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 Personal Injury

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The month of April was a bad month for the construction industry in New York: 3 hard hats died in NYC construction accidents and almost 100 were injured. 2 workers died in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn.

On April 8, 51-year-old Nelson Salinas was repairing the facade on a building located  at 311 E. 50th Street near Second Ave on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He was standing on a suspended scaffold at the 7th floor of the 14 story building when a piece of coping stone that was under one of the C-Hooks fell onto him. Salinas was transported to the hospital where he died from his injuries.

Two days later a young worker fell to his death in Brooklyn. 23-year-old Erik Mendoza, a Mexican immigrant, was replacing bricks under the water tower of a 13 story building located on Pierrepont Street. Mendoza had just been hired to work for the building a week before the fatal accident occurred. He didn’t receive any site safety orientation for working on the penthouse roof, no guard-rail or fall protection were installed and the young man wasn’t provided with fall protection equipment. The owner of the building was issued a DOB violation and a Full Stop Work Order was issued.

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Personal Injury Attorney Ben RubinowitzOur Managing partner, NYC Personal Injury Attorney Ben Rubinowitz, will be speaking along with Mark Mandell and other attorneys at the Advanced Case Framing Seminar —Bringing the Book to Life: Case Examples, Breakthroughs and VerdictsAdvance Case that will take place in Philadelphia on September 6th and 7th at the Logan Hotel.

This program is based on attorney Mark Mandell’s highly anticipated book that will be released late next week, Advanced Case Framing (the registration fee includes a copy of Mark’s new book).  This excellent program is held by  the American Association for Justice.

Click here for more info or to register

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Construction Accident Lawyers Gair and DonadioOur NYC construction accident attorneys Anthony H. Gair and Christopher J. Donadio obtained a $4.9 million settlement for a construction worker injured in Brooklyn.

The case involved a worker who was injured while performing renovation work on a multi-family home. On the day of the incident, the worker was instructed by his foreman to remove aluminum siding from the multi-family home. In order to perform the work, the worker was required to stand on an eight foot makeshift scaffold that had been constructed with an A-frame ladder, a pump scaffold pole and a scaffold platform. The worker was unaware that the scaffold platform had not been properly secured. While the worker was performing his work on the scaffold, the unsecured scaffold platform slipped off of the pole that was supporting it, causing the worker to fall down to the ground eight feet below.

The worker was rushed to Lutheran Hospital where he was diagnosed with fractures to his spine and severe damage to his spinal cord. He was forced to undergo several surgeries as a result of his injuries.

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New York Burn injury lawyers Ben Rubinowitz and Richard SteigmanOur New York personal injury attorneys, Ben Rubinowitz and Richard Steigman obtained a record setting $59 million verdict for a former High School student who suffered catastrophic burns during a botched chemistry demonstration.

Alonzo Yanes was awarded $29,585,000 for past pain and suffering and $29,585,000 for future pain and suffering after a four week trial that spelled out the importance of keeping kids safe at school.

The negligent teacher brought a gallon container of methanol in the classroom

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NYC Personal Injury Lawyers Howard Hershenhorn and Diana Carnemolla

Congratulations to our partners NY Personal Injury Lawyers Howard Hershenhorn and Diana Carnemolla as well as their legal assistant Richard Soldano, for obtaining the Highest Jury Verdict in New York State in 2018. This verdict is also the 25th highest jury verdict in the entire country for 2018.

NY #1 Verdict In Sipher v. Twin America LLC, the jury awarded $85 million to a pedestrian who was ran over by a red double decker sightseeing tour bus in New York. The verdict was delivered on December 4th 2018 after a week trial during which Howard Hershenhorn and Diana Carnemolla tried the case on behalf of the injured plaintiff before the Hon. Barbara Jaffe in New York Supreme Court. The jury awarded to the victim $45 million for past pain and suffering and $40 million for future pain and suffering.

The accident occurred on July 3rd 2015 in downtown Manhattan. The victim was crossing 6th Avenue in the crosswalk with  the light in his favor when he was struck by a sightseeing bus making a left turn from West 4th Street onto 6th Avenue.

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Trench and excavation accident prevention infographicConstruction workers who are working in trenching and excavation are exposed to extremely dangerous hazards resulting most of the time from collapse. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 130 hard hats died in trenching and excavation accidents between 2011 and 2016.

Half of these fatalities occurred between 2015 and 2016.

Among the 130 dead workers, 104 were working for the private construction industry and among them 40 died at industrial places and premises, 39 died at private residence sites and 21 died at streets or highways construction sites.

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32 people have been injured in bicycle accidents on Second Ave between 59th street and 68th street in Manhattan, with many accidents occurring at the intersection of 59th street and Second Avenue which is the entrance of the 59th Street Bridge.

Until recently, bicyclists who were riding South on Second Avenue used a protected bike lane until 68th Street and then had to ride through a dangerous gap in front of the 59th Street bridge entrance to then go back on the protected bike lane. The DOT was supposed to fill the bike lane gap last summer but the installation was delayed to this spring. The work is now almost completed.

This is good news for the estimated 3000 cyclists who use the Second Avenue bike lane and the estimated 6000 people crossing the Queensboro bridge by bike every day.  The changes include the addition of a bike lane that would be protected by cars during off-peak hours and that would turn into a curbside buffered bike lane during rush hours. A pedestrian and a bicycle crossing were added at the entrance of the Queensboro bridge to allow pedestrians and cyclists to cross on the East Side of  Second Ave.  An island and a tip extension were also built to shorten the pedestrian and bicycle crossing.

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location of the Staten Island car crash3 people were injured in a car crash in Statent Island, NYC.  Wednesday night around 9:40 pm  when a 20 year-old female driver driving with a suspended license, tried to make a right turn from the center lane of Hylan Boulevard onto Bryant Avenue.

The accident occurred in front of the NYPD 122nd precinct. The young woman who was driving a Dodge Charger collided with a Honda Accord seriously injuring the driver and his two passengers. The driver, a 50 year old man and the two passengers an 8-year-old girl and a 10-year-old girl were rushed to the hospital.

The driver was taken into custody and is expected to be charged with driving with a suspended license.

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summer injury preventionDepending on the seasons, emergency room doctors are treating different type of personal injuries. As summer is coming more patients check in the ER for heat related injuries, water related injuries, trampoline and bounce house injuries as well as firework injuries.

Heat Exhaustion

One of the most common injuries that doctors treat is heat exhaustion. Heat exhaustion often occurs when someone is doing a strenuous physical activity in hot and often humid weather. It affects a lot of construction workers. Heat exhaustion can be dangerous and if not addressed and treated proprely can lead to heat stroke which can be a life-threatening condition.
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Two pedestrians were injured in a truck accident in New York City last Friday.  An out of control refrigerated box truck delivering produce jumped the curb at 86th Street and Bay 34th Street in Bath Beach, Brooklyn, NYC. It crashed into a Malaysian restaurant window. As it jumped the curb, it struck a 20-year-old pedestrian. The driver then backed the truck up striking a 24-year-old woman and damaging a parked car then hit a subway pillar. The driver then tried to flee the scene of the accident on foot but the police caught him and he was taken into custody.

The two pedestrians who were injured were taken to the hospital. The 20-year-old pedestrian is in critical condition and still fighting for his life. The 24-year-old woman suffered a head injury but she is in stable condition.

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