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.
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hospital patientEvery year the ECRI institute releases a list of top main concerns that may lead to patient harm and medical malpractice. While cybersecurity was one of the main concerns in the previous years, the ongoing Covid 19 crisis put a lot of pressure on hospital staffing and “staffing shortages” is now at the top of the concerns  followed by worker’s mental health and racial disparity in treatments.

The pandemic emphasized concerns that were already latent in the American healthcare system but that have worsened during the pandemic:

  1. Staffing shortages: the registered nurses median age is 52 year old with 20% of them being older than 65 year old. Young nurses are needed but nursing schools are missing proper resources such as faculty, clinical sites, classroom spaces and budget. As a result 80,407 nursing school applicants were turned down in 2019.  In the coming years, staff shortages will be experienced at all levels of the healthcare system from nursing assistants to technicians such as laboratory technicians as well as critical care doctors, hospitalists, pharmacists and respiratory therapists.
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using the wrong ladder can result in accidentInjuries and deaths resulting from ladder accidents are extremely common. According to the most recent CDC statistics, over the last decade, 81% of fall injuries treated in American ERs were resulting from falls from ladders. Ladders were also involved in 43% of all fall fatalities.  Thousands of people are injured and hundreds are dying every year in ladder accidents. Year after year, our construction accident attorneys are helping construction workers injured in ladder accidents getting compensated for their injuries. Most of the time, construction workers fall from ladders because they are not provided with the adequate ladders to perform the task. One of our recent clients was a carpenter who was standing on a 6-foot A-frame ladder while pinning studs above his head. The ladder that was provided to him was not proper for the work he was doing. As the carpenter was working, the ladder kicked out and the man fell. He suffered a spine injury and had to undergo a microdiscectomy to his lumbar spine. Our attorneys were able to obtain a $1.250 million settlement on his behalf.

In New York, the law requires that workers using ladders be provided with the adequate equipment to execute the task and that ladders are not defectively maintained, placed or operated. However despite that law, many negligent contractors continue to provide workers with inadequate, broken or old ladders that put them at risk of dangerous accidents.

Ladder accidents are not only common on construction sites but also at home. From changing a smoke alarm, to cleaning gutters, home owners also use ladders and get injured frequently.

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car accident scene in ManhattanIf you were injured in a car accident in New York City or NY state, you should be able to obtain at least $50,000 compensation for your medical bills,  loss of  earnings and other out-of-pocket costs regardless of who was at fault in the accident because New York is among the 12 States in the US that have a No-Fault coverage. One can also purchase excess no-fault coverage up to $175,000.

The New York’s automobile No-Fault Law was enacted in 1970 with the goal to get insurance benefits quickly to anyone involved in a car accident regardless of who was at fault in the accident. It was initially a straight forward process that helped victims getting quickly compensated without having to go through long and complicated litigation.  However, under the pretext of abuse, insurance companies have made it so complicated to file a claim that you may need the help of an attorney to help you navigate the process and make sure you obtain proper compensation.

What does the No-Fault cover in NY State?

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accident sceneA man crossing the street in a wheelchair was  killed in a truck accident in New York City.  The accident occurred on Saturday morning at the intersection of Central Avenue and Nameoke Ave in Far Rockaway, Queens.  A video shows the 73 year old victim proceeding to cross Central Avenue in front of the box truck while the driver waits at the red light. As the man slowly crosses in front of the truck, the driver pulls ahead and crushes the man on the wheelchair.  The truck driver then continued to drive while dragging the victim and the wheelchair down the block before stopping.

The victim was rushed to the hospital but he could not be saved. Locals who knew the victims said he was a very nice and pleasant man.

The driver was identified as 42 year old Freddy Saquisili from Long Island.  He remained at the scene of the accident and police found out that he was driving the 2013 International Harvester delivery truck with a suspended license and should have never been behind the wheel of the truck. He was arrested and charged with aggravated unlicensed driving.  He was later released without bail after his arraignment. He is facing up to 4 years in prison.

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victim of personal injuryIn a city like New York, people are getting seriously injured because of the negligence of someone else on a daily basis. Being injured is always very stressful as victims endure not only physical but also emotional pain and have to deal with all the financial and organizational hardship that result from being injured.

Therefore it is important for personal injury victims and/or their family to do their homework when looking for an adequate personal injury lawyer to represent them.  Taking some time to “shop” for the right attorney will save you time in the future and help you get fully compensated for your case.

Here is a step by step approach on how to find the perfect New York Personal Injury Lawyer for your case:

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657 pedestrians, 161 cyclists, 870 passengers and 1,429 motorists were injured in motor vehicle accidents in New York City last January. 19 other road users died in crashes the same month, including 11 pedestrians, 5 passengers and 3 motorists. This is the highest number of fatalities for a month of January since January 2019 and the highest it ever got during a month and more than half of them were motorists. Last year during the same month, 13 people were killed in traffic accidents in the city.

auto accident fatalities NYC January 22
auto accident deaths by category of road users New York January 22
The total number of  people injured in motor vehicle accidents in January 2022 in the city was a little higher than in January 2021 when it reached 3,028 however this number remained lower than numbers recorded during the months of January before the pandemic.  The graph below illustrates well the seasonality of car accident injuries with the month of January being usually a month during which there are less injuries reported than during the summer months. The graph also shows a big drop during the lockdown.

Motorists and passengers are the two categories of road users that usually sustained the most injuries of all auto accidents reported in the city.

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Claremont Park where the pedestrian was hit by a car58 year old Cristina Emiliano was hit by a car in the Bronx and sustained life-threatening injuries. The pedestrian was walking her dog Rocco in Claremont Park in Morrisania around 6:50 am on Saturday morning when a car drove on the pedestrian path and struck her. The car driver was identified as  21 year old Becan Floyd. The young man who lives in a shelter nearby, saw the car parked outside of the shelter and stole it for a joy ride.

According to the police, after stealing the car, Floyd first sped down a pedestrian path in the park, then drove on the grass and hit a tree. He then continued to drive and according to the police intentionally struck the woman.

“When she moved over to the side to avoid being in his line of trajectory, he steered his vehicle directly towards her, accelerated his speed, and struck her head on,” Assistant District Attorney Briana Pryce said, adding police officers saw it “with their own eyes.”

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drone inspection can prevent accidentsRecent studies found that drones can be helpful in identifying hazards and preventing workers getting injured or killed in construction accidents.  The Center for Construction Research and Training is hosting a free webinar on Wednesday March 23 about drones in construction and specifically how they can help make construction sites safer. The webinar will be presented by the authors of 3 studies in this field:

  1. Rod Handy, MBA, Ph.D., CIH, University of Utah  who is the lead author of a study entitled Nebulizer-retrofitted drone deployment at residential construction sites will explain how water spraying drones can reduce exposure to air pollution and heat stress and as a result prevent dangerous illnesses
  2. Masoud Gheisari, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management, University of Florida who is the lead author of Using unmanned aerial systems for automated fall hazard monitoring in high-rise construction will share how drone technology can help identifying hazards and safety issues on construction sites especially the most common and dangerous ones that are related to falls. His study focuses on the monitoring of guardrails near unprotected edges and openings in a high rise construction site. The author developed an automated fall hazard recognition system that could facilitate the recognition of guardrails in high rise construction projects.
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Pennslylvania Blvd and Linden Blvd where the pedestrian was killedAnother pedestrian died in a a car accident in Brooklyn, NYC, early Tuesday morning.  The 62 year old  woman stepped off the curb on Pennsylvania Avenue near the intersection of Linden Boulevard stumbled and fell on the road around 12:58 am. Shortly after a car ran over her and kept going. The police said it was not clear if the driver knew he hit someone. The woman suffered massive traumatic brain injury and died at the scene of the accident.  Located in East New York, Pennsylvania Boulevard is a massive speedway that did not receive the type of Vision Zero safety treatment that can be seen in wealthier areas of New York. (read more in the NY Daily News).

Additionnally on Sunday around 4:00 am a reckless driver totaled his a car and a war monument  in a massive explosion in Brooklyn. The driver of a BMW with a Texas license plate was speeding when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the war memorial in the center of Bartel Pritchard Square near Prospect Park.  Two people were in the car, the driver and a 23 year old female passenger. The young woman was injured and transported to the hospital while the driver refused medical attention.  It is difficult to understand why the driver of this car was still allowed to drive. The license plates show that the car had 145 violations since January 14 2021.including 95 speed camera tickets and 25 red light cameras tickets. The car was also issued two dozen parking tickets but was never impounded despite being way above the $350 threshold in unpaid tickets for being towed away.

People are getting killed  and injured in car accidents in New York City at a rate never seen since Vision Zero started in 2014.   NYPD data indicate that between January 1st and March 6 2022 car accident injuries increased by 12.1 % compared to the same period a year earlier. Since the beginning of the year, a total of 6,977 people were injured in car accidents. This indicate that every day, in average, 107 people are injured  in NYC car accidents.

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hospital patientMore than 150 models of medical devices manufactured by more than 100 manufacturers and equipped with PTC Axeda agent and Axeda Desktop Server  have dangerous cybersecurity vulnerabilities that could potentially harm patients. The Axeda agent and Axeda Desktop server  sold by PTC are  components allowing one or more people to view and operate the same remote desktop, through the Internet. However,  it was recently found that hard-coded credentials were used in these components making them particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks. Hard code credential  is a practice used by software developers in which authentication data such as password are embedded directly in the source code. This practice was identified 9 years ago as a significant cybersecurity threat and is considered outdated and dangerous. It is particularly concerning that medtech vendor PT  is still selling products using this technology, especially products providing remote support functionality which are among the most targeted by hackers.  Hard code credential vulnerabilities, if exploited, allow hackers to fully access the system, execute remote code, change the configuration, read or save changes directly to files and folders on the user’s device, access user’s login information and flood the targeted device or network with traffic until the target cannot respond or simply crashes, preventing access for legitimate users. Designing medical devices containing such outdated and dangerous components is negligence that can cause injury or death to patients.

Defective medical devices with cybersecurity flaws are considered the number one health technology hazards in 2022 by the ECRI Institute. The FDA issued a cybersecurity alert and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an advisory with a detailed description of the vulnerabilities,  recommendations to mitigate them and a list of the main manufacturers  using Axeda agent and Axeda Desktop servers in some of their products. Among them are Accuracy, Agilent, Bayer, BD, Elektra, GE, Roche Diagnostic, Smith Medical and Varian. These manufacturers have all released their own information in regards to affected products.

Read more in Medtech Dive