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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elanoma_Growth_over_14_MonthsFailure to diagnose skin cancer can be fatal. However if it is caught in a timely manner, the worst can be avoided and the cancer can be treated. Skin cancer is one of the most common types of cancers with 5 million Americans being diagnosed every year. Among the various types of skin cancers, melanoma is the most dangerous.

Who is at risk?

Anybody can get skin cancer however people with fair skins, light colored eyes, red hair, with a skin that burns easily or that freckles easily have a higher risk than others. People with a history of sunburns or people who are exposing themselves frequently to the sun or are using tanning beds also have a higher risk to get cancer than those who protect their skin from the sun. Skin cancer can also be genetic and runs in some families. Additionally people who have a large number of moles are also at higher risk of contracting skin cancer and should have their moles regularly checked by a specialist to screen for malignancy.

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unprotected bike lane on 35th StreetA 37 year-old delivery man was killed and several other people were injured in a reckless car crash in Queens, NYC. The accident took place last Thursday night around 6:00 pm. A 60 year-old woman driving a 2013 Merccedez-Benz C-300 who was driving behind a slow-moving vehicle lost patience and decided to use the bike lane to pass the vehicle. She struck two parked cars and  37 year old Xing Long Lin, a delivery man on a scooter, who got trapped and dragged under the car as the driver continued to drive and crashed into the outdoor setting of Rosatoro Restaurant located at the corner of 35th Street and Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, Queens. After the car crashed into the outdoor setting, it jumped the curb, knocked down a tree and ended in the front window of the restaurant.

Xing Long Lin died in the accident. The delivery worker  came to US from China 14 years ago and lived with his wife and his two children 5 and 9 year old  in Elmhurst. He was the sole provider for his family and was also taking car of his mother in China.

Among those injured was a 32 year-old woman who was sitting in the restaurant and who sustained injuries to her leg after glass and debris went flying into the dining areas. She was transported to the hospital to be treated.

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Safety Stand down to prevent fall in construction 2021The annual Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction started Today and will last all week-long.

In 2019, among the 1,061 construction workers fatalities recorded in the US by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 401 of them were caused by falls.  Most of these accidents could have been prevented if adequate safety measures were in place. Many fall fatalities could be avoided by following these 5 basic rules:

  1. Always use fall protection if you are working at 6 feet or more
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Location-of-the-actual-tunnelsA group of New York contractors are asking US Transportation Secretary Buttigieg to waive the NY Scaffold Law on the Hudson River Project.

Fall is the number one cause of fatalities among construction workers in New York City and nationwide. Most of these fatalities are preventable and are the result of negligence. In New York,  the Scaffold Safety Law ensures that New York construction workers and their family  are being fully protected if they are injured or killed while working on scaffolds, ladders or other similar devices. If a contractor violates this law by not providing adequate safety equipment to his workers and if as a result, a worker dies or sustains injuries, the contractor will be liable for the accident and a lawsuit can be brought against him by the construction worker or by his family.

In the case of the Hudson Tunnel project, a group of contractors consisting of  the Minority & Women Contractors & Developers Association, the Associated General Contractors of New York State and the General Contractors Association of New York as well as the New York Sate Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials have asked  the US Transportation Secretary to  replace the New York Scaffold Safety Law with a comparative negligence standard. They argue that the New York Scaffold increases their insurance cost.

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location of the fatal pedestrian and e-bike collisionA pedestrian died from his injuries after being struck by an e-bike in NYC. The accident took place on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. 71 year old Hing Chung, the manager of the Dim Sum restaurant Jing Fong, stepped on the bike lane between two cars and was hit by a 39 year old cyclist travelling North on the bike lane. The accident occurred a few steps away from his restaurant. The e-bike rider stayed at the scene of the accident and was not charged.

Hing Chung was hospitalized and later on died from his injuries at the hospital. The restaurant manager immigrated from Hong Kong more than 30 years ago and was a friendly and funny man who was loved by his clients and employees. (read more in the Gothamist)

3 fatal collisions between pedestrians and e-bikes in NYC since 2014

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Pollack and ReiterProtecting children from sexual abuse, mistreatment, emotional abuse or neglect is an every day combat that we should all join as a Nation.

In a recent article, Daniel Pollack,  an attorney and professor at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work in New York City and Elisa Reiter,an attorney, Board Certified in Family Law and Child Welfare Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, look back at 2020 and how the pandemic affected children suffering abuse.

School as a support to abused children

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fatal dwi car accident location in Queens NYCA police officer who was directing traffic away from a car accident was killed by a driver who was drunk, high on marijuana and who was driving with a suspended license.

The accident took place around 2:00 am on Tuesday morning on the Long Island Expressway  near Francis Lewis Boulevard in Fresh Meadow. 32 year old Jessica Beauvais had just left a studio where she had been recording a podcast and during which she was drinking and vaping.  She was speeding and did not slow down as she passed the traffic cones and flashing lights that the highway police had previously installed to signal the previous accident scene. She crashed into NYPD Officer Anastasios Tsakos and send him flying 100 feet. The impact was so strong that her windshield was smashed and the front of her car destroyed. She did not even stop. She continued to drive dragging an orange cone from the scene under her car. She was arrested by police a few exits later and asked the police: what did I do? She later apologized.

Beauvais who has a teenage son and is his sole provider is facing up to 15 years in prison. She is facing 13 counts including  vehicular manslaughter, DWI, reckless driving, leaving the scene of a fatal accident, driving with a suspended license.  Several other NYPD officers at the scene just had the time to run away from her destructive path but Tsakos died.

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1,393 pedestrians, 695 bicyclists, 2,564 passengers and 4,332 motorists were injured in car accidents in NYC during the first 3 months of the year compared to respectively 2,206, 715, 3,306 and 5,032 during the same period a year earlier. After a peak in the first quarter of 2019 the number of  injuries sustained in crashes in the city declined in 2020 and reached a record low in 2021.

car accident injuries NYC Q1 2021
New York car accident fatalities followed the same trend. 22 pedestrians, 1 cyclist, 5 passengers and 10 motorists lost their life in traffic accidents in New York during the first quarter of 2021 compared to respectively 26, 1, 4 and 10 during the first 3 months of 2020.

New York car accident fatalities Q1 2021
In a city that has not yet returned to its usual level of activity, it make sense that less people would be injured or killed in crashes.

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Gair-Gair_Tony-Gair_02Our partner Anthony Gair has carved out a reputation as one of the best product liability lawyers in NYC.  Yesterday he talked to CNBC journalist Lauren Thomas about the refusal by Peloton to comply with the Consumer Product Safety Commission and recall its high-end treadmill Tread+. 

Multiple children  and a pet have been injured and recently a child died in a Peloton Tread+ treadmill accidents but Peloton has been very reluctant to cooperate with the federal safety agency. The company is fighting a request to recall the dangerous product and refuses to provide the name of the child who recently died after getting stuck under the high end Peloton treadmill.

“The CPSC must have reason to believe that the treadmill wasn’t designed appropriately” said Anthony Gair.  According to him, Peloton might not have done a hazard analysis before launching the product or if they did, he questions if they knew about the danger and ignored it.

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construction workers working at height in NYCThe American National Standards Institute (ANSI) was created in 1918. Its goal was to standardize various manufacturing, engineering or safety processes. The first project focused on pipe thread sizes. In  1992, ANSI developed the  “ANSI/ASSE Z359.1 American National Standard” for personal fall arrest systems in non-construction occupations. This standard was revised and improved significantly since it was released and has become a worldwide reference while designing and testing the performance of products and techniques used by construction workers while working at heights.

This Afternoon  at 2:00 pm ET and ahead of the National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls, the Center for Construction Research and Training is hosting a free webinar with members of the ANSI Z359 Accredited Standards Committee. The webinar will be a Q&A panel during which participants will learn tips and techniques to use the ANSI/ASSE Z359 standards on construction sites and protect workers from fall. (click here to register for the event and send your questions to the panel).

While adhering to the ANSI/ASSE Z359 standards is voluntary,  those who do so are keeping up to date with the most recent findings related to protecting workers from falls. Very often regulators such as OSHA are referring to ANSI standards to develop regulations.