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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Tappan_Zee_Bridge_tower_construction_NY14 people were injured in a crane accident in New York. A giant crane collapsed  on Tuesday around noon on the Tappan Zee bridge landing on the 8 lanes of the highway (see video). It is a miracle that no vehicle were struck by the crane and nobody was killed in the accident said New York Governor Cuomo in a press conference in Tarrytown, NY.  Only 3 motorists trying to avoid the falling crane and a construction worker were treated for minor injuries. Witnesses said they saw the crane operating normally and all of sudden falling sideways on the highway blocking the traffic in both ways for the whole afternoon.

28 cranes like this one are operating on the Tappan Zee Bridge construction site which is the largest infrastructure project in the US. The crane was a new MLC 300 manufactured by Manitowoc Cranes with a 256 feet long boom. At the time of the accident, construction workers were using a vibratory hammer to install pilings, a routine task that is not considered dangerous or challenging.

Officials are investigating the cause of the collapse. They said the wind wasn’t an issue. The operator of the crane stayed at the scene and was tested for drugs and alcohol.

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Reports of people suffering personal injury while playing Pokemon Go are growing as players glued to their phone screen forget to evaluate their surroundings. The Daily Mail reports that a man broke his collar bone on the first day of the game release and that doctors reported a lot of bruises, blisters, sunburns and some sprains, fractures and broken bones as well.

Despite being a great way to get teenagers and young people to  do some outdoor activities, some of them are so enthusiastic about the game that they forget about basic dangers. Crossing the busy New York City  intersections with your eyes glued to your phone screen is not a good idea.  Driving your car while playing Pokemon Go is a total no no. In New York a man crashed his car into a tree while playing Pokemon Go while driving.  Riding your bike while playing Pokemon Go is also dangerous and not recommended.  The NYPD  recently issued a statement on how to safely catch Pokemons and also recommend that people travel in groups to avoid being targeted by predators.

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To prevent kids from dying when they get hit hard in the chest while playing baseball, the city of New York offered free defibrillators to all male youth baseball teams but not the female softball teams. Apparently the city’s budget for defibrillators was not sufficient to cover all youth baseball and soft ball teams so they just offered them to the boys teams. The softball coaches are outraged and asked the city why the youth female teams do not get a free defibrillator.  Despite statistics showing that commotio cordis happens more frequently to young male players than female players both boys and girls deserves the same protection in case of such an accident.

When a baseball or softball player get hit hard in the chest by a ball, he or she can suffer commotio cordis which is a condition during which the heart stops working properly. It affects mostly young athletes and leads to deaths in 65% of the cases.  Victims are usually saved from death using a defibrillator to provide a shock to the heart to try to restart it.

Last May Mayor deBlasio signed a law to provide a free automated external defibrillator for baseball leagues who play on city fields but not for the softball teams or other sports teams.

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A mother died and  her daughter was seriously injured in a car accident in New York City yesterday. The 41-year-old woman was riding in a car driven by her husband.  She and  Her 9-year-old daughter were sitting in the backseat. A 71-year-old man  was riding in the car with them in the front passenger seat. They were driving north on 130th Street in South Ozone Park in Queens around 5:00 pm. As they drove  through the intersection of 115th Ave, a speeding BMW  that just blew a red light crashed into them violently. Witnesses said it  sounded like a bomb.  The impact was so strong that the mother and the daughter were ejected  from the car and landed on the street. The mother died and the daughter was seriously injured. The father as well as the passenger were also injured but in stable condition. The driver of the BMW ran away leaving behind him an injured passenger. Read more in the NY Daily News 

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imageA drunk off duty cop killed a pedestrian and injured 3 others in Brooklyn, NYC, Sunday around 3:00 am.  21 year old Andrew Esquivel (photo ), a MIT student interning in New York for the summer , was walking home when he was hit by an out of control car that jumped the curb. Another man and two other women were seriously injured in the accident. The driver of the car was off duty NYPD Officer Nicholas Batka who was allegedly drunk but refused a breathalyzer test. He was charged with vehicular manslaughter, three counts of assault, driving while intoxicated, driving with impaired ability and driving on a sidewalk. Read more in the NY Daily News 

 

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A man was seriously injured after a piece of plywood from a security fence at a  construction site fell on him. The man was walking on the sidewalk at the South East  corner of 30th St. and Fifth Avenue in NYC yesterday around 4 PM when the accident happened. An 8 feet long piece of plywood that was not properly secured fell on him, knocking him down to the ground. He was transported to the hospital in serious condition.  See video below for more.

A similar accident happened in the West Village at the beginning of the year. A woman who was passing by was killed by a piece of plywood that detached from a construction site security fence. See previous blog 

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A man in his 70s suffered serious injury after being struck by a tractor-trailer truck in Queens, NYC. The man was crossing Jamaica Ave. near 168th Street around noon when he was hit by a dairy truck. His legs got pinned under the wheels and were severely mangled. An airbag was used by the first responders to lift the wheel from the man’s leg. He was then transported to the hospital. The pedestrian suffered massive leg injury but he was expected to survive. The truck driver who stayed at the scene of the accident wasn’t charged.

Read more in the NY Daily News

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20 people died and dozens suffered personal injury  after two trains collided  head-on on a single track. The accident took place in Corato, near Bari  in Italy. The two trains that collided belong to a local private rail company, Ferrotramviaria SpA. The company operates around 20 electrical trains in the region. It connects Bari, the capital of Puglia with regional towns to the north and the airport, operating about 20 small electric trains. It serves mostly students and commuters.

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An eight year old boy died from his injuries after  accidentally drowning in the swimming pool of a cruise ship  that had just left New  York and was heading to the  Caribbeans.  Prince Andepoju from Maryland,  was a passenger abroad the Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas that had just left  the city on June 30. The cruise ship was on the New Jersey coast when the young boy was found in the pool. He was alive but was critically injured. He was transported to Staten Island University hospital where he died on July 2nd.  The boy was struggling in the pool for 8 to 10 minutes until someone found him.  According to the city Medical Examiner, he  died from accidental  drowning. Seizure disorders were also a contributing factor in the death of the young boy, the Medical Examiner added.

Read more in the NY Daily News

 

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crashIGA driver died and a pedestrian was injured in a NYC car accident involving a cell phone thief who was involved in a high-speed chase by the police. After allegedly steeling a cell phone at the Queens Village Auto Body shop on Hempstead Avenue, 51 year old Derrick Perkins fled in his BMW. The police were alerted about the theft and Perkins was identified by plainclothes officers in an unmarked car. The police officers tried to stop his car but the man fled. A chase followed. At the intersection of 225th Street and Linden Boulevard, the suspect ran a red light and hit a car.  The impact was so strong that the car careened onto the sidewalk striking a 29 year old pedestrian. The pedestrian suffered a leg injury and was transported to the hospital. The innocent car driver 78-year-old Roxina Clayton was killed in the accident.

The NYPD Patrol Guide states, “Department Policy requies that a vehicle pursuit be terminated whenever the risks to uniformed members of the service and the public outweigh the danger to the community if  suspect is not immediately apprehended.” Among the factors to be considered is the nature of the offence.

Read more in the Gothamist .