Safety on construction sites is not only about preventing accidents but also about keeping construction workers healthy and preventing injuries.
Because of the nature of the tasks they perform on a daily basis, construction workers are at a high risk of developing work-related muskuloskeletal disorders (WMSDs) also known as soft tissues injuries.
Using seclusion and restraints on children can result in injury and liability, however in some last resort cases seclusion and restraint might be necessary to protect children or others.
There is too little information available as how frequently the use of seclusion or restraint occur in out-of-home care settings such as foster parents or day care settings. In a recent article, Daniel Pollack, a professor at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work in New York City explains why more research is needed to evaluate these type of cases.
A PDF of the entire article can be downloaded here
3 pedestrians died and two other were injured after being hit by motor vehicles in New York City over the weekend. Another pedestrian also died from injuries he sustained earlier in the month last Thursday.
26 year old Jose Contla was standing next to his vehicle parked on 19th Avenue near 86th Street when a driver hit him and took off. He was on his way to open the family bakery where he was working part time to pay for his degree in criminal justice at John Jay College. Contla fell on the ground and was found unconscious on the road by the EMTs. He was rushed to the hospital but could not be saved. The police are still looking for the driver of a black sedan (see picture).
A welder died and another construction worker was seriously injured after a building collapsed on a NYC construction site yesterday.
50 year old David Johnson, a father of two daughters going to college, was working on the demolition of a building located at 147-05 94th Ave in Jamaica, Queens, when the second floor where he was standing collapsed. Johnson and another unidentified worker were buried in the debris. When firefighters arrived, the condition were so bad that they had to use ladder trucks to free the victims. Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Hi co-worker was transported to the hospital with critical injury.
Johnson was an unionized welder with Local 79. He took the job at the non unionized demolition site run by the general contractor Cole Partners Inc because it was hard for him to find work. Before the accident, Leslie White, another member of Local 79 who worked as a safety supervisor on another site told him the day before “that thing is going to collapse”. Johnson told her not to worry.
Several children and teenagers recently suffered serious personal injury after they were pranked by others in a new disturbing challenge on the popular app Tik Tok called “The skull breaker challenge”. The prank requires two people to ask a third person to stand in line with them and take turns jumping. The person pranked is placed in the middle and when she or he jumps the two others kick their feet out from under making the person in the middle fall backward. A 12 year old kid in Alabama ended up at the hospital with a broken wrist. Another 16 year old girl in Miami was also hurt in the same prank after she was told by other kids that they were shooting a video for a school project. A 13 year old boy in New Jersey suffered a concussion followed by a seizure. His mother said that she arrived at the school 20 minutes after the accident and found her son unresponsive while the school was waiting for an ambulance.
Falling backward can not only result in serious injury but can also be deadly. Severe injuries of the neck and head can occur when falling backward. Bruises, hematoma, skull fracture, neck fracture and concussion are the most common injuries suffered in these type of accidents. Internal bleeding, loss of consciousness, paralysis and death can also occur in the worst cases.
Did you know that 95% of fatal train accidents were caused by vehicles at train crossings and pedestrians on tracks? Every 3 hours in the US someone is hit by a train. Most of these accidents are preventable.
According to preliminary Federal Rail Road Administration Statistics, 262 people died and 871 were injured in 2,296 collisions with trains in 2018 in the US. 2,217 collisions occurred at highway-rail grade crossings. Pedestrian rail trespassing resulted in 1015 causalities (fatalities and injuries). California and Texas have the most accidents for both highway-rail grade crossings and trespassing. New York ranked number 4 of all states with the most pedestrian trespassing causalities. 36 people died and 13 were injured while trespassing on New York railroads in 2018.
Two years ago one of our clients, actress Ruthie Ann Miles and her five year old daughter were struck by a reckless driver as they were crossing the street in the crosswalk with the light in their favor. The daughter was killed and the actress who was pregnant at the time of the accident, later on lost the baby she was carrying. Another 1 year old child was also killed in the accident. The driver, Dorothy Burns, had a history of reckless driving. In the year preceding the accident she was caught 4 times speeding in school zone areas and 4 other times running a red light.
Despite the many Vision Zero Initiatives implemented since 2014, the number of people dying in traffic accidents increased again last year after 4 years of decline. Many accidents were caused by reckless driving.
In an effort to address this problem, the City Council is about to adopt a new program that targets reckless drivers. The reckless driving initiative is expected to start as a 3 years pilot. During that time any owner of a vehicle that is charged with 5 red light camera violations or 15 speed camera violations in a year will have to complete a safety course developed by the DOT. If a reckless driver refuses to attend the safety course his vehicle may be seized.
Our partner Richard Steigman will be chairing the New York State Trial Lawyers Institute 2020 CPLR Update Seminar next month in New York. Honorable Ariel E. Belen (Ret.), FCIArb, JAMS Mediator & Arbitrator, Justice, Appellate Division, Second Department will also be part of the faculty.
“One of the key requirements of successfully managing a civil caseload is staying abreast of legislative changes and court decisions in the field of New York Civil Practice. This year in particular, there are substantial changes that every lawyer in this field needs to know. This seminar will provide an in-depth review of these new developments, including practice tips and pitfall warnings that are invaluable for the civil litigator.”
The seminar will take place on Wednesday February 12th from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the NYSTLA office located at 132 Nassau Street, 2nd floor in New York, NY. Click here for more info or to register
3 people died and one person was seriously injured in a wrong-way car accident in Queens, NYC. The accident took place on Saturday morning around 5:40 am. 27 year old Divante New was driving the car of 36 year old Sayquan Hallums who was in the passenger seat. They were driving the wrong way on the Grand Central Parkway near the Cross Island Parkway exit in Queens when they crashed into another car. 26 year old Megan Ann Smith who was in the passenger seat was killed. Her boyfriend who was driving the car was critically injured. The police didn’t release his identity. Megan Ann Smith graduated in 2011 from St. John’s Preparatory School in Astoria, Queens. She was an an honor student and a member of the softball team. Her family declined to talk to the media.
According to the brother of Sayquan, the Honda car driven by Divante had an old defective windshield that would fog up easily. He said that when the heat was up inside the car the old windshield would fog up so badly that only Sayquan was able to drive the car.
A NYPD cop in plainclothes was injured in a hit and run car accident in New York on Monday.
The accident occurred around 7:45 pm. Two undercover officers in a disguised Uber car stopped the driver of a Mercedes who ran a red light on East Houston Street. The two officers were outside of their car talking to the driver of the Mercedes when a speeding black minivan driver lost control of his vehicle and rear-ended the fake Uber car belonging to the Police. One of the officers got pinned between the Mercedes and his car and the other one fell on the ground but wasn’t hurt. The driver of the Mercedes wasn’t hurt either. He was also out of his car but had time to to jump on the side to avoid being stuck between the two vehicles. The driver of the minivan pulled away and took off. He was arrested 3 blocks away from the accident and taken into custody. The officer who was injured suffered a fractured leg and was taken to the hospital.
New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog