Platinum Avenue in Staten Island around 4:40 AM on Friday when he was struck by a MTA bus driver who never stopped and left the victim dying in the street.

The intersection is a block away from the MTA Yukon Bus Depot and after investigation, the police found out that the bus driver who hit the victim was a 52 year old man who was travelling eastbound on Forest Hill Road. He hit the victim as he was making a left turn onto Platinum Avenue. The man was driving the SIM 10 route bus.

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Speed cameras prevent crashes59% of all deadly crashes in New York City occur during hours when speed cameras are turned off and speeding is the number one factor of car accident fatalities in New York City with 4 out of 5 fatal crashes caused by speed according to a new report recently published by Transportation Alternatives.

Speed cameras in New York City have proven to be among the most effective tools to address speeding and reduce car accidents.  The speed camera program that was implemented in 2014 in New York City is not regulated by  New York City but by New York State in Albany.  Albany not only limits the number of speed cameras but also their location (only in school zones and at few intersections) and their hours of operation (Monday to Friday from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm).   Mayor Adams wants the city to have control over the speed camera program and two days ago, the NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner, Ydanis Rodriguez reiterated Adams’ call on lawmakers in Albany to hand over control of the city’s speed camera program (see article in the Gothamist).

Both the NYC DOT and street safety activists are asking for speed camera to be active 24/7.  Previous studies effectuated by the DOT show that as soon as the cameras are turned off, speeding comes back and that 31% of all crash fatalities take place in a school zone area at a time when cameras are turned off.

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2 hard hats died during the first quarter of 2022 and 110 of them were injured while working on construction sites in New York City. Both fatalities were fall accidents, both occurred in Brooklyn and both were preventable.

The first fatality occurred on February 11. Angel Pilataxi, a father of 3 children and 3 step children fell to his death at a construction site located at 124 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn. According to the DOB investigation,  the worker was taking measurements on the edge of the roof on the eighth floor when the accident happened. He was not using a safety harness and fell over the parapet. He was found unconscious lying on the second floor terrace. He did not survive. Investigators found that the worker and a co-worker who was working with him at the time of the accident not only did not have a site safety training card but also did not receive any site-specific safety training and did not participate in a pre-shit meeting in the morning. At the time of the accident a full stop order was issued and the DOB issued a violation failure to safeguard persons and property affected by the construction operations.

The second fatal accident occurred on a construction site located at 295 St John’s Place on March 21st. A rigging foreman who was installing a suspended scaffolding go caught between the fire stairs and the scaffold, lost his balance and fell fifteen feet onto a metal fence. He died from his injuries. A full stop work was issued and the DOB also issued a violation for failure to safeguard person and property affected by construction.