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 Posted in Auto Accidents

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fatal dwi car accident location in Queens NYCA police officer who was directing traffic away from a car accident was killed by a driver who was drunk, high on marijuana and who was driving with a suspended license.

The accident took place around 2:00 am on Tuesday morning on the Long Island Expressway  near Francis Lewis Boulevard in Fresh Meadow. 32 year old Jessica Beauvais had just left a studio where she had been recording a podcast and during which she was drinking and vaping.  She was speeding and did not slow down as she passed the traffic cones and flashing lights that the highway police had previously installed to signal the previous accident scene. She crashed into NYPD Officer Anastasios Tsakos and send him flying 100 feet. The impact was so strong that her windshield was smashed and the front of her car destroyed. She did not even stop. She continued to drive dragging an orange cone from the scene under her car. She was arrested by police a few exits later and asked the police: what did I do? She later apologized.

Beauvais who has a teenage son and is his sole provider is facing up to 15 years in prison. She is facing 13 counts including  vehicular manslaughter, DWI, reckless driving, leaving the scene of a fatal accident, driving with a suspended license.  Several other NYPD officers at the scene just had the time to run away from her destructive path but Tsakos died.

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1,393 pedestrians, 695 bicyclists, 2,564 passengers and 4,332 motorists were injured in car accidents in NYC during the first 3 months of the year compared to respectively 2,206, 715, 3,306 and 5,032 during the same period a year earlier. After a peak in the first quarter of 2019 the number of  injuries sustained in crashes in the city declined in 2020 and reached a record low in 2021.

car accident injuries NYC Q1 2021
New York car accident fatalities followed the same trend. 22 pedestrians, 1 cyclist, 5 passengers and 10 motorists lost their life in traffic accidents in New York during the first quarter of 2021 compared to respectively 26, 1, 4 and 10 during the first 3 months of 2020.

New York car accident fatalities Q1 2021
In a city that has not yet returned to its usual level of activity, it make sense that less people would be injured or killed in crashes.

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child in carCar accidents are one of the leading causes of  injuries and deaths for children. In the US, 636 children under 12 year old died and 97,000 were injured in car crashes in 2018.

From researching child restraint performance to analyzing teenager behavior behind the wheel and testing safety of future autonomous vehicles, the Center for Child Injury Prevention Study  has been constantly researching and advocating for better ways to protect children on the road.

Among their most recent studies,  researchers at CChIPS  have been looking at the validity of  recommendations for rear-facing Child Restraint System (CRS) using newly available real car accident injury data.

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tweet about pedestrian crushed by car in NYCOne day after a pedestrian died after being hit by a car on a Manhattan sidewalk and 5 other people were injured after a car jumped the curb in Brooklyn (see previous blog), another NYC pedestrian died  after being struck by a car jumping the curb in Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, NYC.

Volf Ferdman, a 97 year-old decorated World War II veteran and beloved grand father was killed by a 79 year-old driver last Wednesday afternoon while on his way to the bank.  The accident occurred right in front of the Apple Bank located on Brighton Beach Ave near 4th Street around 3:45 pm. Ferdman was sitting on his walker in front of the bank when the driver of a large SUV, a 2008 Cadillac Escalade who was parked in front of  him started to maneuver to get out of the parking space. As he was doing so, the 79 year old motorist lost control of the massive SUV, jumped the curb and pinned Ferdman between the front of his car and the bank’s glass window. Ferdman was still alive when emergency responders arrived but the injuries he sustained were so bad that he later passed away at the hospital. He lived just a few blocks away from the bank. An Apple Bank employee told the News that the SUV had a handicapped sticker in the windshield.

Ferdman was a beloved grandfather and great-grand father and his 46 year old granddaughter Svetlana Statsyuk told the News that her grand father was looking forward to celebrating “Victory Day” on May 9th, a former Soviet Union holiday celebrating the 1945 surrender of Nazi Germany. Ferdman was originally from Ukraine and fought  for Russia during World War II. He later immigrated to the US and choose Brighton Beach in Brooklyn as his new home. His family was his biggest joy and they loved him dearly.

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Location of the fatal pedestrian accident in Brooklyn, NYCA motorist fatally hit a pedestrian in Brooklyn, NY and took off on foot last Saturday morning around 8:00 am. The pedestrian was 52 year old Angel Aguilar-Duran, a private sanitation worker on the job. At the time of the accident, Angel was standing  in the street, guiding the driver of the garbage truck backing down on Hope Street near the Havemeyer Street intersection. As they were maneuvering, the driver of a 2005 Honda Odyssey minivan got impatient  and attempted to go around the garbage truck. She struck Angel who fell under the wheels of the minivan and dragged him under the vehicle for 50 feet.

The driver of the minivan took off on foot 

The sanitation worker was stuck under the minivan with his legs sticking out. People in the street started to run toward the minivan to help while others ran to a nearby firehouse to ask for help. The passenger got out of the minivan while the driver stayed inside and stayed silent. The passenger tried to pull the sanitation worker from under the car but people around him told him not to move him. He then picked up a car jack from the minivan and hoisted the vehicle up. Then in the weirdest move, the driver of the minivan got out of the vehicle and took off on foot. A few minutes later, the passenger did the same despite witnesses yelling at them to stay at the scene of the accident.

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view from inside the Brooklyn Hair salon where a car crashed car jumped the curb injuring 5 people in NYC last week. The accident took place in Brooklyn last Tuesday Morning around 8:00 am. A large SUV collided with a sedan at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Third Street in Gowanus sending both vehicles flying in separate directions. The sedan ended up in the front door of the Elements Hair Salon (see picture from Google map on the left) located right at the corner of the intersection while the SUV struck a bicyclist and a razor scooter rider. The bicyclist, the scooter rider and the 3 occupants of the SUV were all transported to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

The owner of the Hair Salon, Robert Santana, was just a few feet away from the Salon and saw the accident unfolding in front of him. He told the media that he was a few minutes behind his regular schedule that morning. He felt lucky he was not there at the time of the accident.

After crashing into the Hair Salon, the people in the sedan fled the scene of the accident on foot.

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distracted driver can cause crashesA NY State Trooper who sustained catastrophic injuries after being struck by a distracted driver in Long Island, NY  recently died. The accident occurred 3 years ago. Joseh Gallager who was 38 year old at the time, was helping a disabled motorist on the Long Island Expressway when he was struck by Jesse Cohen. Investigation found that at the time of the accident, Cohen was text messaging with 3 different people and had 3 social media apps open in the 20 minutes prior to the accident. Gallager suffered traumatic brain injury and lost the ability to talk, walk or eat without help. He passed away on March 26th, leaving behind his wife and two chidden as well as his parents, sisters and brothers. His funeral took place last week (see obituaries in NewsDay).

Gallager is one of many victims of distracted driving. According to CBS News, in the last 3 weeks, 3 other car accidents in Nassau County were caused by distracted driving.  In 2019, distracted driving killed 3,142 people in the US, 10% more than in 2018 according to the most recent statistics from the NHTSA.

The death  of State Trooper Joe Gallager, occurred just before the beginning of  “Distracted Driving Awareness Month” and as a reminder, the police in Nassau County have been launching a major campaign enforcing distracted driving laws on their roads.

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Monthly ambulance crashes in NYCAn elderly woman died and 8 other people were injured after a car T-boned an ambulance in New York City.

The accident took place last Sunday afternoon around 3:00 pm in Flatlands, Brooklyn, NYC. An Hatzola ambulance was transporting a 95 year old woman who suffered a cardiac arrest  to the hospital. The emergency vehicle was  heading South on Schenectady Avenue with its lights and sirens on according to witnesses.  As it crossed Avenue N, the ambulance was T-boned by a car travelling west bound on Avenue N.

A witness told the NY Daily News that the light had just turned from orange to red when the ambulance crossed the intersection and that the driver of the black Nissan who was speeding might not have heard the ambulance sirens.

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accident sceneA 27 year old driver died and 3 passengers in their twenties were seriously injured in  a car accident in Long Island, NY, last Monday night around 8:30 pm.  Jeffrey Laroche from Springfield Gardens, Queens, was driving an Infiniti with 3 passengers on board: 21 year old Jayda Mouldrie from Hempstead was sitting in the front seat while 20 year old Nicole Walter and 18 year old Nathaly Walter, both from Laurelton, Queens, were sitting in the back seats. They were heading West on the Southern State Parkway when Jeffrey lost control of the car and hit the center median guide rail and trees between exits 18 and 19.  In their report the police mention that the vehicle was travelling at a high rate of speed.

The impact was so intense that Jeffrey was ejected from the car. He was rushed to the hospital where he died from his injuries. Jayda who was in the front seat got stuck in the mangled vehicle and had to be extricated. She was also rushed the hospital and survived.  The two girls in the back, Nicole and Nathalie, were both injured but also survived the accident. Nathaly broke her pelvis.

Speeding is one of the most common causes of car accident fatalities and serious injuries especially among young people

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location of the pedestrian accidentA pedestrian got his leg severed in a freak car accident in Brooklyn last Sunday night. The 33 year old victim was exiting a livery car at the intersection of Elton Street and Atlantic Avenue in East New York when a 58 year old woman driving a Lexus crashed into him and pined him between the two vehicles. The pedestrian’s leg was severed just below the knee. The front of the Lexus was destroyed suggesting that the driver was travelling at a high rate of speed. The pedestrian was rushed to the hospital. His injury was severe but he was  in stable condition. The driver of the Lexus was also taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The cab driver was ok.  Read more in the NY Daily News

6 other people injured in another Brooklyn car accident involving a livery car and a SUV

6 other people, including two pedestrians were also injured in a car accident a few days earlier after the driver of a SUV  jumped the curb. Friday afternoon around 1:00 pm a male driver with another young male passenger jumped the curb at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Flatland Avenue in Brooklyn and slammed into a pole, hitting two pedestrians.