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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Mom_w_upset_childRecovering from a personal injury is often a long process that will affect not only the person injured but all the members of his or her family. Injuries sometimes take a longer time to heal than expected and may require the use of crutches, wheelchairs or other medical devices. Family members are often being forced to make important lifestyle changes to cope with the recovery of their loved one.  When faced with this type of situation parents and children often experience challenging and distressing emotional reactions.

The Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress (CPTS) at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has a new portal dedicated to family members who suffer emotional stress related to personal injury.  This portal provides advice and information on:

  • dealing with hospital stress
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12 people suffered minor injuries after a bus crashed into a building in New York City. The accident was caused by a drug dealer who was caught by the police with 64 bags of crack cocaine in his car.  Yesterday night around 9:30 pm the police pulled over 24 year old Chevron Parchement because he was not wearing a seat belt. The young man sped away and the police chased him. He ran  a red light and was T-boned by a bus which was traveling east on S. Conduit Road in Springfield Gardens, Queens, NYC. The impact of the collision was so strong that the bus swerved off the road , slammed into two parked cars and finally crashed into the side of a two-story house in which the owner was celebrating his birthday. Thankfully no one inside the house was injured. 12 bus passengers suffered minor personal injury and were taken to the hospital to be treated. The driver of the car was arrested and arraigned. Read more here and here

 

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A woman died and at least 13 people suffered personal injury in a New York City gas explosion last week-end.  The gas explosion took place at 4206 13th Avenue near 42nd Street in Borough Park, Brooklyn, around 1 pm on Saturday afternoon. The front of the building was completely destroyed and 200 firefighters were called to stop the blaze.  According to investigators the gas explosion may have been caused by a tenant that had recently been evicted. In the tenant’s apartment, investigators discovered that a stove was disconnected from its gas hook. They suspect that the tenant who is still missing but was identified as Francisca Figueroa, was trying to commit suicide. She had recently posted suicidal messages on social media. Read more in the Gothamist

UPDATE:

An article that came out tonight in the Daily News indicates that Francisca Figueroa was working for a Beauty Salon and that she may have used chemicals from the salon to create the explosion. Apparently the gas had been turned off for non payment.

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After hearing about multiple complaints of tenants being endangered by construction work in their building often because unscrupulous landlords are trying to push them out and rent at a higher price (see previous blog), the New York City Council today introduced a new package of bills intended to stop these dangerous practices. A total of a dozen bills are pushing for more and quicker enforcement by the NYC Buildings Department. One of the bills proposes the creation of a special unit that would send inspectors to the site within two hours after a complaint of non permitted work is received. Other bills address falsified claims in which the owner pretends the building is vacant when it is not. Tenants advocates are claiming that harassment has reached unbearable levels in gentrifying neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side and that the Department of Buildings is too lenient.

Read more in the New York Times

 

 

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Injuries and fatal crashes Woodhaven NYCBased on New York crash statistics analyzed from July 2012 to December  2014, the most dangerous intersections on Woodhaven Boulevard were:

  • 101st Ave & Woodhaven Blvd with 42 crashes, 62 injuries and 1 fatality
  • Jamaica Ave & Woodhaven Blvd with 38 crashes, 52 injuries and 2 fatalities
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imageFalls in hospitals can cause serious personal injury and sometimes death. Every year hundreds of thousands of people are falling in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, nursing facilities or other healthcare facilities. 30 to 50% of them will sustain injury. Elderly people are not the only ones at risk. Medical conditions, medication, surgery, medical procedures or diagnostic testings for example can result in weakening and confusion for any patient independently of his or her age and increase the risk of a fall.

According to a recent alert from the Joint Commission, falls in hospitals are a prevalent patient safety problem. Even though it can be difficult and complex to prevent, hospital can take action to prevent them. Here are recommendations suggested by the Joint Commission:

  • Raise awareness about the risk of falls by communicating it to clinical and non clinical staff at every level as well as to patients and their family
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A young man was seriously injured after being struck by a car in New York City a little bit before 10:00 pm yesterday night. The pedestrian was crossing Union Turnpike near Woodhaven Blvd, in Forest Hills, Queens, when he was hit by the negligent driver. According to a witness, the car didn’t break and struck the pedestrian at full speed. The impact was so hard that the pedestrian went flying against a metallic dumpster at the corner of the street. The  didn’t stop and fled the scene. The pedestrian was transported to the hospital in critical condition. Read more in the NY Daily News

A year ago, a participant at a Vision Zero Queens South workshop pinpointed the dangerous intersection of Union Turnpike and Woodhaven Blvd (see picture below). Forrest Hill residents consider Union Turnpike very unsafe for both pedestrians and bicyclists. Last year the speed limit was lowered to 25 mph and this summer the police cracked down on speeding drivers to try to prevent accidents such as the one that happened yesterday night.

Vision Zero Union Turnpike and Woodhaven Blvd

 

 

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Rubinowitz Carnemolla SaghirWe are proud to announce that a bicycle accident verdict and an auto accident settlement obtained by our New York personal injury attorneys have been listed in the 2015 New York Law Journal’s New York’s Verdict & Settlement Hall of Fame. Induction into the New York’s Verdicts and Settlements Hall of Fame is based on five years of verdicts and settlements submitted to the Verdict Search database. Those cases that could not be submitted due to confidentiality restraints were not considered. The practice area focus for this year’s Hall of Fame honors is Motor Vehicle.

The two cases handled by our firm that made it to the Hall of Fame are “Ortiz v. New York Transit Authority” and “Estate of Farinacci v. Powell”. In the first case, our personal injury attorneys Ben Rubinowitz and Peter Saghir obtained a $8.57 million verdict for a bicyclist who suffered degloving injuries to her leg after being struck by a MTA bus in Manhattan. In the second case, attorneys Ben Rubinowitz and Diana Carnemolla obtained a $8 million settlement for the husband and the 4 year old child of a 22 year old mother who was killed by a drunk driver. This settlement was the largest award in the State of New York for the wrongful death of a mother leaving one child surviving her.

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A motorcyclist was critically injured and 10 other people suffered minor injury after a bus collided with a car in New York City last Wednesday. The accident happened at the intersection of Woodhaven Boulevard and 81st Road in Woodhaven, Queens. The bus that was transporting special needs adults collided with a Nissan Sedan. The impact was so hard that the bus rocked and almost tipped while the front of the Nissan sustained severe damage trapping the driver. Good Samaritans ran to him and tried to get him out of the car by breaking the windows. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Read more in the NY Daily News

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4,737 people were injured and 21 died in 18,862 traffic accidents in New York City in August according to recent statistics released by the NYPD. The number of motor vehicle accidents has been increasing steadily over the last three years however the number of deaths and injuries are both on a declining trend in the city (click on graphs for a larger view) which indicates that New York City streets are getting a little safer.

Motor Vehicle Accidents Injuries Deaths New York City August 2015
Pedestrians are the most at risk of dying in a traffic accident in New York City. They represent more than half of the traffic fatalities. Last month 11 of them died after being struck by a vehicle compared to 6 during the previous month and 10 in August 2014.

While pedestrian fatalities are on a downtrend, bicycle accident fatalities have been increasing since the beginning of 2013. Last August 3 cyclists died in accidents. 3 cyclists also died in July bringing to 11 the total number of people who died in a bicycle accident this year. During the same period of 2013 and 2014  there were respectively 7 and 15 bicycle accident fatalities.