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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Three people were severely injured after a sedan crashed into the rear of a tractor trailer in Brooklyn, New York Saturday around 4:15 am. Officials said the car was going down Flatbush Ave at 110 miles-per-hour when the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a Walgreens truck near Kings Highway in Flatlands. The crash was so violent that the BMW was completely destroyed. 3 people were rushed to the hospital in critical condition and another person suffered minor injury. Read more in the NY Daily News

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Teen drivingParents can play a big role in helping their children become safe drivers and avoid being injured or killed in a car accident. Thursday April 28th at 1:00 PM CST, the National Safety Council is organizing a webinar during which Jessica Mirman, PhD, a behavioral scientist and researcher on the Center for Injury Research and Prevention HOP’s Teen Driver Safety Research team, will share her recent research on the effectiveness of TeenDrivingPlan, a prototype interactive web-based application to help parents more effectively supervise driving practice. Another speaker Kathy Bernstein, senior manager of Teen Driving Initiatives for the National Safety Council, will talk about DriveitHome– a new resource from the National Safety Council designed to support parents of newly licensed teens. Read more here

 

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Boy-killed-by-taxiThe parents of Cooper Stock are outraged that the taxi driver who killed their son was only charged with a traffic violation. 9 year old Cooper Stock was crossing the street with his dad when a taxi making a left turn struck them.  Cooper died and his father was injured (see previous post). The taxi driver was charged with failure to exercise due care. That charge carried a maximum penalty of 15 days in jail, a $750 fine, and a license suspension. Yesterday, however, the taxi driver was fined $580 and a six months suspension.

Read more in the New York Post

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Two men suffered personal injury in a collision between a car and a motorcycle in the Bronx, NYC. The accident happened at the busy intersection of Baychester and Nereid. During the investigation the police discovered a bullet hole in the car which led them to suspect that the car driver may have ran a red light before the crash as he was fleeing the scene of a shooting that happened a few blocks away. Both the driver – who was shot – and the motorcycle driver were injured and rushed to the hospital.

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Two men suffered severe personal injury in two separate accidents that happened in Brooklyn, NYC, on Sunday night. One of them was a 46 year old cyclist who crashed his bike into the back of  an MTA bus in Williamsburg and the other one was a pedestrian who was struck by a car three hours later in Crown Heights. Both were transported to the hospital in critical condition.

Read more in the NY Daily News

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The salt used to melt ice and snow on the roads can corrode old car’s brake pipes which may result in dangerous car accidents. People who own a model older than 2007 should get their brakes checked and thoroughly clean their vehicle including the undercarriage warned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in a recent press release.  The NHTSA found that seven to eight years of exposure to winter road salts could result in brake pipe corrosion as the agency was conducting an investigation of brake pipe failure due to corrosion on 2 million 1999 through 2003 models of GM trucks and SUV’s. The investigation determined that the brake pipe failure was the result of end-of-life wear out and the NHTSA decied not to recall the vehicles. However the agency is asking vehicle owners that drive cars older than 2007 to check their brakes if they live in the following states: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

Brake corrosion can lead to traffic accidents

Picture source: NHTSA

 

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yellow cabAs part of the Vision Zero Program to reduce traffic deaths and injuries related to traffic accidents in New York, the Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) started to test a warning system in six of its cabs. The warning system uses artificial vision technology such as cameras and radar to warn drivers about  a potential upcoming collision.  This test is a step in the TLC Vehicle Safety Technology Pilot Program.

Read more in the New York Post

Picture: courtesy of Wikipedia

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April is distracted driving awareness month and the National Safety Council is running its annual campaign to  prevent car accidents related to driver cell phone use. This year’s campaign’s focus is on the risks of hand free devices and new vehicle technologies that allow drivers not only to talk on the phone but also to check emails, post social content or order take out food while driving. According to the NSC, even though 80% of drivers mistakenly believe hands free devices are safer than hand held, more than 30 studies have already demonstrated that hand free devices don’t make drivers safer as their brains remain distracted.

The NSC campaign’s video shows a mother driving with a child in the back seat and receiving a a call from her husband. As she talk to him through a hand free device, her brain gets distracted and she drives through an intersection without seeing a stop sign resulting in an accident and the video ends on the sentence “Calls Kill”.

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3449 people were injured and 13 people died  in traffic accidents in New York City in January 2015 compared to respectively 3899 and 21 in January 2014 , 3993 and 28 in January 2013 and 4179 and 21 in January 2012. These numbers are encouraging and may indicate that the Vision Zero Program started approximately a year ago may be effective in making New York City streets safer. Data from December 2014 and January 2015 also show, for the first time, two consecutive months during which the total monthly number of traffic fatalities was below 14. The total number of motor vehicle accidents was stable. Below are graphs depicting traffic accident rates from January, 2013 to January 2015 for various types of accidents for each month for this time period in NYC.

Traffic fatalities NYC january 2015
Motor Vehicle Accident injuries by month in NYC
Motor Vehicle Accidents NYC january 2015
6 pedestrians died in traffic accidents in January 2015 compared to 12 in January 2014, 20 in January 2013 and 12 in January 2012. This is the lowest number since May 2013. This is also half the number recorded the same month a year before.  In January 2015, 902 pedestrians suffered personal injury after being struck by a car compared to respectively 1075, 1107 and 1045 in 2014, 2013 and 2012. Its the first time that this number is below 1000 for the month of January.

Pedestrian deaths and injuries NYC January 2015
115 people were injured and 1 person died in bicycle accidents in January.  Bike accidents are usually at their lowest in New York City during the months of January and February because less people use their bikes because of the bad weather and the snow.

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A 61 year old woman is in critical condition after she was struck by a car which was making a right turn from 21st Ave onto Cropsey Ave, in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, NYC. The accident happened Monday morning around 8:20. The pedestrian was crossing the street in the intersection. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident and he wasn’t charged. Meanwhile the police are still investigating. Read more in the Bensonhurst Bean

Update: the driver has been arrested, see NY Daily News

intersection of 21st Ave and Cropsey Ave
Picure: Google map