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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keyless carMultiple owners of key-less cars have been dying of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning after mistakenly thinking that their car had stopped running. In most scenarios the car owner parks the vehicle in the house garage and takes the wireless key fob thinking that the car has shut down while it hasn’t. Overnight the garage and the house fills with odorless carbon monoxide gas, leaving the owner and other potential house residents dead or severely injured.

There are no exact records of how many people have died or how many people were left with serious injuries such as brain damage after inadvertently leaving their car running but 24 deaths nationwide were reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since 2006 when the first known case occurred. 70 year old Jeanette Colter, a Florida resident who  left her Toyota Avalon running in the garage ended up collapsing and dying between her kitchen and her living room. Her 89 year old husband died in the bedroom.

In 2009 after several other similar accidents were reported, the Society of Automotive Engineers formed a panel to develop recommended practices to address key-less ignition hazards. In 2011, the group recommended an externally audible or visual alert or automatic shut off of the engine if all doors are closed and the key fob is not present. That same year the NHTSA proposed a new rule with similar recommendations.

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location of the bicycle accident Bay RidgeA NYC cyclist who was struck by a SUV is likely to die according to a recent article in Street Blog.  The man who’s name wasn’t released is a 29 year old black male. He was riding his bike northbound on Ridge Boulevard when he was hit by a SUV driving westbound on 73rd Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. According to the police the driver of the SUV, a 63 year old woman, had the green light when she hit the cyclist. She wasn’t charged and the police said “No criminality was suspected”.

It is not the first time that a collision occured at this intersection. According to the Vision Zero Map One person was injured in an accident at the same intersection in 2011, another one in 2012, two in 2013, one in 2014 and one in 2016 previous to this accident.

A Bay Ridge resident told StreetBlog that the intersection was dangerous. “I’ve had a few close calls crossing here, too,” he said. “There’s a lot of racing to beat the light and a lot of failure to yield to people in the crosswalk.”

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DWIAn intoxicated driver lost control of her vehicle and crashed into a busy Weschester restaurant injuring multiple people including 4 critically. The tragedy occurred at Enzo, a popular Italian restaurant in Mamaroneck on Sunday night around 8:00 pm.

79 year old Roseanne Cassano of Yonkers just had diner at Enzo with a friend and both women left the restaurant and got into Roseanne’s car that was parked in a handicap parking space. According to witnesses, the women stayed in the car for almost 10 minutes before Roseanne started to back up. The video below shows the driver trying to exit the parking space, first clipping a car before crossing the street in reverse and crashing into the restaurant.  The intoxicated driver injured 9 people including 4 critically.

When the police arrived, the woman refused the voluntary alcohol test and the police had to get a court order. She is due back in Court on Thursday after being released on bail.

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Two months ago Dorothy Burns ran a red like, killed two young children and injured 3 pedestrians in a horrific accident in Brooklyn, NYC (see previous blog). The 2 children were 20-month-old Joshua Lew and 4 year old Abigael Blumenstein, the daughter of  Tony award actress Ruthie Ann Miles.  Burns was indicted by a Grand Jury last Wednesday and was charged with manslaughter, assault and criminally negligent homicide. Burns had a history of reckless driving. Since 2016 she accumulated 12 driving violations from speeding in school zones and running red lights. Burns  suffers from multiple sclerosis and it is unclear why she was still allowed to drive at the time of the accident. Her license is now suspended.

Read more in the Daily Beast

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accident sceneAn elderly woman died and her husband is in critical condition after both got hit several times in a freaky car accident at a Brooklyn car wash in New York City.

Tuesday afternoon around 3:00 pm, an elderly couple brought their car to a car wash located next to the Mobile gas station on Avenue U and Gerritsen Avenue in Marine Park.  As their car was coming out of the car wash it was hit by a black Jeep that had been left in neutral. The elderly couple were inspecting the damages on their car when a 61 year old employee of the car wash got behind the wheel of the black Jeep. He backed the Jeep up in the garage and hit a wall of the building, then for some unknown reason he drove forward speeding, striking the couple and crashing into their car. The impact was so strong that the couple’s car then crashed into two other parked cars across the street. The car wash employee then backed up again and drove forward again striking the woman for the second time. He repeated the same back and fourth maneuver for a third time before car wash employees were able to stop him and get him out of the car. The 85 year old woman identified as Joane Tornabene died at the scene of the accident. Her 90 year old husband, Frank Tornabene was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. The police are still trying to figure out the reason why the car wash employee behaved so erratically.

This is the second time in a week that someone was struck by a vehicle at a NYC car wash. A car wash worker lost his leg on Saturday in Queens . The man was wiping down a vehicle when he was struck by another car driven by a co-worker.

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Personal Injury Attorney Christopher DonadioOur NY and NJ personal injury attorney Christopher J. Donadio has been invited to lecture at the New Jersey Association for Justice’s annual Boardwalk Seminar, on Wednesday, May 9, 2018 at 12 p.m. at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, NJ. Mr. Donadio’s lecture, entitled “Helping the Jury Understand Damages,” will be a part of “The Medicine for Lawyers: the Missing Damages” continuing legal education program.

Too often, jurors fail to fully appreciate the harm that injured plaintiffs have suffered because they equate what has happened to the plaintiff to their own, less severe experiences.  As a trial lawyer it is imperative to ensure that the jurors consider what has occurred specifically to the injured plaintiff and not anyone else. This lecture will teach various techniques on how to educate the jury on the relevant anatomy, how to provide extreme detailed descriptions of the injuries, how to creatively use diagnostic films, and how to use detail intensive medical illustrations, to focus the jury on the harm suffered by the plaintiff, and prevent the jury from deciding damages based on their own experiences. The lecture will provide examples of these techniques from recent trials.

To register for this lecture, please click here

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Harleen Maggo died in a NYC fire accidentA Queens Village family who was celebrating an upcoming wedding was caught in a massive fire that quickly ravaged their house killing 3 of them and injuring many others. The house located on 211th Street and 93rd Road didn’t seem to have working smoke detectors. 32 year old Harleen Maggo (see picture), a mother of two and her parents Ragvir Kaur-Kainth, 82, and Pyara Kainth, 87  all died in the fire that erupted a little bit before midnight on Saturday night. Harleen’s two children, were also trapped in the fire but were able to be rescued by the firefighters. The 8 year old girl was in critical condition while the 6 year old boy was stable. Seven other people who were also trapped in the fire were transported to the hospital with serious injuries.  Harleen Maggo had been able to escape but she decided to go back in the house on fire to try to save her parents. She never made it back outside. The house was full of wedding guests partying when the fire started. Investigators are still trying to figure out the cause of the fire. Read more in the NY Daily News  Picture source: Facebook

No working smoke alarm either in another NYC fire that erupted 6 hours later

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Vision Zero Initiatives have helped decrease traffic accident deaths in New York City especially for pedestrians and bicyclists  but the number of people injured in auto accidents during the first three months of the year has been on a rising trend. Distracted driving is the number one cause of accidents in the city and might be a factor leading to this high number of car accident injuries.

The number of motor vehicle accidents in New York City during the first semester stayed over 50,000 for the last 3 years. During the first trimester of 2018, 52,317 accidents were reported to the NYPD. Since 2013 the number of accidents in the City has been on a steady rising trend. From 46,438 during the first trimester of 2013, they reached a peak at 53,050 in the first trimester of 2016, slightly decreasing in the first trimester of 2017 and going slightly back up this year.

Motor vehcile accidents NYC first trimester 2018
12,920 people were injured in these 52,317 accidents. This is the highest number of personal injuries related to traffic accidents in New York City during the first trimester of any year  since Vision Zero started in 2013. 11,676 were injured in accidents during the first trimester of 2013. This number went down to 10,805 during the first trimester of 2014 and continued to decline to 10,069 for the same period of 2015. After that injuries went back up to respectively 11,939 and 12,608 for the first 3 months  of 2016 and 2017.

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lead-poisoningMany children were poisoned by lead in New York as the result of the city neglecting to inspect and fix lead paint hazards in  apartments belonging to the New York City Housing Authority. Some children died and others now have to attend special-education programs and will never be able to live a normal life. Despite multiple lawsuits De Blasio was recently heard saying “Thank God there has not been harm done to any child because of the mistakes that have been made.” bFor some weird reasons the mayor is still trying to cover for the disastrous NYCHA behavior.

In a recent article the Daily News looks at the story of Juana Bison, the mother of two twin daughters who lived in Cypress Hills Houses. In 2001 after her twin daughters were born, Juana complained about the painting chipping and peeling in her apartment. She was scared that the paint might contain lead and could harm her twins. She asked NYCHA to fix it. Instead of fixing it, a NYCHA worker forged Juana’signature and signed a form indicating that Juana’s apartment had been inspected and no lead paint was found.

When the two daughters were two-yer-old the mother took them for a medical check-up that found a blood-lead level of 20 micro-grams per deciliter in one of the girls. This level is five time the level deemed acceptable by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This level is dangerous and can affect the development of a child. The other child was ok.

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Trinity Grace ChurchA NYC hard had suffered critical injury after he fell from scaffolding at a church construction site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  The man who was employed by 4M Construction was doing brick work on the Trinity Grace Church located at 231 Ainslie Street in Williamsburg. He was on scaffolding when he fell two stories onto the sidewalk shed. The accident occurred Monday afternoon around 2pm.  The emergency responders rescued the man and rushed him to the hospital. A neighbor told the NY Daily News that he previously called 311 because he was worried about the unsafe conditions at the construction site.

Read more in the NY Daily News

Picture of the accident location: courtesy of Google Map