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

Published on:

accident sceneThe National Highway Safety Administration was created 50 years ago in an effort to curb the number of Americans dying or getting injured in car crashes. Its role was to create safety standards for motor vehicles, supervise recalls in case of defects, educate people and conduct research on traffic safety as well as allocate safety grants to states.

Back in the days, when the agency was created, more than 50,000 people were killed very year in car accidents in the US.  It went down to 32,479 in 2011 and then gradually went back up to 36,120 last year.

Over the years the Agency had its ups and downs, the last four years were among the worst

Published on:

food-emporium-Hells-KitchenA worker died in an elevator accident at a Manhattan grocery store last week. 49 year old Maria Sanchez, a mother of four children who worked two jobs to support her family and her mom in Mexico City was killed by an elevator that was illegally installed in the building of the Food Emporium in Hell’s Kitchen.

Last Tuesday afternoon, Sanchez was in the basement of the Food Emporium supermarket located at 452 W. 43rd Street in Hell’s Kitchen. She was loading a small dumbwaiter elevator with merchandise when suddenly the elevator moved up and crushed her head. Sanchez suffered major head trauma and died at the scene of the accident.

The elevator was illegally installed and had recently been repaired after previous malfunctions

Published on:

280px-Patient_receiving_dialysis_03The corporate dialysis industry is resorting to unethical tactics and medical malpractice to prevent patients getting the kidney transplant they need to survive and to keep them on dialysis for years. As a result, many patients who had to go to dialysis centers several times a week during the pandemic, caught Covid19 and died. In a recent investigation, ProPublica describes the multiple obstacles that JaMarcus had to go through to be able to get on the list for a kidney transplant before the covid19 pandemic hit and he ultimately died from contracting the virus at a dialysis center.

In the US, two companies, DaVita and and Fresenius, control 70% of the dialysis market

Patients who require dialysis are mostly patients who suffer form diabetes and who develop end stage kidney failure. While many of these patients could be saved by receiving a kidney transplant, two corporate dialysis companies are spending millions in heavy lobbying so they can continue to get multi billion dollar revenues from mostly Medicare patients who are getting dialysis multiple times a week instead of receiving the transplant they need. According to a recent article in Kaiser Health News, over the last 4 years DaVita and Frenesius spent $212 million just in California to influence voters and politicians and fight a ballot initiative that would have capped their profits.

Published on:

location of the collision between the truck and the bicyclistA bicyclist died after being struck by a truck in Harlem, New York on Friday morning around 8:30 am

The driver of the truck was driving illegally on the bus-only lane on First Avenue near 118th Street when he  struck the 41 year old bicyclist. The police also mentioned that the bicyclist was riding the wrong way.  The truck driver stayed at the scene of the accident and was asked to submit himself to the breathalyzer which came out negative. He was not charged despite recklessly travelling on the bus lane while he was supposed to drive on the 3 other traffic lanes of First Ave.

While looking at past traffic violations, the truck has a a history of recklessness with 159 violations since 2014 including red lights and speeding.  The cyclist seemed to have been crushed between the truck and a car that was illegally parked in front of a “No Standing Anytime” sign. The victim is the 24th bicyclists to die in a traffic accident this year. He is also was one of two victims who died in a traffic accident in East Harlem this week-end. Read more in the Gothamist

Published on:

location of the fatal car accidentTwo women car pooling to work were killed after their car was T-boned by a speeding driver who blew a red light in East New York. The fatal car accident took place at the intersection of Flatlands Ave and Pennsylvania Av.

Sandra Liberice and Nerlye Sainvil were car pooling together to work. Both women were healthcare workers taking care of mentally disabled children at a group home run by the nonprofit organization “Services for the Undeserved. They had a night shift.  Sainvil had picked up Liberice and they were carpooling together to work. They were less than a mile away from their destination when the accident occurred. Video surveillance showed that the two women were travelling East on Flatland Ave. After the light turned green at the intersection of Pennsylvania Ave, Sainvil started to slowly drive through the intersection when all of sudden a speeding BMW T-boned them at full speed. The two occupants of the BMW were able to extricate themselves from their car and fled the scene of the accident on foot leaving the two women dying behind them.  They both died at the scene of the accident.

Both women were essential workers and had been going to work during the covid-19 lockdown. They both immigrated from Haiti. Nerlye  Sainvil immigrated to the US in 2001, She had a Law degree from Haiti and initially studied to work as a paralegal. She was hired as a direct care worker at the group home and decided to stay there.  Sainvil was 58 year old. She was a church goer and she as suppsoed to get married to her fiancé this year but the wedding was postponed because of the covid-19 crisis. Her fiancé and her 8 siblings were in shock. She was suppsoed to go to visit he sister in Pennsylvania during the holidays.

Published on:

location of the deadly pedestrian accidentA pedestrian was killed by a reckless driver in Brooklyn last week. The 53 year old woman was crossing the street in the crosswalk at the intersection of Glenwood Road and 55th Street when she was struck by a car driven by 22 year old Michael Rajpaul.

Rajpaul was chased by another driver who he previously hit

Previous to hitting the pedestrian with his 2008 Hyundai, Rajpaul had a fender bender with a BMW. Instead of staying at the scene of the accident he sped away and the driver of the BMW chased him. As he drove South on 55th in the wrong way and at high speed, he ran a red light and was t-boned by another car driving through the greenlight. His car spun around and he hit a 53 year old pedestrian wo got thrown into a parked car. She was rushed to the hospital but the impact was so intense that she died from her injuries.  None of the drivers were injured.

Published on:

location of the e-bike crash with Rolls RoyceA Man who was seriously injured in a e-bike accident near the Queens-Midtown tunnel on Saturday November 28th died from his injuries, the NYPD announced on Tuesday. 28 year old Jakir Hossain from the Bronx was riding an electrical bike on East 38th Street, Saturday November 28th around 8:45 pm when he was struck by the driver of a Rolls Royce convertible travelling North on Tunnel Exit Street. The cyclist was ejected from his bike and suffered multiple trauma to his head and his body. He was transported to the hospital where he died from his injuries after more than a week of pain and suffering.

The 30 year old driver of the Rolls Royce was not charged. The investigation is still ongoing. The report mentions that the driver had the green light . Tunnel Exit Street is notoriously dangerous. Drivers are speeding and visibility is bad. Last year 17 crashes were reported on this short street segment.

The death of Jakir Hossain once again demonstrates that while more and more people are riding bicycles in  New York City, many streets of the city are still extremely dangerous to ride and more should be done to protect cyclists. Read more in Street Blog

Published on:

After reaching a record high in September, NYC auto accident fatalities remained high with 12 pedestrians, 1 cyclist, 4 passengers and 7 drivers killed in auto accidents in October compared to respectively 13 pedestrians, 6 bicyclists, 2 passengers and 14 drivers last September and 9 pedestrians, 3 cyclists, 1 passengers and 5 drivers in October 2019 (click on graphs for full format)

After remaining below 20 for the last 4 years, motor vehicle accident fatalities for the month of October  are back to pre Vision Zero levels with a total of 24 people killed on NYC streets.

Auto accident deaths NYC October 2020
While the number of traffic deaths was higher, the number of people injured in car accidents in New York City was at the lowest level for for the 8 years under review in the graph below. A total of 4,235 people sustained injuries in traffic accidents in the city compared to respectively 5,204, 5,498, 5,450, 5,083, 4,851, 4,692 and 4,830 in October 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.

Published on:

Facebook pic of the victimA man speeding and under the influence of alcohol or drugs crashed into the car of a hospital worker on his way to work and killed him.

Daniel Crawford, a phlebotomist at Queens Hospital Center was on his way to work last Friday morning around 4:00 am. He was driving his Toyota through the green light at the intersection of  Parsons Boulevard and Union Turnpike in Jamaica, Queens, when he was T-boned by a Mercedes Benz driven by 22 year old Alamin Ahmed.  Crawford was rushed to the hospital where he usually goes to work but he could not be saved.

A dad, a frontline worker and a future nurse

Published on:

5 construction workers died  and 240 were injured in New York City between June 1st and October 31st. Last year during the same period, 6 workers died and 275 were injured in NYC construction accidents.

After a slow down in March, April and May related to the Covid-19 lock down, the construction industry resumed work in the city. Out of the 5 fatalities, 3 occurred in Brooklyn and 2 in Manhattan. 3 of them were falls. Fall is the number one cause of fatalities on construction sites in New York and in the US.

  • On June 20, at a construction site located at 1154 39th Street, in Brooklyn, an unlicensed worker who was installing new junction boxes electrocuted himself  and succumbed to his injuries.