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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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

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The monthly number of traffic accidents in New York City in April was at its lowest since 2014 for the month of April. There were 16,632 motor vehicle accidents reported to the NYPD last April compared to respectively 17,893 17,585, 18,265, 16,671 16,265 16,412 in April 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.  NYC car accidents have been on a rising trend since 2013. However recent numbers show that over the last 12 months the number of accidents has been slightly decreasing compared to the record numbers of 2017.

Despite a decrease in the number of accidents, the number of people injured in these accidents continues to rise. 4,701 people were injured in motor vehicle accidents in New York last April compared to respectively 4,578, 4,444, 5,040, 3,878, 4,007 and 4,409 in April 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.

16 people died in traffic accident in the city last April compared to 12 during the same month a year before and 11 in April 2017. Traffic fatalities are on a declining trend in New York since Mayor de Blasio implemented the Vision Zero Program. While the monthly traffic deaths were above 20 in April 204 and 2015 they stayed below 20 for the last 4 years, reaching their lowest for a month of April in 2017 with 11 deaths.

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Location of the fatal accident caused by drunk driver Upstate NY3 people died and 6 were injured in a car accident in Upstate New York on Sunday morning. The victims were all members of the same family and were on their way to Niagara Falls. They were all riding in a Kia Sedona minivan when they were T-boned by a drunk driver who blew a stop sign in Sheldon, a small town in Upstate New York.

Among those who died were 4 year old Kiara Hernandez, her mother, 32 year old Mayelin Broti-Castro and her grandmother, 47 year old Ondina Castro de la Cruz. 6 other family members all from Perth Amboy, NJ, were also injured in the crash and taken to the hospital. The driver was identified as 20 year old Richard Sawicki. He was also injured in the accident, transported to the hospital and later on taken into custody where he is being held in lieu of $200,000 bond. He is facing vehicular homicide, DWI and reckless driving charges. He is due in Court on June 10.

Drunk Driver blew the stop sign

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3 pedestrians were injured in a car accident in Long Island, NY, after a drunk driver jumped the curb and struck them. 66-year-old Mitchell  Messling was intoxicated and witnesses said he was driving erratically on West Merrick Road in Freeport when he jumped the curb and struck a family of 3 yesterday afternoon around 4:00 pm.  A 11-year-old boy was seriously injured and had to be evacuated by helicopter while his parents were rushed to the hospital by ambulance.

The driver was arrested and charged with second-degree assault, second-degree vehicular assault, two counts of third-degree assault, two counts of driving while intoxicated, reckless endangerment, and reckless driving. He is due in Court Today in Hempstead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6QRlyQjnVs

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Personal Injury Attorney Ben RubinowitzOur managing partner, New York Personal Injury Lawyer Ben Rubinowitz, is co-chairing with NYSTLA Past President Jeff Korek the 2019 NYSTLA Seminar “25 Trial Issues That Keep You Up In The Middle Of The Night”.

Held over two evenings (Monday June 17 and Monday June 24 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm) this seminar consists of an informal panel discussion with Top Trial Attorneys, Judges and Ethicists during which audience participation is highly encouraged.

The program is modeled after the 1962 Herman Glaser seminar in which Glaser gathered the “greats” of his era to impart their collective wisdom to aspiring trial lawyers.  Thirty years later, Harvey Weitz assembled a round table panel at NYSTLI that included the Hon. Ira Gammerman, Hon. Gabriel Krausman, Hon. Eve Preminger and attorneys Ivan Schneider, Richard Shandell and others . The panel borrowed from Moe Levine , Al Julien and James Dempsey while setting out to demonstrate how best to deal with difficult trial issues. Harvey’s NYSTLI seminars formed the basis of his book the “Compendium of the Art of Summation” which with Harvey’s permission has served as the inspiration for Ben and Jeff to put together this seminar.