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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crash location3 people were injured in a car accident in New York early this morning. Around 1 AM this morning, a black sedan and a grey SUV  were driving South on Park Avenue.  They collided in front of a construction site on 85th street that occupied the right lane of Park Avenue. Speed may have been a factor. The collision was extremely violent and both cars were mangled. The driver of the SUV is in critical condition while the other driver and passenger of the sedan were also  seriously injured. The police are still investigating the exact cause of the accident.

The accident occurred on Park Ave South at the 85th Street intersection where the road is partially obstructed by the scaffolding of a construction site. According to CBS  News New York, it is the second accident that occurred near the construction site. Last month a construction worker was hit by a car at the same location.

picture of the crash location:courtesy of Google

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An NYPD officer was injured after being dragged by a car 200 feet. The accident occurred in Queens, NYC, Saturday around 2:00 am. The driver of a Honda blew a red light at the intersection of Guy Brewer and N. Conduit Boulevards in Jamaica. A police officer then approached the car and asked the driver to turn off his car. Instead, the driver, who according to the officer, was in his twenties, sped off, dragging the officer with him over 200 feet. The officer had his arm stuck in the seat belt. He was able to get off and fell away from the car. The car was found abandoned a few blocks away. The police are still looking for the driver. Read more in the NY Daily News

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A man suffered severe injury in a bicycle accident in New York City last Thursday. The police are still looking for the driver who hit him but fled.

59 year old Lorenzo Anderson was riding his bike in Astoria, Queens last Thursday  night around 10:45 pm when he was hit by a speeding Mercedes on 36th Ave . He was about a mile away from his home. The driver of the Mercedes then made a left onto 11th Street and stopped his car. He then exited it and ran off.  The passenger of the car didn’t flee. He was taken into custody to be questioned. Anderson was critically injured and transported to the hospital. He is still recovering from his injuries. (Read more in the NY Daily News)

Earlier last week, another bicyclist was the victim of a hit and run accident in New York City. 45 year old Greg Keller was riding his bike on Worth Street in Manhattan when a reckless driver started tailgating him. At one point the driver struck the back of the bicycle as he was trying to pass a car. Greg fell from his bike while the diver promptly took off. Horrified witnesses chased the car until the driver stopped.  He was forced to get back to the bicyclist and told him “Hey it was me I’m sorry.'”  The driver was then questioned by the police and issued a summons for failure to yield. The bicyclist was transported to the hospital to be treated for ligament damage to his shoulder. The police never questioned the bicyclist. Therefore after coming out of the hospital Greg Keller went to the precinct to add his personal feedback to the report.  The police told him the report was already completed and he “was making it worse for himself”. (Read more in the Gothamist)

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accident sceneA woman died in a car accident  after she entered the highway the wrong way.  Two other people were severely injured. The accident occurred early Sunday morning.  The driver of a dark grey SUV entered the North Bound lanes of the Hutchinson River Parkway in Scarsdale the wrong way and started to drive against traffic. The police received the first report of a car driving the wrong way just before 4:30 on Sunday morning but it was already too late. The dark grey SUV hit another grey SUV head-on. The driver of the car driving the wrong way was killed in the accident. The passenger as well as the driver of the other car were both critically injured.  The driver of a black sedan who swerved in the grass on the side of the highway to avoid the collision was fine.  A man working at a gas station just north of the accident told CBS News that it wasn’t the first time that a car was driving the wrong way on the parkway. He said it was happening quite often. The parkway was blocked for 11 hours to allow investigators to complete their accident reconstruction. It is still too early to know if alcohol or drugs were a factor. The investigators also still didn’t know where the driver entered the parkway. In recent years, there were several wrong way accidents in Westchester. Some say confusing signalization may be a factor.

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Best Lawyers Award Badge

Our NYC Personal Injury Law Firm is pleased to announce that 10 lawyers have been included in the 2018 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence.

Best Lawyers has published their list for over three decades, earning the respect of the profession, the media, and the public as the most reliable, unbiased source of legal referrals. Its first international list was published in 2006 and since then has grown to provide lists in over 75 countries.

“For more than a third of the century,” says CEO Steven Naifeh, “Best Lawyers has been the gold standard of excellence in the legal profession.” President Phil Greer adds, “We are extremely proud of that record and equally proud to acknowledge the accomplishments of these exceptional legal professionals.”

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A construction worker suffered minor injuries after collapsing at a construction site in Manhattan yesterday morning. The man was in a hard to reach area  of a construction site located at 348 West 14th Street, downtown Manhattan. The accident occurred around 9:00 am. Because of concerns about the stability of the building, firefighters had to use a tower ladder to get access to the worker and to remove him from the location where he passed out. The worker was then transported to the hospital. So far, the exact causes of the accident are unknown. However above average temperatures may have been a factor. (read more in the NY Daily News)

Every summer in America, thousands of construction workers are becoming ill because of the heat. Some even die. Here are a few guidelines that employers should make sure to follow if they want to prevent their workers from getting ill when the temperature rises:

  • New and temporary workers should always be closely monitored when starting to work during warm weather as they are the most affected by heat illnesses. Heat illnesses often occur during the first 3 days of work in the heat. One third of the fatal accidents related to heat occur on the first day of work in the heat.
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New York Personal Injury Peter SagirOur partner NYC personal injury lawyer Peter Saghir served on the faculty of the “Building Trial Skills: Northeast” program presented by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy at Hofstra University from August 7 to August 12 2017. Students in the program spent the week preparing for a mock trial which was held at the end of the program before current judges and lawyers. Peter spent his time teaching and working with students in the program on their direct examinations, openings and summations.

For over forty years, NITA has offered trial skills programming taught by the best trial lawyers in the country, volunteers who donate their time and dedicate it to your professional success. Nowhere but through NITA can you receive personalized coaching by a veritable “who’s who” of advocacy experts—trial lawyers, judges, and law professors—from coast to coast.

To learn more about this program or about the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, please click here

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96 people died and 27,923 suffered personal injuries in 110,992 motor vehicle accidents in New York City during the first 6 months of 2017 based on the most recent statistics released by the NYPD.

This is the first time that the number of people dying in NYC traffic accidents during the first six months of the year is below 100.  In 2013, before Mayor de Blasio launched Vision Zero, 121 people died in auto accidents in the city during the same period. Vision Zero was launched at the beginning of 2014 and since then the total number of people dying in NYC crashes slowly decreased from 110 during the first semester of 2014 to 107 during the first semester of 2015 and the first semester of 2016. It dropped to 96 for the same period of 2017. Multiple Vision Zero measures such as the reduction of the city speed limit to 25 mph as well as the installation of cameras may have contributed to this decline in fatal crashes.

traffic accident deaths in NYC for the first semester of 2013 to 2017
The decrease in traffic deaths in New York City occurred despite a significant increase in crashes over the last 4 years. In 2013, 99,474 crashes were reported to the NYPD during the first semester. This number increased steadily to 100,834 in 2014 and 104,636 in 2015. It then jumped to 111,588 in 2016. It decreased slightly during the first six months of this year to stabilize at 110,992. Distracted driving is the most common factor in these accidents.

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accident sceneA one year old baby suffered injuries after being hit by a yellow taxi.  The baby was sitting in a stroller next to the parents on the terrace of a restaurant  located at 85th Street and Second Avenue in the  Upper East Side of Manhattan when the accident happened. Two yellow taxis crashed into each other.  The impact caused one of the taxis to jump the curb and hit the stroller.  Two taxi passengers, a 46-year-old woman and a 9-year-old girl also suffered minor injuries. The two taxi  drivers  weren’t injured. They both jumped out of their taxis and started to argue. According to a witness, they didn’t seem to care much about the injured passengers or the family that they almost killed. Both drivers told the police that the other one didn’t have the green light. The police are still investigating the accident.  They are going to look at footage of the surveillance video camera from the restaurant to  figure out who was right and who was wrong. It was a miracle that no other pedestrians suffered  serious injury as the accident occurred during a sunny  Sunday afternoon  with terraces and sidewalks packed with people. Read more here

 

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Two men were injured in a manhole explosion in New York, on Saturday afternoon around 2:30 PM.  The men  were contractors for Con Edison.  They were  moving underground telephone lines at the intersection of second Avenue and E. 110 Street in Harlem when the explosion occurred. A Con Edison sign outside the manhole said “Repairing your electrical system”. The two workers suffered burns to their faces.  They were rushed to the hospital. One of them was in serious condition. The other one only suffered minor injuries. Witnesses said they heard a loud boom before seeing a lot of smoke coming out of the manhole.  The electricity went off in the neighborhood for 30 minutes after the accident. Read more in the New York Daily News

Manhole accidents are unfortunately all too common in New York City  in the summertime.  During particularly hot days in the city, the air conditioning usage leads to an increase in the consumption of electricity all over the city. Over heated electrical cables then become more susceptible to fail. Often the insulation that protects the cable breaks down. Insulation break down is one of the most common cable failures resulting in manhole explosions.

With 94,000 miles of cable, New York City has the largest underground electrical system in the world. Some of the cables are very old and were installed prior to 1930. These cables are suffering not only from corrosion caused by the salty water leaking down on them during the winter but also from rat bites and vibrations from traffic.  According to an article in NBC News manhole explosions are occurring in New York City more than in any other city of the US. A report from Con Edison  indicates that in 2014, 3,349 manhole events were recorded during the year. A manhole event is an accident classification that ranges from a few puffs of smoke from a short-circuit to the dangerous and frightening explosions that hurl metal discs weighing anywhere from 70 to 300 pounds toward the heavens. Read the complete article here