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

Published on:

Runners in Central ParkAmateur athletes have a higher risk of getting injured in the spring than in the middle or the end of the warm season. As the weather is getting really nice in New York, most of us just want to get out of the house and enjoy outdoor activities.  Don’t over do it warn orthopedists and sports medicine specialists who are seeing an increase of patients every year when spring comes. Take it easy when you get back to your favorite activity as your brain might very well remember the moves but your body is still in winter mode.

Runners have a high risk of getting injured in the spring

Runner knee is the most common spring time injury reported by doctors. Runner knee or chondromalacia patellae is a damage to the cartilage under the knee cap. It is mainly caused by over training. People get excited by the nice weather and they start to run again. They haven’t run much during the winter season and they forget that their body needs to adapt again. Doctors recommend runners to take it easy when they start to run again. A gradual increase of the weakly mileage; taking a day of break between each run to let the body rest; adjusting speed and avoiding steep hills will help avoid injuries.Ditching your old worn shoes for new supportive shoes can also help avoid plantar fasciitis which is another injury caused by excessive running. Another common spring injury is Achilles tendinitis. Runners who are doing too much too quickly and middle aged people who played sports such as tennis or basketball on an irregular basis are the most at risk.Ankles sprains from falls or misplaced steps are quite common as well. Those getting back into tennis, baseball or rock climbing after being less active during the winter should beware of rotator cuff injury and tennis elbow.
Published on:

couple involved in the car crashA speeding driver lost control of her vehicle causing a huge crash, killing the passenger who was her husband and hurting another road user.

The accident occurred early Tuesday morning in New York. 25 year old Dhanairy Ramirez was driving her Honda at a speed estimated to be 80 to 100 mph Northbound on St. Nicholas Ave. Her husband, 28 year old Eduardo Liranzo was in the passenger seat.  She sideswiped two parked cars near 172nd Street. She didn’t stop and continued to speed on St Nicholas Ave and rear ended a parked MTA truck near 190th Street. The truck driver was inside the cabin at the time of the accident. He suffered back injury.

The couple in the Honda were pinned inside the crumbled car and  firefighters had to cut the vehicles to rescue them. Both of them were rushed to the hospital. The passenger didn’t survive and the driver was critically injured.  According to family members who spoke to the NY Daily News, she is still unconscious and in critical condition. The couple has a newborn son. The young dad also leaves behind another son that he had with another woman.

Published on:

93,800 people were injured in an ATV accident and treated in a hospital in 2017 compared to 150,900 in 2007. 295 died in 2017 in an ATV accident compared to 832 in 2007. While still being dangerous and accounting for a significant number of injuries and deaths to adults and to children, a recent report from the CPSC indicates that ATVs have been getting safer over the years.

ATVs are not only popular with teenagers but also with children.  Among the 93,800 people who check into emergency rooms for ATV injury, 24,800 or 26% of them were younger than 16 and among these 24,800 47% of them or 11,700 were younger than 12.  In 2007 among the 150,900 people injured in ATV accidents 27% of them were younger than 16-year-old and half of them were younger than 12-year-old.

Among the various age categories the most significant decline of injuries over 10 years was recorded among the 16 to 24- year-old category.

Published on:

NYC-Personal-Injury-Attorneys-Rubinowitz-Torgan-SaghirIn an article published Today in the New York Law Journal, NYC Personal Injury Attorneys Ben Rubinowitz,  Evan Torgan  and Peter Saghir discuss trial techniques to secure winning verdicts.

One of these techniques is to FRAME an issue that can be explored during cross examination, reinforced during final argument and one that leaves the jury with an indelible impression that will last well into jury deliberations.

Our managing partner, Ben Rubinowitz, has been recognized for his expert commentary in the NYLJ for the past 19 years.

Published on:

cop injured in motorcycle accidentA reckless NYPD officer hurt himself riding a dirt bike. The officer rode the bike without a helmet,  blew a red light and almost collided with a car before loosing control of the motorcycle and crashing into another vehicle. The officer suffered a minor leg injury and was treated at a nearby hospital. Thankfully nobody else was injured in this motorcycle accident, however the incident is under internal review by the NYPD after a video went viral on the internet.

In the video the officer is seen getting on the bike without a helmet, popping a wheelie and then crossing the intersection of  135th Street and Lenox. The cop went right through the red light, not even looking for crossing cars or pedestrians. He almost got hit by a car and completely lost control of the bike as he tried to swerve around it. He then fell on the ground while the bike hit another car. Other police officers ran to the rescue. He was sent to the hospital to be checked.

Previously the officers were trying to arrest a man driving the dirt bike recklessly …

Published on:

5 people were injured in a New York MTA bush crash. The bus was riding down 58th street and crossing Woodside Avenue in Queens, NYC, when  a speeding Honda that was driving in the same direction blew a red light behind the bus and crashed into the side of the bus.  The impact caused the MTA bus to jump the curb and crash into the storefront of Bagel Plus deli.

At the time of the accident, the bagel store was still closed but two employees were already working inside. The manager, 42 year old Polo Perez, was setting up the coffee station  when the bus crashed into the window. He rushed to turn off the grill and the oven and ran into the back of the store where another man was working. Neither of them were injured in the accident but the storefront was completely destroyed.

It was a miracle that so few people were injured in the bus crash

Published on:

A 19 year old driver died and two teen passengers were injured in a car accident in New York City. The accident occurred Tuesday afternoon around 4:30 pm.  19 year old Claudio Poggy was speeding in a Mercedes. Two of his friends aged 16 and 19 year-old were on board. According to witnesses, he was drag racing. As he was speeding north on Kings Highway, Brooklyn, the driver lost control of his vehicle and hit a tree at the intersection with avenue D. The impact was so brutal that the driver died at the scene of the accident. The 16 year old passenger suffered critical injury and the 19 year old one minor injuries. Investigators found that the speedometer was stuck on 130 mph on the unregistered Mercedes.

Male teen driver with teen passengers is a deadly combination

The risk of car accidents is higher among 16 to 19 year-old drivers than among any other age group. Car accidents are indeed the leading cause of death for American teens. According to statistics 6 teenagers die and hundreds of them are injured every day in car accidents in the US. The risk of dying in car accidents is two times higher for male drivers than for female drivers. When another teen is on board with a teen driver, the risk of a fatal crash doubles and increases further when more teen passengers are in the car.

Published on:

Esport compettionJust like in any other sports, college eSport athletes suffer from specific injuries, the most common being eye fatigue, neck and back pain, wrist pain and hand pain.

Esport, or professional video gaming,  is rapidly expanding all over the world. In the US more than 50 universities have their own varsity gaming teams with almost half of them offering eSport scholarships the same way they do for traditional sports. Esport is currently being investigated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to be recognized as a sport discipline and was recognized as such by the International Olympic Committee in October 2017. More people watch eSport than watch the World Series or the NBA finals. Projections estimate that 427 million people will be watching eSport in 2019 with prizes won by players and sponsorship  exceeding $ 1.5 billion.

A recent study by the British Journal of Medicine found that  eSport athletes, despite being the subject of much controversy because of their quasi physical inactivity, are also getting injured.  College eSport athletes demonstrate manual dexterity, thinking skills and reactions times that average players are unable to match.  In order to get to that level, they practice 3 to 4 hours a day at school and often continue at home.

Published on:

Super-lawyers-goldOur New York Personal Injury Law Firm is proud to announce that 9 of our attorneys have been named 2019 Super Lawyers and 2 of them 2019 Rising Stars. Additionally, our managing partner Ben Rubinowitz, made the Top 10 New York Metro Super Lawyers list and 3 partners were listed in the Top 100 New York Metro Super Lawyers list.

These lawyers are:

  • Anthony Gair, named Super Lawyer every year since 2006 and listed in the 2019 Top 100 New York Metro Super Lawyers
Published on:

A 63 year old man injured his foot in a crane accident in New York.  The accident occurred around 10:20 pm on Monday night near Penn Station on 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan. As it was lifting material, the arm of the machine collapsed.

The truck mounted crane belonging to the Brooklyn company Lifting Solutions was lifting I-beams for Starr Construction when the hydraulic system failed and the boom crashed on the sidewalk. Pedestrians panicked and ran for cover.  Some of them thought it was an explosion. One person was sent to the emergency room after being injured by the debris.

A  hazardous material team was dispatched by the FDNY to clean up the spill of hydraulic fluid.