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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best law firm-badge-2017Our New York Personal Injury Law Firm was listed in six practice areas in the newly released 2017 ranking of the Best Law Firms by U.S. News and Best Lawyers®. For the seventh consecutive year our firm was named a a top tier Law Firm for the New York City Metropolitan area in Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs, Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs, Medical Malpractice – Plaintiffs, Legal Malpractice – Plaintiffs and Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs. The firm also ranked nationally in the top tier in Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs.

Firms included in the 2017 “Best Law Firms” list are recognized for professional excellence with persistently impressive ratings from clients and peers. Achieving a tiered ranking signals a unique combination of quality law practice and breadth of legal expertise.

The 2017 rankings are based on the highest number of participating firms and highest number of client ballots on record. To be eligible for a ranking, a firm must have a lawyer listed in The Best Lawyers in America, which recognizes the top 4 percent of practicing attorneys in the U.S. Over 10,000 attorneys provided more than 800,000 law firm assessments, and over 10,000 clients provided more than 90,000 evaluations.

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view of car accident location by Goggle mapA woman suffered critical personal injury in a car accident in New York on Sunday morning around 10:30. The 60 year old pedestrian was crossing East 38th Street at the Queens Midtown Tunnel entrance when the accident happened. She was hit by a black SUV and dragged by the car for a block before being dislodged. The SUV driver fled the scene of the accident. The woman was transported to the hospital in critical condition. The police are still looking for the driver.

Picture: accident location courtesy of Google Map

 

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fatal NYC fire accidentOne person died and 13 others were injured in a  fire accident in New York. Around 3:30 am yesterday morning a fire broke out in a residential building located on E. 93rd Street between 1st Ave and 2nd Ave. The building was a five-story building with 10 apartments. 250 firefighters were called to the rescue to battle the 6-alarm blaze. Most residents were able to get out using the fire escape. A resident living on the third floor wasn’t able to make it and died in the blaze. 3 other residents were injured as well as 8 firefighters. An elderly resident was saved by a courageous firefighter who used a dangerous technique known as roof-rope rescue.  Jim Lee was lowered on a rope off the roof of the building to save an elderly resident who was screaming for help from his third floor window. The courageous firefighter grabbed the man from his window and pulled him down to safety before the rope burned through. Residents said fire alarms woke them up in the middle of the night. They smelled smoke and quickly realized they had to evacuate the building. The fire erupted on one of the top floors of the building. Further investigation will be necessary to determine what caused the blaze.

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3415 Neptune Ave street viewA baby girl died in an elevator accident in New York City on Thursday.  Her mother was also injured in the accident. She was expected to survive. Last  Thursday around 10:30 am, 21 year old Aber Al-Rabahi put her 6 month old daughter Areej Ali in her stroller and headed out of her apartment for a walk. Aber Al-Rabahi and her daughter called the elevator on the 23rd floor of of the Sea Rise, a residential building located at 3415 Neptune Avenue, in Coney Island, Brooklyn. As the elevator doors opened, the mother pushed the stroller inside and walked in without  realizing that the car was stuck 6 feet below. The mother landed on the top of her daughter on the roof of the elevator. The elevator fell down eight stories where the the mom and her daughter landed on the roof. A maintenance worker who heard the mother screaming ran to the rescue. The mother and the infant were both transported to the hospital. The infant was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. The mother is expected to survive.

Neighbors told the NY Daily News that both elevators in the building were constantly having problems. On Wednesday night tenants complained that the elevator was not functioning proprely. A mechanic from Centennial Elevator Co. had arrived an hour before the accident. He was working on the elevator when the accident happened. Centennial Elevator has two open OSHA investigations . One of them is related to one of their employees who lost an arm  while repairing an elevator in New York City last May (see previous blog).

According to the Gothamist, this is the second time that someone was killed in an elevator accident at the Sea Rise Complex. In 1991, Chandler  Johnson bumped into the door of the same elevator. The door opened and Chandler fell to his death down the shaft. Since the young man died, there were 147 elevator violations in the building.

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LIRR_Train33 people suffered personal injury in a train crash in Long Island, NY on Saturday night. A Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) train carrying 600 passengers sideswiped a maintenance train and derailed just East of the New Hide Park station in Nassau County. The accident occurred around 9:00 pm. The Huntington Bound passenger train was coming from New York City. After the crash, scared passengers were trapped in the dark for up to an hour until they could be rescued. Among the people injured, 27 were passengers and 7 were workers. The New York Times reported 4 serious injuries.

In a press conference, NY Governor Cuomo told reporters that the accident could have been worse. He also said that the maintenance train violated clearance and intruded into the space of the commuter train. The passenger train sideswiped the maintenance train causing some cars to derail. Yellow paint from the maintenance train was found on the passenger train where the side swipe occurred.

Further investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board  will determine why the maintenance train violated clearance. Regulations related to operation of work equipment are different than regulations related to operation of passenger trains. According to Union sources the maintenance train was operated by a non union LIRR employee.

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the truck that struck the bicyclistA bicyclist suffered critical injury after being struck by a tractor trailer truck in New York City.  The accident happened yesterday morning around 7:15 am at the intersection of Jay Street and Tillary Street in Brooklyn. According to Streetblog the truck struck the bicyclist while making a right from Jay onto Tillary. The victim, a 35 year old man, got stuck under the truck.  His left leg was completely mangled and  he suffered massive head trauma according to the NY Daily News.  He was transported to the hospital in critical condition.

The truck driver stayed at the scene of the accident and hasn’t been charged. The truck was a tractor trailer truck belonging to Mountain Man Sand and Gravel. The truck was on an authorized truck road however it was larger than 55 feet long. Trucks larger than 55 feet long are only allowed in New York City if they transport material that is “non-divisible” and have special authorization. In the case of this accident, the Gothamist indicates that the truck was a Mac trailer Dump truck.  There is a high probability that the truck was not legally authorized to drive where the accident happened. This is the second time this year that a bicyclist has been struck by an over-sized truck driving in a pedestrians and bicyclists area. In April, a cyclist died after being struck by a tractor trailer truck which was illegally driving in a Brooklyn residential area (see previous blog).

Jay Street is considered one of the most dangerous streets for bicyclists in New York City. Recently, the DOT started to remodel the street and add protected bike lanes. However at the intersection of Jay and Tillary protective bike lanes are still nonexistent. Since the beginning of the year, 3 people were injured in bicycle accidents at this intersection according to Vision Zero Map. Also according to data from Transportation Alternatives there were 41 pedestrian and bicyclist accidents at this location between 2002 and 2011.

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Daniel+Pollack-1When a vulnerable individual is injured or dies because of negligent supervision the term “line of sight” is often used. In a recent article, Daniel Pollack, a professor at the School of Social Work, Yeshiva University, in New York City, looks at the meaning of “line of sight”.

If an individual requires continuous line of sight supervision, what does it mean exactly? Does it mean that a supervisor must constantly have his or her eyes on the individual? Does it mean that a person must have an unobstructed  view of the room where the individual is? Daniel Pollack relied on his previous experience as an attorney for the Ohio Department of Youth Services to explain that the interpretation of “line of sight” varies depending on cases.

The complete article can be downloaded here

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25 people died and 5,383 were injured in motor vehicle accidents in New York City last August. During this month, the NYPD recorded a total number of 19,388 traffic accidents. Motor vehicle accidents have been on the rise in New York City over recent years. From 16,729 in August 2013 the number of accidents steadily increased to 17,000 in August 2014 and  18,862 in August 2015. A monthly record was reached last June with 20,362 accidents.

NYC traffic accidents August 2016
In an attempt to reduce the number of deaths related to these accidents, New York The de Blasio administration launched Vision Zero at the beginning of 2014. Since then, the number of fatal traffic accidents has been on a declining trend despite an increase in the total number of crashes.  After reaching a monthly record low of 11 in March 2016, fatal traffic accidents spiked again to 29 last June and 25 last August.

NYC traffic accident deaths August 2016
While Vision Zero may have helped in curbing the number of deaths on the road, the number of people injured in motor vehicle accidents in New York City continued to rise over in recent years. In August 2013, 4,846 people were injured in NYC traffic accidents. This number decreased slightly in 2014 to 4,445 before increasing again in August 2015 to 4,737 and reaching almost 6,000 in August 2016.

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Our NY personal injury law firm is proud to announce that our partners Ben Rubinowitz and Richard Steigman obtained a $7.75 million settlement in  a snowmobile accident in Saranac Lake, NY.

snowmobile accident
The plaintiffs, Thomas Taylor (63) and Linda Taylor (57) were guests at The Point at Saranac Lake, a luxury 5-star hotel in Franklin County. The plaintiffs claimed that the hotel arranged a snowmobile tour with Adirondack Snowmobile Rental. The tour was set up by the hotel for the plaintiffs and four other guests (2 other couples) who were also staying at the hotel. All 6 of the guests were beginners – each of whom had never been on a snowmobile before.Payment was arranged through the hotel. The hotel not only arranged the tour but charged the guests 20% extra for this service.

The Tour Guide, Robert Pinsdorf, an employee of Adirondack Snowmobile, started the tour approximately 10 miles from the hotel, at a campground know as Charlie’s Inn. The hotel guests were given a 10-20 minute lesson in the operation of the snowmobile; however, the guide was charged with the responsibility of leading the guests on the tour and keeping them safe throughout the tour. The plaintiffs claimed that they were unfamiliar with the trails, road crossing and trail signs. Although the first hour of the tour went fine during the second hour, one of the snowmobiles broke down due to a faulty drive belt. The tour guide then decided to head back to Charlie’s Inn to get another belt. He left one guest in the broken snowmobile and took one guest with him on his snowmobile. He told the others to follow him. It was claimed that he was in a rush and, at this time, failed to protect the novice snowmobilers by traveling ahead of them without warning them of road crossings and stop signs and without knowing where they were. Plaintiff s decedent, Thomas Taylor, failed to stop for a stop sign. It was claimed that he was unaware that he was traveling towards a road and stop sign. It was at this point that the plaintiff s decedent crossed the road, without stopping, and was struck by a van driven by an elderly man (who was dismissed from the case on summary judgment).

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OImage result for hoboken train terminalne person died and around 100 were injured in a train crash in Hoboken, just across the Hudson River from New York City. The train entered the terminal at high speed, crashed into the barriers and jumped onto the platform. The accident occurred yesterday morning during rush hour. Thousands of commuters were crowding the station. The impact was so strong that the concourse inside the terminal was torn apart. The ceiling fell onto the locomotive.

34 year old Fabiola Bittar de Kroon had just dropped her 18 month old child at a day care center and was waiting at the terminal to catch a train. During the accident, she was fatally hit by debris. A little more than 100 people were also injured by flying debris. More than 70 of them had to be transported to the hospital to be treated.  The young woman who was killed was a Brazilian lawyer. She had just moved to the United States a year ago to be with her husband, a businessman who had recently been relocated to New York by his company. De Kroon’s husband, Dann,  was in Pennsylvania for his work when the accident happened. He rushed back to the city to pick up his daughter at the day care center. He was clearly distraught. He asked the owner of the center  “How do you tell an 18-month-old that her mother is gone?”

The terminal was closed to the public Today as federal investors are inspecting the site of the train accident. The National Transportation Safety Board is turning its attention to the train engineere, Thomas Gallager, to better understand what he was doing during the crash.  Gallager who was rescued from his crumbled cabin, is fully cooperating. Gallager has been a train engineer for 29 years. According to his neighbor, Gallager wanted to be a train engineer since he was a kid and was enthusiastic about how much he loved his job.

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