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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Are car accidents up or down on Corona’s 111th Street since the DOT  redesigned the street? They are up says Community Board 4. Nope, they are down says DOT boss Polly Trottenberg.

On January 11th the Queens Chronicle published an article saying that car accidents had been on the rise on Corona’s 111th Street since the Department of Transportation had redesigned the street this summer. The article mentioned that between August 1st and November 20 2017 49 crashes were reported on 111th street compared to 38 for the same period the year before. Already a month before the publication of this article, the community board 4 had sent a letter to Queens Commissioner Nicole Garcia to express their concerns. In the the letter the CB4 was asking the DOT to revisit the design of the street because they didn’t believe it was making the street safer and was reducing the number of accidents.

On Thursday, Polly Trottenberg personally replied to the CB4 attacks in an opinion in the Queens Chronicle.  According to Trottenberg, the CB4 is looking at statistics that are covering the complete length of 111th street (in yellow on the picture) while they should focus on the official project area which is from 43rd Avenue to Corona Ave (between the two red signs on the picture). In this exact area the number of accidents recorded from September 1st to November 30th decreased by 4 from 16 to 12 between 2017 and 2016. Therefore Trottenberg insists that the street redesign is making  the street safer.

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accident sceneA 26 year old pedestrian suffered critical injury after being struck by a car in Long Island City, NYC,  on Tuesday night.  The man was hit by a dark-colored SUV at the corner of 35th Street and 46th Avenue. The SUV driver didn’t stop, leaving behind him a man critically injured. A woman who was working in a nearby warehouse heard the accident and ran out in the street. She told the Daily News that the victim was trying to get up but he couldn’t. He was transported to the hospital in critical condition. The police are still looking for the driver. Anyone with information on the case should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-8477, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.

A little earlier in the afternoon, a 15 year old boy was struck by a car at the intersection of Hylan Boulevard and New Dorp Lane in Staten Island. the pedestrian was transported to the hospital with shoulder pain. The driver, a 68 year old man, stayed at the scene of the accident and wasn’t charged. According to the police the teen was walking outside of a crosswalk at the time of the accident. Read more in the SILive

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de Blasio Congrats NYPD214 people died in a motor vehicle accident in New York City in 2017 compared to 231 in 2016. This is the lowest number of traffic fatalities ever recorded in one year since record keeping started in 1910.

Among the 214 fatalities, 101 of them were pedestrians. The number of pedestrians killed in NYC crashes decreased by 32% between 2017 and 2016. There were 148 in 2016. Also in 2017 among the pedestrian fatalities there was only one child compared to an average of 7 for the previous 5 years.

Among the five boroughs, Brooklyn was the only borough where deadly crashes increased last year. Traffic fatalities declined by 9% from 65 in 2016 to 59 in 2017 in Queens. Queens Boulevard which in the past was nicknamed the Boulevard of Death was progressively revamped and made safer over the last 3 years. Last year the DOT completed the third phase of street redesign of the  Boulevard in Rego Park and Forest Hills. The boulevard hasn’t seen a fatality since 2014.

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15 people died and 5,450 were injured in 19,983 auto accidents in New York City in October. October is usually a bad month for car accidents in the city. As shown in the graphs below the total number of accidents was above the trend line in October.  The monthly number of traffic injuries was also the second highest number ever recorded in the city. The highest number of crash injuries was 5,557 last May. While the total number of crashes and related injuries have been steadily growing over the years, the number of people dying in crashes declined since 2013 when Vision Zero was launched. The number of people dying in car accidents went from 35 in October 2013 to 25 in October 2014, 26 in October 2015, 14 in October 2016 and 15 this last October. In 4 years fatal crashes declined by more than 50%. Additionally for the last two years the number of traffic deaths was below the trend line for the month of October while in the past it was always above it during this specific month.

car accidents injuries and deaths NYC October 2017
Despite all the Vision Zero efforts, crash injuries are on a rising trend.  Since last May their monthly number stayed above 5,000. Motorist injuries are the main cause of this rising trend. While in October 2013 motorist injuries accounted for less than a third of the total number of injuries, four years later they account for almost half of them. On the other hand, passenger injuries have been declining over the last four years. Distracted driving is suspected to be a factor. When drivers are alone in their cars they maybe more tempted to use their electronic equipment than when they travel with passengers.

crash injuries New York City October 2017
The number of monthly deadly crashes in New York City stayed below 25 for more than a year. It is the first time that the number of monthly fatal accidents stayed below 25 for that long. The highest number was 24 in June followed by 22 in September. The last time this number was above 25 was in June, 2016 when 29 people died in car accidents in the city. The city speed reduction from 30 mph to 25 mph may have been a factor in the recent decrease in fatal crashes.

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accident scene3 pedestrians died and 6 were injured including 2 critically in 4 different motor vehicle accidents in New York City that all occurred early Sunday morning during the supermoon.

The first accident occurred on the Upper East Side at 2:00 am. A 29 year old pedestrian suffered severe head trauma after being hit by a car. According to the NY Daily News, the pedestrian was crossing First Avenue at the intersection of 82nd Street against the red light. He was hit by a vehicle that was crossing the intersection with the green light. The pedestrian was rushed to the hospital to be treated.

Two hours later, around 4:00 am a pedestrian was killed in a Queens crash. The 71 year old victim was attempting to cross the Belt Parkway near Farmers Blvd in Springfield Gardens when he was hit by a car. The man was rushed to the hospital where he died from his injuries.

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According  to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) , 94% of serious auto accidents are due to dangerous choices or human errors. Recently developed driver assistance technologies are attempting to address these errors. As these technologies become more and more sophisticated they will ultimately lead to self-driving vehicles.

The NHTSA believes that self-driving vehicles will result in a drastic reduction of auto accident fatalities however we are not there yet. As of Today, the newest vehicles on the market are far from being fully automated but they do have technologies that prevent accidents due to human errors. These technologies can prevent forward collisions, help drivers while backing up and parking and assist them to detect blind spots or to stay in their lane. New technologies can also make sure drivers keep a safe distance in various situations such as driving in traffic jams or on highways.

The NTHSA and the DOT are expecting that vehicles will go through a technological evolution  that can be summarized in 6 steps until full automation:

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A cyclist died from his injury after he was struck by a car in New York City. The accident occurred on November 17 around 2:40 pm. 84 year old Yau-Teg Fung, of Queens was riding his bike on Albertson Street near Fleet Street when he collided with a car driven by an 80 year old woman. He suffered a massive head injury after being thrown off his bike. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. He died from his injuries after 10 days of hospitalization. The police told the NY Daily News that the driver had stopped at a stop sign and she was in the intersection when the cyclist hit her rear door. No criminal charges were filed.

 

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distracted-driving-can-cause-accidents-1Last year the number of fatal auto accidents reached a record high in the US. Despite unclear data, mobile devices are suspected to be a main factor in these accidents.

Mobile phone addiction is real and the consequences are deadly when people use their phone while driving. The wireless industry knows it. Big tech companies have  developed sophisticated tools to prevent these deaths but they don’t implement them for fear of seeing their profits decreasing.

Almost 10 years ago Apple submitted a patent for a technology that had the capacity to disable any function of a handled computing device that may interfere with safe driving.  While submitting the license , in 2008, Apple stated “Texting while driving has become so widespread that it is doubtful that law enforcement will have any significant effect on stopping the process.”  For unknown reasons, the license was not issued until 2014. Anyway Apple never deployed it.

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The hit and run driver who critically injured a pedestrian in Queens, NYC on Thanksgiving Day was arrested by the police. 52 year old Carmine Minichino of Queens was charged with driving while intoxicated with a suspended licence and leaving the scene of an accident. Last Thursday Minichino struck 71 year old Paul Sim who was crossing the road at the intersection of Murray Street and 17th Road in Flushing Queens. Sim was coming out of a Thanksgiving dinner with other relatives and friends when the accident happened. Minichino hit him and continued to drive, dragging him as far as 40 feet according to the police. Sim was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. He is expected to survive. The police spotted Minichino’s car abandoned down the block from the accident. He soon appeared with the keys in his hands and was arrested.  Read more on New York CBS website

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NYC Fatal car accident locationA man died in a car accident  in Queens, NYC on Saturday night. 18 year old Xylique Lovelace-Loney was driving his car on Sutter Avenue in Ozone Park when he got T-boned by another car coming from 80th Street.  The impact was so intense that Xylique’s car careened into two other parked cars.

People who witnessed or heard the accident ran to the rescue. Xylique was traped in his mangled car and the crowd around him was talking to him and trying to to keep him alive until the arrival of the emergency team.

Firefighters had to cut the car to free the victim who was rushed to the hospital. Unfortunately he couldn’t be saved.