New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog

Published on: January 28, 2014

NY DOT’s lax oversight of commercial carriers increases the risk of bus and truck accidents according to recent audit by The New York State Comptroller

More than 35,000 potentially unrepaired trucks and buses could be putting New York road users at risk of dangerous accidents.

A recent audit by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found that The New York Department of Transportation is not doing enough to ensure that commercial bus and truck companies whose vehicles or drivers have been found to have violations serious enough to warrant their removal from services, are making timely repairs or corrections.

The audit looked at inspections conducted from September 2008 to 2012 and found that out of 448,842 inspections conducted 20% of them or 90,368 vehicles were cited for one or more out of service violations. 76,229 of them were out of service violations on vehicles (trucks or buses) and 21,417 on drivers.

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Published on: January 28, 2014

Bus and Truck Accident Prevention: the FMCSA implements a new rule to close a loophole that previously allowed dangerous motor carrier operators to stay in business by submitting a new application for a registration under a different name

By GGCRBHS&M

To prevent bus and truck accidents caused by negligent motor carriers the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration just published a final rule that addresses motor carrier management companies with a pattern of safety violations.

Starting February 21st 2014, the FMCSA will have the authority to “suspend or revoke the operating authority registration of for-hire motor carriers that show egregious disregard for safety compliance, permit persons who have shown egregious disregard for safety compliance to exercise controlling influence over their operations, or operate multiple entities under common control to conceal noncompliance with safety regulations“.

This new rule will prevent bus and truck operating companies that have been previously placed out of service to submit a new registration under a new name to continue operations or to avoid other negative consequences of non-compliant behavior including a poor safety history.

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Published on: January 28, 2014

Personal Injury Prevention: “Be Smart with Sharps” and learn how to safely discard needles and other sharps at home, at work, at school or while traveling

By GGCRBHS&M

Every year 850,000 people are injured by needles or other sharp medical devices that have not been discarded properly. Sharps is the medical term for any device with a sharp point that can puncture or cut the skin for example, needles, syringes, lancets, auto injectors, infusion sets or connection needles.

An estimated 9 million patients in the US have medical conditions such as diabetes, allergies, arthritis, cancer, hepatitis or AIDS and use sharps at home, at work, at school and also while traveling. These patients and their caregivers need to properly discard needles and other sharp devices to protect others from injuries and infections spreading such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV.

The FDA estimates that 7 billion sharps are loosely discarded yearly in regular trash instead of being safely discarded in a dedicated container.

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Published on: January 27, 2014

Too many elderly and disabled are being abused and terrorized for their Social Security Checks and Food Stamps allotment often by their own family members

By GGCRBHS&M

Elder abuse and elder fraud by family caregivers or acquaintances are unfortunately getting more and more common and not enough is being done to stop this epidemic.

Family members are often the first appointed guardians and serve as representative payees when a person is declared incapacitated. In the US 85% of the 5.9 million Social Security payees are family members. Unfortunately payees are not being thoroughly checked and abuse is on the rise.

In a recent article BARBARA LAKER and WENDY RUDERMAN from the Philadelphia Daily News describe recent cases of elderly or disabled people who have been abused and neglected by family members or acquaintances who stole their money.

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Published on: January 27, 2014

New York Bicycle Accident: moving obituary for Pedro Santiago, an unordinary bicycle deliveryman

By GGCRBHS&M

Pedro Santiago who recently died in a bicycle accident during which he was struck by a bus was more than the usual anonymous face of a bicycle delivery man traversing the streets of NYC.

The New York Times wrote an excellent obituary about this gregarious former bicycle delivery man who had become friends with his clients and was reading Dostoevsky and Cervantes in two languages during his downtime.

Read the complete Obituary here

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Published on: January 27, 2014

Car Accident NYC: The epidemic of wrongful death and personal injury related to traffic accident in NYC continues

By GGCRBHS&M

Last Friday afternoon 3 pedestrians were seriously injured in a car accident on the Upper East Side. A taxi driver lost control of his vehicle, jumped the curb and plowed into a group of pedestrians on East 86th Street and Third Ave. (see New York Post)

This accident should be fully investigated according to new police regulations recently announced by NYPD Police Commissioner Bratton. In a recent speech Bratton said that not only vehicle accidents leading to death but also vehicle accidents leading to serious personal injury would be fully investigated. (see our previous blog)

On Sunday, a 67 year old pedestrian died in a car accident on Staten Island after being hit by a drunk driver. The pedestrian, James Benedict, was about to enter his car parked on Lily Pond Avenue when he was struck by a 39 year old drunk driver who lost control of his SUV, resulting in the death of Mr. Benedict. The driver was arrested and charged with drunk driving. Read more in silive.com

Published on: January 24, 2014

Bicycle Accident Prevention: New York 78th precinct cops lead by example

By GGCRBHS&M

To prevent Bicycle Accidents on the Bergen Street bike lane, NYPD officers including CO Deputy Inspector Michael Ameri were spotted shoveling the bike lane of the 78th precinct in NYC.

Even though it is extremely cold in New York, people are still riding bicycles, especially the restaurant delivery crews who are bringing food to the many New Yorkers who choose to stay home because of the inclement weather.

New York Medical Malpractice: Man dead for hours in St Barnabas Hospital Emergency Room

By GGCRBHS&M

A 30 year old patient who checked in last Sunday night at 10PM at St Barnabas Emergency Room for a rash was found dead in a waiting room chair at 6:40 the next morning by a security guard. According to an ER employee, there is no policy in place to check the waiting room to see if people who are waiting to be seen are still there or are still alive. The employee added that the man had been dead for several hours before he was found.

Read more here
Delay in treatment can be medical malpractice click here to learn more about it.

Published on: January 24, 2014

New York Personal Injury: ER doctor describes most common injuries suffered by pedestrians struck by cars

By GGCRBHS&M

When a pedestrian is hit by a car he or she will usually suffer severe personal injury. In most accidents, the car bumper hits the pedestrian’s pelvis and legs shattering his or her bones explains Dr. Kaushal Shah, the residency director of emergency medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Often the pedestrian is “scooped” off the ground by the front of the car and smashed onto the hood and the windshield causing traumatic brain injury. It’s usually at this point that the driver stomps on the break, a move that will then eject the pedestrian to the ground, causing further brain injury as well as neck and pelvis injury.

Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect in New York: 6 facilities on the recently updated Special Focus Facilities Initiative

By GGCRBHS&M

To prevent nursing home neglect or abuse, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the States send teams of inspectors to survey nursing homes on a regular basis to assure that facilities meet the quality of care standard required by Medicare and Medicaid.

These teams look for deficiencies in the quality of care provided to their elderly patients and for deficiencies in the safety requirements such as protection from fire hazards. Most nursing homes have some deficiencies. The national average of deficiency per inspection is 6 to 7 per nursing home. However a minority of nursing homes have more than twice the average number of deficiencies and have more serious problem than others, including reports of harm and injury to patients.

Nursing homes that have a pattern of serious problems for more than 3 years are enlisted in the Special Focus Facility Initiative and can be barred from Medicare and Medicaid participation if they don’t address their problems within a reasonable period of time.

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