Wrongful Death

Published on: March 17, 2023

Crosstown protected bike lanes can reduce the number of bicycle accident injuries and deaths in NYC

As personal injury lawyers and bicycle accident lawyers, we applaud the recent decision by the Upper West Side Community Board 7 to back crosstown protected bike lanes. This move is a significant step forward in promoting safer cycling and reducing the number of bicycle accidents in New York City.

Cycling is a popular mode of transportation in New York, and it is essential to have adequate infrastructure to support it. Protected bike lanes provide a safe and secure environment for cyclists to ride, reducing the risk of collisions with motor vehicles, pedestrians, or other obstacles on the road. Studies have shown that protected bike lanes can reduce the number of crashes by up to 90%.

Bicycle accidents often result in catastrophic injuries or death

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Published on: March 7, 2023

2 people died and 3 were injured including one critically after being hit by reckless and drunk drivers in NYC this last weekend

By GGCRBHS&M

Several people were seriously injured or died in car accidents in New York City this last week-end. 2 pedestrians died. One cyclist was critically injured. Another pedestrian suffered serious injury and one motorist suffered minor injuries, all caused by reckless driving.

Young mother killed by drunk driver

The carnage started on Friday night with the death of a 23 year old pedestrian, identified as Tecinna Bahadur. The young mother was killed by a drunk driver on on the Van Wyck Expressway Service Road near 107th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. The driver who killed her was identified as 41 year old Athony Ramjit. He was arrested by the police and charged with DWI (read more in 1010 WINS).

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Published on: March 3, 2023

Cyclist dies after being struck by a car on NYC residential street

By GGCRBHS&M

A man died in a bicycle accident in New York City last Friday. 52 year old James Giambalvo was on his way to the supermaket, riding his bike on Wilson Avenue in Great Kills, Staten Island, NYC when he was side swiped by the driver of a SUV. The accident occurred near the intersection of Armstrong Avenue around 10:30 am.

According to the SILive, the victim was struck and pinned under the SUV which also sideswiped another car and knocked down a street sign. The driver of the car, a woman in her 30s remained at the scene of the accident. She has not been charged so far.

A large crew of police and emergency staff was deployed at the scene of the accident.

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Published on: March 2, 2023

79 people have been killed in 69 truck accidents involving contractors hired by the U.S. Postal Service over the last 3 years

By GGCRBHS&M

Last June, 5 people including a baby were killed in a truck accident involving a truck carrying mail for the U.S. postal service. Investigation found that the truck driver who didn’t have a valid commercial license, got distracted and slammed into a car as traffic was slowing down. An entire family was killed. The truck was carrying U.S. postal mail and belonged to Caminantes Trucking from Long Beach, California. Caminantes is one of the many truck contractors that USPS hire to carry its mail across the country. Investigation of the accident by the DOT indicates that Caminantes has a history of similar violations over the last 10 years.

Five months after the crash, as USPS continued to work with Caminantes, a 9News tv investigation looked back at the accident and at the truck company’s troubled past. The investigation found that the truck driver was travelling at 75 mph when it crashed into the back of the car that had slowed down because of traffic and was moving at only 5mph. 9News also checked the federal records of Caminantes and found out that the company was involved in two other deadly crashes over the past two years. 3 drivers were caught without valid commercial licenses. The company also had several violations for drug and alcohol testing. After the deadly accident that killed the family, the company was fined $21,460 by the Federal Motor Carriers Association but continued to carry the mail for the U.S. Postal service. The driver responsible for the accident was not charged and Caminantes continued to operate as well.

Finally after the tv investigation, USPS announced it was reviewing its contract and relationship with Caminantes and said in February that it would stop to work with the truck contractor.

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Published on: February 28, 2023

Construction accident fatalities on the rise in NY State and New York City

By GGCRBHS&M

After a dip in 2020, construction accident deaths in New York State and New York City were on the rise again in 2021 according to the recently released “Deadly Skyline” report. “Deadly Skyline” is an annual report released by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH). NYCOSH uses the most recent available data from the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (DOL BLS) to compile an annual report on construction accident deaths in New York City and New York State.

A total of 61 hard hats died in NY State in 2021 compared to respectively 71, 69, 58, 55 and 41 in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Since 2016, during which a record number of construction workers died in NYS, the number of fatalities gradually declined to reach its lowest since 2013. While the slowdown in construction activity due to the Covid19 lockdown was a factor in the 2020 dip, the number of fatalities reported in 2021 jumped above the number of fatalities reported in 2019 and 2018.

Among the 61 construction workers who died in NY State, 20 of them died while working on a construction site in NYC. Construction workers fatalities also increased in 2021 in NYC compared to 2020 but remain lower or equal to the number of fatalities reported annually between 2013 and 2019 in the city. With the exception of 2020, construction fatalities in NYC never went below 20 since 2012 ands the only time they went down to 20 was in 2017.

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Published on: February 16, 2023

NYC DOT rejects all City Councils safety bills to reduce traffic accident injuries and fatalities

By GGCRBHS&M

Last year traffic fatalities in New York City reached their second highest level since Vision Zero started in 2014. Last year was also the first year in office for the Adams Administration and the new DOT Commissioner, Ydanis Rodriguez.

Yesterday in an oversight hearing with the City Council, Rodriguez admitted that his department has been unable to reach specific street safety benchmarks required by the Council’s landmark 2019 Streets Plan. Last year the DOT only upgraded 14 bus stops out of the 500 planned and installed 4.4 miles of the 20 miles of protected bus lanes as well as 26.3 miles of the 30 protected bike lanes required.

The bills proposed by the City Council are not going far enough according to street activists

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Published on: February 10, 2023

To reduce car accidents deaths, The US Department of Transportation applies Vision Zero principles at national level

By GGCRBHS&M

An estimated 42,915 people died in crashes in the US in 2021.Traffic accident fatalities which had been on a declining trend for 30 years started to increase since 2020. Last year, the US DOT announced that it would apply the Vision Zero concept nationally to tackle this problem.

New Yorkers are familiar with Vision Zero which started in 2014. The program was successful at the beginning but got out of hand since the Covid19 crisis. The program was good at identifying dangerous corridors and areas that needed improvements but the implementations of safety measures in dangerous areas, especially those located in historically disadvantaged communities remained too often unrealized. As a result, most road fatalities in New York City still occur in dangerous areas that had been identified as such almost 10 years ago. Just like in 2014 in New York City, the US DOT did some outstanding in-depth research and developed amazing interactive maps to point out dangerous areas in each community of the entire country.

The work of the DOT is extremely impressive:

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Published on: February 9, 2023

After a construction worker died in Poughkeepsie, contractor pleads guilty to willfully violating OSHA rules

By GGCRBHS&M

The negligence of a contractor caused the death of a construction worker in Poughkeepsie in 2017. Maximiliano Saban died and another of his colleague suffered personal injury after a wall collapsed on them.

The wall collapsed because the contractor, Finbar O-Neil who owns OneKey LLC, did not follow OSHA safety rules. O-Neil had to implement a soil compacting plan involving piling large quantities of dirt called surcharges on top of the construction sites of 3 buildings. An engineering company prepared the plan on how to use the surcharges. However to gain time, O-Neil decided that, instead of following the plan, he would build a wall that would retain one of the surcharges so that workers could start to work on the building next to it. He made the decision on his own without consulting with engineers to know if the wall would sustain the surcharges.

On the day of the accident, some construction workers complained that construction machines were on the top of the surcharges adding dirt to it. Later on during the day, Maximiliano and a colleague were working next to the wall when it collapsed. They both ran away but Maximiliano was unable to escape.

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Published on: February 2, 2023

The Grieving Families Act that would have modernized the NY Wrongful Death Law dating from 1847 was vetoed by the NY Governor

By GGCRBHS&M

The Grieving Families Act, a wrongful death bill that would allow courts to consider emotional damages when calculating financial compensation in a wrongful death lawsuit was vetoed by NY Governor Kathie Hochul. The bill also extended the statute of limitation and extended the definition of family to not only the parents but to other loved ones close to the person who died such as siblings, grandparents or domestic partners.

Our partner, NY wrongful death attorney Jeffrey Bloom, who was instrumental in helping the bill pass the Assembly and the Senate spoke to CBS News in the video below.

New York wrongful death law has not been updated since 1847 and the bill that was passed last June with a large bipartisan majority by both chambers in Albany would have modernized the actual pre-civil war wrongful death statute

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Published on: January 31, 2023

New York City car accident fatalities remained alarmingly high last year while injuries remain lower than ususal

By GGCRBHS&M

More pedestrians and more passengers died in auto accidents in 2022 than in 2021 while cyclists and motor vehicle operators fatalities declined. Bus accidents increased while truck accidents remained stable. Motorcycle accidents remain at record levels.

After reaching a record high in 2021, NYC traffic deaths reached their second highest number since Vision Zero started in 2014

According to traffic collision data provided by the NYPD, 251 people died in crashes in the city in 2022 compared to respectively 254, 239, 214, 199, 209, 223, 235, 250 and 286 in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. As a reminder, NYPD traffic collision data might differ slightly from the real data, especially for fatalities as sometimes people died from their injuries several days or weeks after the accident occurred.

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