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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Speeding and maybe alcohol may have caused the death of two off-duty police officers who went for a joy ride in a rental Maserati after a wedding celebration. Last Sunday afternoon, NYPD Officer Michael Colangelo  married Katherine Berger at the Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, Ulster County. After the celebration was over, a little bit after 11:00 pm, detective John Martinez who had worked in NYPD’s special operations with Colangelo in the past and another unidentified passenger went for a joy ride in a Maserati rented for the wedding. Sadly they never came back, the car hit a tree killing both the driver and the front-seat passenger . The unidentified back-seat passenger was rushed to the hospital and is expected to survive.

The 31 year old groom was behind the wheel when he lost control of the vehicle and crashed in into a tree. He was speeding and neither he and his friend Martinez were wearing a seatbelt. The backseat passenger who only suffered injuries was wearing a seat belt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpmzEtZZo34

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Roadway fatalities in the USVision Zero is a road safety program that was first started in Sweden and then successfully applied in many other European countries. When Bill de Blasio became the mayor of New York, he also implemented a Vision Zero strategy for New York City which over the last four years led to a significant reduction of traffic deaths, especially pedestrian fatalities.

While traffic deaths have been decreasing in New York City, they have been increasing at the national level.  In the steps of Sweden and New York, the National Safety Council recently created the “Road to Zero Coalition“(RTZ) and just released  “The Road to Zero, A Vision for Achieving Zero Roadway Deaths by 2050” a comprehensive report on how to apply Vision Zero Strategies at the national level and end roadway deaths in the US by 2050.

Roadway fatalities which had been declining in the US between 1985 and 2011 started to increase again between 2011 and 2016. In 2016, 5,000 more people died in roadway accidents than in 2011. Young people aged 15 to 24, men and rural road users are the most at risk of dying in a car crash.

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location of the fatal pedestrian accident BK NYCOn March 5th, Ruthie Ann Blumenstein was crossing the road with Abigail, her 5 year old daughter when a reckless driver struck them (see our previous blog). Abigail died at the scene of the accident and her mother suffered serious injury. At the time of the accident she was 39 weeks pregnant with Sophia Rosemary Wong Blumenstein. On Wednesday our managing partner, Ben Rubinowitz who represents Mrs Blumenstein announced that sadly her unborn child had died from the injuries suffered during the crash. “The pain suffered by Ruthie and Jonathan is nearly impossible to fathom,” Mr. Rubinowitz said. “As you might imagine, they are overwhelmed by the sadness of the deaths of their children.”

Ruthie Ann Blumenstein is a Tony-Waward winning actress. The actress and her daughter Abigail were among a group of pedestrians who were crossing the intersection of Fifth Ave and 9th street in Park Slope, Brooklyn, when Dorothy Burns ran a red light and erratically plowed into them.  Abigail and 20 month old Joshua Lew died at the scene of the accident. Several pedestrians were injured including the pregnant Ruthie Ann Blumenstein.

Dorthy Burns was recently indicted by a Grand Jury and was charged with manslaughter, assault and criminally negligent homicide (see previous blog).  Burns suffers from multiple sclerosis. Prior to the fatal accident she received 12 driving violations for speeding in school zones and running red lights. Her license is now suspended. It is outrageous that she was still allowed to drive at the time of the accident.

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location of the accident between taxi and Uber car NYC6 people were injured including 5 pedestrians in a NYC car accident between a livery car and a taxi. The accident occurred last Thursday night a little bit after 7:00 pm. The street was busy with pedestrians when a yellow cab violently T-boned  a livery car at the intersection of West 21st Street and Eighth Ave in Chelsea. The impact was so strong that the livery car jumped the curb and careened into a corner deli completely destroying the storefront and sending the freezers and the ATM machine flying and injuring nearby pedestrians. The police are still investigating the accident. So far none of the drivers has been charged but one of them may have burned a red light.

Mayhem scene

As the livery car jumped the curb and careened into the Deli, pedestrians on the sidewalk tried to dive for cover but the out of control car was going so fast that some of them didn’t have the time to move out of the way. Witnesses estimate that the car hit the deli at a speed of 20 to 30 mph. A 56 year old mother landed unconscious on the top of a car, another man was removed from the debris by the emergency crew and put on a stretcher. A young man who was at the deli counter also suffered injury and told journalists that everything went so fast that he had no time to dodge the car.  A total of 6 people were injured including the Uber driver. The five others were pedestrians. Among them were a 56-year-old mother and her 13 year-old-son, a 62-year-old man and a 41-year-old-man. The two drivers remained at the scene of the accident.

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location of the bicycle accident Bay RidgeA NYC cyclist who was struck by a SUV is likely to die according to a recent article in Street Blog.  The man who’s name wasn’t released is a 29 year old black male. He was riding his bike northbound on Ridge Boulevard when he was hit by a SUV driving westbound on 73rd Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. According to the police the driver of the SUV, a 63 year old woman, had the green light when she hit the cyclist. She wasn’t charged and the police said “No criminality was suspected”.

It is not the first time that a collision occured at this intersection. According to the Vision Zero Map One person was injured in an accident at the same intersection in 2011, another one in 2012, two in 2013, one in 2014 and one in 2016 previous to this accident.

A Bay Ridge resident told StreetBlog that the intersection was dangerous. “I’ve had a few close calls crossing here, too,” he said. “There’s a lot of racing to beat the light and a lot of failure to yield to people in the crosswalk.”

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DWIAn intoxicated driver lost control of her vehicle and crashed into a busy Weschester restaurant injuring multiple people including 4 critically. The tragedy occurred at Enzo, a popular Italian restaurant in Mamaroneck on Sunday night around 8:00 pm.

79 year old Roseanne Cassano of Yonkers just had diner at Enzo with a friend and both women left the restaurant and got into Roseanne’s car that was parked in a handicap parking space. According to witnesses, the women stayed in the car for almost 10 minutes before Roseanne started to back up. The video below shows the driver trying to exit the parking space, first clipping a car before crossing the street in reverse and crashing into the restaurant.  The intoxicated driver injured 9 people including 4 critically.

When the police arrived, the woman refused the voluntary alcohol test and the police had to get a court order. She is due back in Court on Thursday after being released on bail.

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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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Two months ago Dorothy Burns ran a red like, killed two young children and injured 3 pedestrians in a horrific accident in Brooklyn, NYC (see previous blog). The 2 children were 20-month-old Joshua Lew and 4 year old Abigael Blumenstein, the daughter of  Tony award actress Ruthie Ann Miles.  Burns was indicted by a Grand Jury last Wednesday and was charged with manslaughter, assault and criminally negligent homicide. Burns had a history of reckless driving. Since 2016 she accumulated 12 driving violations from speeding in school zones and running red lights. Burns  suffers from multiple sclerosis and it is unclear why she was still allowed to drive at the time of the accident. Her license is now suspended.

Read more in the Daily Beast

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Hit and Run Crashes by State2,049 people died in 1,980 fatal hit and run crashes in 2016 in the US according to a study recently released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. This is the highest number of fatal hit and run crashes ever recorded in the US. Among the 2,049 people who died in these accidents, 1,229 of them were pedestrians, 169 were cyclists, 380 of them were drivers and 229 were passengers. Since 2009 hit and run crashes increased by an average annual rate of 7.2% per year.

New Mexico, Louisiana and Florida have the highest rate of fatal hit and run crashes per 100,000 people while New Hampshire, Maine and Minnesota have the lowest rate.

Almost 60% of the victims of fatal hit and run are pedestrians with elderly over 80 year old and children under 6 being 50% more likely to be a victim of such accidents. Gender is also a factor. 70% of pedestrians dying in a hit and run accidents are male.

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accident sceneAn elderly woman died and her husband is in critical condition after both got hit several times in a freaky car accident at a Brooklyn car wash in New York City.

Tuesday afternoon around 3:00 pm, an elderly couple brought their car to a car wash located next to the Mobile gas station on Avenue U and Gerritsen Avenue in Marine Park.  As their car was coming out of the car wash it was hit by a black Jeep that had been left in neutral. The elderly couple were inspecting the damages on their car when a 61 year old employee of the car wash got behind the wheel of the black Jeep. He backed the Jeep up in the garage and hit a wall of the building, then for some unknown reason he drove forward speeding, striking the couple and crashing into their car. The impact was so strong that the couple’s car then crashed into two other parked cars across the street. The car wash employee then backed up again and drove forward again striking the woman for the second time. He repeated the same back and fourth maneuver for a third time before car wash employees were able to stop him and get him out of the car. The 85 year old woman identified as Joane Tornabene died at the scene of the accident. Her 90 year old husband, Frank Tornabene was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. The police are still trying to figure out the reason why the car wash employee behaved so erratically.

This is the second time in a week that someone was struck by a vehicle at a NYC car wash. A car wash worker lost his leg on Saturday in Queens . The man was wiping down a vehicle when he was struck by another car driven by a co-worker.

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