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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accident sceneA man was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in New York City.  The motorcyclist was riding his bike South on Lefferts Boulevard near 115th Ave in Queens, NYC, Saturday around 1:00 pm when a Dodge Ram pick up truck slammed into him. The driver of the pick up truck was driving North and swerved to avoid hitting a car. The police also suspect that the motorcyclist may have been driving over the speed limit. Investigation is still ongoing. The collision was so violent that a witness who was driving several cars behind them said he saw the motorcyclist flying high into the air. The 27-year-old rider suffered trauma all over his body as well as a broken leg. Read more in the NY Daily News

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A NYC pedestrian died in a car accident Monday night. 28-year-old Gabriel Garcia was crossing E. 138th Street near Walton Ave in Mott Haven, Bronx, NYC when he was struck by a dark colored sedan with TLC plates. A Toyota Camry struck him right after. According to witnesses both drivers got out of their cars as the pedestrian was lying with his face down on the ground bleeding.  The two drivers then left the scene of the accident. The Toyota driver came back shortly after to talk to the police. The black sedan driver disappeared in the night. The pedestrian was rushed to the hospital but he couldn’t be saved. The police are still looking for the driver of the TLC car.

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A NYPD officer suffered critical injury after being dragged by a car in New York City. The officer and five of his colleagues were responding to several 911 calls of shots fired in East Flatbush. The shots turned out to be fireworks going off at a private party. Officer Dalsh Veve was questioning the occupants of a black Honda Civic when the driver hit the gas and dragged the NYPD officer over two blocks. As he was dragged down the street the officer shot twice at the driver. It appeared that the car had been stolen and that the driver was a 15 year old boy. The teenage boy who was shot in the face was arrested after checking in at a nearby hospital. Officer Veve is still fighting for his life.

Read more in the NY Daily News 

 

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accident sceneTwo pedestrians suffered personal injury in two separate car accidents Sunday night in New York City.

A college student from Columbia University who was crossing Riverside Drive at the intersection of 115th Street in Manhattan was struck by a hit and run driver. The accident occurred around 12:25 am. The student who is believed to be in his twenties suffered critical head injury. He was transported to the hospital where he is still fighting for his life. Approximately 90 minutes earlier a 53-year-old male pedestrian was hit by a dark-colored sedan at the corner of E. Tremont Ave and Purdy St. in the Bronx. The pedestrian suffered two broken legs and head trauma. He was transported to the hospital. As of Today he was in stable condition. So far nobody was arrested in relation to the two crashes.

Read more in the NY Daily News 

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defective harness tagSome of the Graco My Ride 65 convertible car seats may be defective and may not restrain a child in a car crash. Improper restraint of a child significantly increases the risk of severe injury or death of a child in a car accident.  Improper restraint is one of the most common causes of pediatric fatality in motor vehicle accidents in the US (see more info in our other blog published  Today).

In previous tests of the Graco My Ride 65 car seat, the National Highway traffic Safety Administration found that in some cases the harness webbing restraining the child wasn’t resistant enough ant that it could break in the case of a serious car crash.  After internal investigation, the manufacturer Graco concluded that the defective harness webbing were associated with a single batch of sewn webbing and that an estimated 10% of the recalled seats were defective.

The recall affects model numbers 1871689, 1908152, 1813074, 1872691, 1853478, 1877535, 1813015, and 1794334. Only units manufactured on 7/22/2014 and that have a webbing code 2014/06 on a tag on the harness webbing are affected.

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seatbelts prevent children from dying in car accidentsToo many children are dying in car accidents in the US  because they are not adequately restrained. Improper restraint is the number one cause of children fatalities in car accidents in the US. A recent study published in The Journal of Pediatrics found that if the percentage of children unrestrained or inappropriately restrained while riding in  a car in the US  decreased from the actual estimated figure of 20% to 10%, 232 children deaths would be averted every year. The study by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas and the Department of Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX,  looks at car accident data by States from 2010 to 2014.

Important variations were found from state to state. Globally 52% of the children who died in a car accident in the US camme from the South, 21% from the West, 19% from the Midwest and 7.4%  from the Northeast. While looking at factors that may increase the risk of children deaths in car accidents, the researchers found that in New Hampshire only 2% of children who died in a car accident were improperly restrained while in Mississipi 38% of the children who died in a car crash were improrely restrained.

The type of roads as well as the absence of legislation in regards to red light cameras are also important factors in children mortality in car crashes. Rural roads are the type of roads where children have the highest risk of being killed in a car accidents. Several factors such as poorer road quality, limited lighting or visibility, lesser enforcement of speed or long distances to trauma centers may explain why more children are dying on the road in rural areas. Researchers also found an increased risk of pediatric mortality in car accidents in States that didn’t have legislation for red light cameras.

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accident sceneA woman died and 3 other people suffered personal injury in a car crash in New York City early Monday. The victim was identified as 48-year-old Wazeda Banu. She was a passenger in a 2009 Nissan Sentra driven by a 51-year-old man. Another 59-year-old woman was riding with them. The trio was driving North on 164th Street near the Grand Central Parkway service road in Queens, NYC, when a 2012 Toyota Scion SUV t-boned them.  Wazeda Banu who was sitting right were the car was T-Boned was rushed to the emergency with severe chest pain. She died from her injuries at the hospital. The driver and the passenger who were riding with Wazeda Banu also suffered  injuries and were transported to the hospital. Their lives are not in danger. The 36-year-old driver of the SUV suffered minor injury and was also sent to the hospital to be treated.  The accident is still being investigated by the police.

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accident sceneA 46 old pedestrian died in NYC after a drugged driver struck him as he was crossing the street. 67 year old Jihne Niu was crossing the street at the intersection of 46th Ave and 149th Street in Flushing, Queens when the accident occurred. The driver, a 46 year old man who was drugged behind the wheel hit him with his car. He stayed at the scene of the accident and was arrested shortly after the police found out he was under the influence of drugs. Jihne Niu was rushed to the emergency room but couldn’t be saved. Read more in the NY Daily News.

Unfortunately, more people than usual were driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol during the celebration of Memorial Day. On Friday, Governor Cuomo announced that the New York State Police would be cracking down on this type of dangerous driving behaviour over the long week-end. Patrols were added all over the State of New York and sobriety check points were use to identify and arrest people driving under the influence. Unfortunately they couldn’t prevent all accidents. Last year during a similar operation over the Memorial Day Weekend York State Police arrested 225 drunk drivers and issued 12,000 tickets for various other violations  during the Hoilday. New York City also targeted drunk drivers. (read more here). In New York City, the NYPD, the DOT, the TLC and mayor de Blasio announced on Friday that the NYPD would also be cracking down on drunk drivers. Additionally the City of New York was offering  $10 off the ride of anyone taking a taxi on Friday night or Saturday night. Entitled “Know your limit” the campaign was encouraging New York City drivers to ride home in a taxi rather than drive back home under the influence. It seems strange though that the rebate was dd  not apply on Sunday night, one of the most busy nights of the long week-end (read more here).

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11 pedestrians and 1 bicyclist died in auto accidents in New York City last March. In March 2013, before the Zero Vision campaign was launched 11 pedestrians and 1 bicyclist were also killed in traffic accidents in the city.  After a promising start in 2014, the Vision Zero program seems to have lost some of its effectiveness.

After declining to 15,553 last February, the lowest level over 4 years, the number of motor vehicle accidents in New York City jumped back to 19,055 in March 2017.

Traffic accidents are continuing to increase steadily in the city as do the number of injuries related to these accidents. However despite a rising trend, the number of  auto accident injuries in March 2017 was slightly  lower than in March 2016 but higher than in March 2015, 2014 and 2013 (see graph below).

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accident scene34 year old Jonatan Segura was drunk and speeding the night he killed one pedestrian and injured another in a car accident in New York last January. Segura plead guilty to manslaughter, two counts of assault, homicide, leaving the scene, and drunk driving as well as misdemeanor assault and misdemeanor leaving the scene of an accident. He is facing 4 to 12 years in prison.

On January 30th around 4:00 am, Segura was driving on 181st Street near Amsterdam Avenue when he lost control of his BMW sedan. He was drunk and he was speeding. He hit a pick-up truck and two pedestrians. One of them, Encarnation died form his injury at the hospital, the other one, a 46 year old woman was seriously injured.

Segura fled the scene of the accident on foot leaving behind him two seriously injured people and his car completely destroyed by the high speed impact.