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.
An elderly pedestrian succumbed to her wounds two days after she was hit by a FedEx van. Lubov Brodskaya was crossing Ave J near E 12th Street in Midwood, Brooklyn, NYC around 1;30 pm on Wednesday when the accident happened. The van which was turning right onto Ave J hit the woman while she was in the crosswalk. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident and wasn’t expected to be charged. The woman sustained severe head injury and was transported to the hospital. She died two days later.
22 people including 10 firefighters suffered personal injury in a two-alarm fire that ravaged the 16th and 17th floors of a high rise building on 3333 Broadway in Manhattan. The fire started around 10:00 am in the morning and firefighters battled the blaze for two hours until it was controlled (read more in the NY Daily News).
Later on, in the afternoon, two people died in blaze that destroyed a house in the Rockaways in Queens, NYC. According to the NYFD, the house was very cluttered making it difficult for firefighters to reach the kitchen where the two victims were located.
Motor vehicle accidents continue to rise in New York City. A comparison of data on a trimester basis shows that the number of vehicle accidents during the second trimester of 2015 was the highest of any trimester over the last 3 years.
However, even though the total number of vehicle accidents is increasing, the number of personal injuries has been slowly decreasing over the last 3 years during the first and the second trimester of each year. The number of deaths related to traffic accidents followed the same trend for the first trimester of this year and was at the lowest of the last 3 years but the situation changed for the April to June trimester during which 67 people died in traffic accidents compared to 59 for the same period of 2014 and 52 for 2013. For the last 3 years the number of traffic accident deaths has been slowly increasing every year during the second trimester of the year.
31 pedestrians died in traffic accidents in New York during the second trimester of 2015 compared to 29 during the same period of 2014 and 28 during the same period of 2013. During the month of May only, 17 pedestrians were killed by motorists. This is the highest monthly number of pedestrian deaths since December 2013 and since the launch of Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero program.
3 people from New York City were killed in a car accident Saturday afternoon on the Taconic State Parkway near Yorktown, NY. 8 others were injured including one who is still in critical condition. According to the police investigators, 33 year old Nerim Sinanovic from the Bronx, NYC, was driving north with his family, when he lost control of his BMW SUV, struck the grass embankment that separates the northbound lanes and the southbound lanes and went airborne. His vehicle landed in the southbound lanes, striking two other cars. A fourth car tried to avoid the accident and crashed into the center guard rail. The first car struck was driven by 63 year old Donald M. Mulvaney from Brooklyn who was riding with his wife 61 year old Ledell Mulvaney and his daughter , 31 year old Katherine Mulvaney. Both the wife and the daughter died in the accident while the father was transported to the hospital in critical conndition. Nerim Sinanovic’s 2 year old daughter, Leona Sinanovic who was riding in the back of the BMW SUV also died in the accident. Nerim, his wife 22 year old Blerta and his other daughter , 1 year old Lira were injured and transported to the hospital where they are being treated. They are in stable condition. The occupants of the other car invovled in the collision, Tara Duggins, 28, of Hampton, Virginia, and Sharne Sweeney, 27, of Shrub Oak were also injured. The two other occupants of the fourth car Jennifer Enriquez, 27, and passenger, Jason Lopez, 28, both of Peekskill, suffered minor injuries and have already been released from the hospital. Read more in the Putnam Daily Voice
A 64 year old man died in a truck accident in New York City yesterday morning. The man apparently suffered a heart attack and lost control of the truck he was driving. The accident happened early Monday morning around 6:30 am. Frederick Harris of Westminster was driving north on Francis Lewis Boulevard when he lost control of the box truck he was driving. The vehicle crossed the median veering into oncoming traffic before hitting three unoccupied parked cars. He died at the scene. Read more in the NY Daily News
32 year old David Rodriguez died from injuries he sustained in an accident during which he was hit by a NYC MTA Bus as he was riding his bike 9 days ago. Rodriguez was biking east on Van Dike Street in Brooklyn, NYC, when he was struck by a MTA B57 Bus that was heading south on Dwight Street. The accident happened at night after 11:00 pm on July 29th.
Rodriguez was transported to the hospital in critical condition. Last Friday, 9 days later, he died from his injuries.
After the accident, the bus driver stayed at the scene and wasn’t charged.
86 cases of Legionnaire’s disease have been confirmed in the South Bronx during the last three weeks. This is the largest and deadliest outbreak of Legionnaires’disease in New York City. The disease which is a severe form of pneumonia is spread through a bacteria that grows in the water. This bacteria has been plaguing New York City cooling towers for years and there are between 200 and 300 cases reported every year in New York City. New York City residents contract the disease when they inhale the mist of cooling water contaminated with the bacteria. According to the CDC, the number of Legionnaire’s disease cases in NYC increased by 230% between 2002 and 2009. The city’s rate of Legionnaire’s disease is twice the National average. The outbreaks have been happening all around the city for decades especially in poor neighborhoods but so far the city has been neglecting the deadly problem and has no regulations in regards to cooling tower safety.
It took seven people’s deaths in the last three weeks for the City to finally take action and propose legislation to identify, regulate and inspect all New York City buildings using a cooling tower. Mayor de Blasio held a press conference yesterday at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx. He provided an update on the recent outbreak of the disease and said the new laws will be introduced to the City Council this week.
Last April, 22 year old Carlos Moncayo died in a construction accident in New York because two construction managers put profit over safety. According to the NY Daily News, on April 6th, Christian Ofusu, an independent engineer assigned to oversee the work on a Ninth Ave site in the Meatpacking district warned Alfonso Prestia, the construction site superintendent, that the site was too dangerous and that it should be shut down. Prestia ignored the engineer’s warning so Ofusu went to voice his concerns to foreman Wilmer Cueva who also refused to stop the work. Moments later, as Ofusu was trying to convince the project manager, Mohamad Sharif to shut down the site, a wall collapsed and crushed Carlos Moncaya to death. Cuevas who works for Sky Materials Corp and Prestia who works for Hartco Consultants Corp have both been indicted on charges of criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter and reckless endangerment.
Yesterday another wall collapsed on a construction site in Nolita, downtown Manhattan, injuring two construction workers (see NY Daily News) and the day before a construction worker was seriously injured after falling two-stories at a construction site in Hudson Yards on the west side of Manhattan (see previous blog).
A 54 year old woman died in a bus accident yesterday night. The bus was traveling from New York City to North Carolina when the bus driver, 23 year old Eric Jimmerson from New York, fell asleep near Benson North Carolina on Interstate 95. The bus crossed the median heading towards a car coming in the opposite direction. The driver of the car swerved, trying to avoid the bus and crashed into a tree. He was seriously injured and his wife who was in the passenger seat died in the accident. Their 12 and 13 year old children who were sitting in the back were also injured. The New York bus driver was in critical condition after he was ejected from the bus. He may face charges. Four other passengers on the bus suffered personal injury. Read more here
In a previous blog we described how a driver in an act of road rage ran over a pedestrian in Queens and killed him. The driver has been identified as 46 year old Charles Jordan of Valley Stream, NY, a MTA train operator. Jordan is facing murder and leaving the scene of an accident charges after the July 19th road rage incident that led to the death of jeweler to the stars Aron Aranbayev (picture here with Khloe Kardashian). The police also indicated that Jordan may have been involved in another road rage incident involving a gun. Read more in the NY Daily News
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