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 Wrongful Death

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Ghost bike showing locations of previous NYC deadly bicycle accidentsThe NYPD just announced that an e-bike rider was killed in a an accident in Manhattan on July 11th around 12:40 am. The accident occurred on the Second Avenue bike lane near 89th Street. For reasons that so far are unknown, the cyclist who was a delivery person, lost control of the bike and hit a pole. He suffered traumatic brain injury and was pronounced dead upon his arrival to the hospital.

Another young delivery man on a bike died in a crash in the Bronx a week before.  21 year old Christian Castelan was killed by a hit and run driver at the intersection of East 172nd Street and Metcalf Avenue in the Bronx. According to witnesses, a white jeep that had been reported stolen a week before, turned too fast, hit the young cyclist and pinned him against another car. As witnesses ran to help the victim and gathered around him, the driver, a woman, got out of the car, picked up a baby on the back seat and got on board of another car that came to pick her up. Witnesses did not even notice she disappeared.  Christian Castelan had just turned 21 year old last May. He was born in New York and then returned to Mexico when he was a young boy. After he turned 18, he returned to the Bronx and worked as a food delivery person. A vigil was held last Thursday night.

Also in the Bronx, five days earlier, another e-bike rider was killed in a car accident. 26 year old Victoriano Angeles was driving his e-bike on St. Ann’s Ave in Mott Haven in the Bronx when he collided with a 2013 Chevrolet Impala.

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Hylan and Richard where the 3 teens died in a crash3 teenagers who were passengers in a Mustang driven by another teenager were killed in a car crash in New York City on Sunday night. The horrific accident occurred around 8:50 pm on Hylan Boulevard at the intersection of Richard Avenue in Pleasant Plain, Staten Island, NYC. The victims are Ashley Rodriguez who was planning to celebrate her sweet 16 next week, 15 year old Jessie Gil and 16 year old Fernanda Gil. All 3 were passengers in a red Ford Mustang driven by a 16 year old boy who only had a learners permit and was supposed to drive while accompanied by a licensed adult. The 3 passengers are dead and the driver remains in critical condition.

According to the SI Live the group of friends had just attended a birthday party in Tottenville and had decided to go grab snacks at a nearby store with another group of teens riding a Honda Civic. The Mustang departed the group at high speed according to witnesses.  The young driver was speeding east on Hylan Boulevard when a 47 year old diver behind the wheel of a Yukon attempting to make a left turn from Richard Avenue crashed into the side of the Mustang which then careened into a pole on the side of the road.

The driver of the Yukon was driving with a suspended license and was taken into custody while his four passengers, two women of 44 and 19 year old, a 23 year old man and an 11 year old girl were transported to the hospital. They suffered minor injuries.

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cyber attack can arm patientsHospitals are one of the favorite targets of ransomware hackers because hospitals simply can’t afford to have their IT down as it can cause severe harm or even death to patients. As a result when a hospital  has its systems blocked by hackers it might be more willing to pay a ransom than any other type of organization in order to get their systems working again.

Recently, a debt collection company working with 657 healthcare providers announced that it had been the victim of a cyber attack. Hackers were able to obtain patients information including their name, address, social security number and medical information. It is unclear so far how many patients have been affected but this might have been of of the largest healthcare data breach of 2022.

CISA warns hospitals and healthcare providers of Maui ransomware

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The New York block where a cyclist and two pedestrians were struckA reckless driver who tried to flee the police in Brooklyn, NYC, struck a bicyclist and two pedestrians, continued driving, struck three other pedestrians, crashed into a vehicle and then into a wall before running away with a passenger. One suspect is in custody while the other is still at large.

According to the police, two officers patrolling in Bedford-Stuyvesant saw a car with mismatched plates which is usually an indication that the car might have been stolen. They also noticed that the two people inside the car were smoking marijuana.   As they got out of the police car to talk to the driver after turning on their lights and pulling the car over, the driver of the vehicle took off.

As he was fleeing from the police, the reckless driver  first struck a cyclist and two pedestrians at the intersection of Macon Street and Ralph Avenue. He did not stop and continued speeding on Ralph Avenue. As he reached Hasley Street, the driver hit a grandmother and her grandson who were crossing the street. He then crashed into another car and careened into the wall of building. The driver and the passenger then got out of the car and ran away.

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11 pedestrians, 3 cyclists, 4 passengers and 8 motor vehicle operators died in crashes in New York City last May compared to respectively 6,2,0 and 2 in April and 15, 1, 3 and 11 in May 2021. This is the first time that the number of monthly fatalities is above 25 since October 21.

After a drop during the Covid19 crisis in 2020, monthly traffic accident fatalities have been above 25, 8 times during the last 2 years, Before the Covid19 crisis, since Vision Zero started in 2014, fatalities only went above 25 5 times over a period of 6 years. These numbers are very preoccupying.  At the very beginning of May, The Adams administration launched a $4 million campaign urging  motorists to slow down but so far this campaign doesn’t seem to have much effects on car accident fatalities.

New York motor vehicle accident fatalities May 2022
Car accident deaths have been exploding over the last two years in New York City. Last May, as mentioned above, 26 people died in traffic accidents compared to 10 a month earlier and 30 in May 2021. Since May 2015 when they reached 28, monthly car accidents deaths had remained below 20 during the months of April and May. While the trendline since Vison Zero started remains on the decline, the last 2 years have been more deadly than before.

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NYC Medical Malpractice Attorneys Jeff Bloom and David LarkinOur NY Medical Malpractice attorneys Jeffrey Bloom and David Larkin settled a wrongful death case for $3 Million for the death of a man overdosed with narcotics

Our client, a man in his fifties, walked into the emergency department of his local hospital with complaints of abdominal pain.  He was dead within hours.  He left behind a wife and three grown sons.

The nurse receiving the telephone order from the pain management specialist transcribed it incorrectly and raised the dose for Dilaudid to a deadly amount

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Forklifts can be dangerous and result in accidentsAround 100 people die and around 34,000 are injured in forklift accidents every year. The most common forklift accidents are rollovers  and in almost half of the fatal accidents, the operator of the forklift is being crushed when the forklift tips over. Forklifts can also be very dangerous to pedestrians who can get struck or crushed by a forklift or by a falling load.

To raise awareness about forklift safety, the second Tuesday of June is NATIONAL FORKLIFT SAFETY DAY for the 9th consecutive year.

Why do forklift accidents occur?

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Two 13 year old boys who skipped school last Friday and went to the beach instead, died after drowning in Jamaica Bay. The tragedy took place last Friday, 13 year old Daniel Persaud and his best friend Ryan Wong skipped the last day of school and joined a group of friends at Beach 121 in Broad Channel.  The 5 teenagers were seen by fishermen playing in and out of the water a little bit before noon. According to witnesses, Daniel and Ryan were standing on a sand bar when they got submerged in water.

The area is known to be dangerous and signs warn visitors not to swim in the water because of dangerous currents and sudden drop-offs. The two boys did not know how to swim and were swept away by the current. Their friends called 911 and a team of 9 rescuers were sent to the beach but it was too late. One of the boys was found pretty quickly and was still alive when rescuers pulled him out of the water. However he did not survive his injuries and died a few hours later.  it took rescuers another 45 minutes to find the body of the other boy. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

The dad was already mourning his son when he received the school’s notification that his son was absent

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Emotional-trauma-soon-to-be-compenated-in-NY-wrongful-deathThe Grieving Families Act that extends the compensable damages to include damages for emotional damages including grief or anguish caused by the decedent’s death as well as loss of love, society, protection, comfort, companionship, and consortium in a NY wrongful death lawsuit was passed by the New York Senate and is on its way to be delivered to New York Governor Hochul to be signed. It also extends the statute of limitations from 2 years to 3 years and 6 months. Our partner, Jeffrey Bloom, was instrumental in the passing of this law.

The current law in New York State only allows families pursuing a wrongful death action to claim damages such as  loss of financial support, medical expenses and funeral expenses. As a result, families who lost a child, a senior person or a loved one who is unemployed and is not providing financial support are not compensated for the pain and emotional distress they suffer.  For example if a child is struck by a car driver who did not yield, the current law basically estimates that the life of the child has little to no value while if the CEO of a successful company  was fatally struck in the same circumstances, his family would probably be able to recover a significant amount of damages for their financial loss.

The actual law basically tells parents and family that the life of their loved one has no value if they are not big earners. This 19th century law is extremely unfair to grieving families in New York and if  Governor Hochul signs the new bill, these families will be able to claim the above damages they suffered when their loved one was wrongfully killed by a negligent person or entity.

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increased risk of crashes on highway work zonesHighway construction zones are dangerous areas where both construction workers and motorists are at risk of getting injured or killed in crashes.

An annual study conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America and Heavy Construction Systems Specialists (HCSS), found that during the past year 64% of contractors working on highways experienced at least one crash on their work site. Among them, 32% reported 5 crashes or more.

5 or more construction workers were injured in 2% of these crashes, 3 workers were injured in 3% of them, 2 in 5% of them and  1 hard hat was injured in 8% of them. In the majority of the accidents (82%) no workers were injured.