new york personal injury

Published on: February 9, 2016

Does the recent surge in radiation at New York Indian Point nuclear power plant pose a threat of injury to the public?

A recent accident at the New York Nuclear power plant Indian Point has nearby residents worried about their health and the safety of their water. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered an investigation after a tritium-tainted water leak from the plant resulted in an increase of 65,000% of radioactivity in the ground. The New York nuclear plant is located in Buchanan, Westchester, 45 miles away from Manhattan in a densely populated area. According to Entergy, the plant owner, the radiation hasn’t migrated off-site and doesn’t pose a safety threat. However Governor Cuomo said in a statement that this last incident was unacceptable and that “This failure continues to demonstrate that Indian Point cannot continue to operate in a manner that is not protective of public health and the environment.”

Read more in the New York Times

Published on: February 6, 2016

One dead and four injured in New York crane accident

By GGCRBHS&M

A man died and four other people were injured in a crane collapse in New York around 8:30 this morning. The accident took place on Worth Street near Church Street. The accident occurred when a massive construction crane whose boom extended 565 feet high collapsed on a row of park cars. The accident was caught on video by Glenn Zito, a construction worker who was on the upper floors in a building across the street. Glenn and two of his colleagues had just been ordered to stop to work on the upper floors because the wind was too strong. He was on his way down when he capture the below video.

According to FDNY, 38 year old David Wichs had just exited from his car when the crane crashed on him and killed him. Mr. Wichs was an outstanding young man who immigrated from Czechoslovakia as a teenager, graduated from Harvard and worked in the financial industry. He lived with his wife in Manhattan on the upper west side. He was said by friends to be an extremely decent man. Still in the car was 73 year old Thomas O’Brien who suffered head laceration but survived. Another victim, 45 year old Dawn Kojima suffered leg injury and another person suffered minor injury after being hit by debris.

This morning the wind was blowing at more than 20 mph and it was snowing. The crew had suspended work and a decision was made to lower the crane to a more secure level. The accident happened as construction workers were lowering the crane’s boom in order to move it into a safe and secure position .

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Published on: February 1, 2016

One pedestrian killed and one injured by drunk driver in New York car accident

By GGCRBHS&M

A pedestrian died and another one suffered personal injury after they were struck by a drunk driver in Washington Heights, New York City, early Saturday. The two pedestrians, a man and a woman in their 40ies were walking on West 181st Street near Amsterdam Avenue when a car crashed into them. The driver, identified as 34 year old Jonathan Segura, was drunk. He had just exited the George Washington Bridge when he lost control of his vehicle and slammed into the pedestrians. He sped off in the night but returned later to the police station to surrender. He was charged with drunk driving, leaving the scene of an accident, vehicular manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Read more in the NY Daily News

Published on: February 1, 2016

New York construction worker critically injured after falling from a ladder into an elevator shaft

By GGCRBHS&M

A construction worker suffered critical injury in a ladder accident in New York. The accident happened on a construction site located on W. 17th Street near Sixth Ave in the Flatiron district in Manhattan. The hard hat was standing on a ladder, installing sheet rock on a ceiling frame when the accident happened. The worker who was not wearing a harness fell 50 feet down an elevator shaft and was impaled on steel rebar. The pieces of rebar pierced his abdomen, back, thigh, buttock and groin. Flagrant construction site safety violations are to blame for the accident. According to a primary investigation by the New York City Department of Buildings, the hard hat was not wearing a mandatory security harness. Adding to that, the elevator shaft wasn’t covered and there were no orange safety caps on the top of the rebar. This is the reason it is so important to fight against any changes in Section 240(1) of the New York State Labor Law which hold owners, general contractors and others liable for injures resulting from a lack of safety devices in height related accidents.

The construction site has a history of unsafe working conditions. The owner and developer, 34 17th Street Project LLC, was fined last August for “failure to maintain the building in a code complaint manner” and unsafe or improper use of elevator or hoisting equipment at the same location. The violation indicated that the hoistway doors wer not secured “causing an immediate hazard that could cause someone to fall down the shaftway”. In November nothing had changed and 34 17th Street Project LLC was fined for “failing to certify correction of an immediately hazardous violation”.

New Empire Builder Corp, the general contractor who is managing the site also has a history of violations. In 2014 OSHA inspectors responded to a complaint at 286 Spring Street, New York, NY. They found hard hats working in extremely unsafe conditions. Some workers were standings on scaffolding resting on bricks. A worker was standing 10 feet above ground on a scaffold with no fall safety equipment while raising material on a pulley. Furthermore other workers were at risk of being electrocuted while using an ungrounded electric cement mixer. The contractor was fined $19,600.

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Published on: February 1, 2016

25 year old pedestrian suffered critical personal injury after being hit by taxi in New York

By GGCRBHS&M

A taxi struck a pedestrian in Manhattan early yesterday. The accident happened in the Chelsea neighborhood. The 25 year old man was crossing West 15th Street near 10th Avenue when he was hit by the cab. He was transported to the hospital where he was listed in critical condition. According to a witness the impact was so strong that the young man landed on the front right window of the taxi and badly cracked it. The taxi driver stayed at the scene of the accident and wasn’t charged. The police are still investigating the crash. Read more in the NY Daily News.

Pedestrians have a higher risk of being injured in a New York car accident during the winter months than during the summer months. Recent statistics related to pedestrian injury in New York city show that 1,107 pedestrians were injured in January 2013 and 902 in January 2014. The graph below indicates that since 2013, the monthly number of pedestrians injured in a vehicle accident in NYC was always above 900 during the cold months of October, November, December and January. During the warm months of July and August this number was always below 900. Last year the monthly number of pedestrians injured in a crash was below 900 from February to September included. Even though too many people are still injured on the streets of the city, statistics show a trend of decreasing injuries. The Vision Zero initiative can be somewhat related to this improvement.

Published on: February 1, 2016

Construction workers suffer serious personal injury after scaffold collapsed in New York

By GGCRBHS&M

4 construction workers at a construction site in upper Manhattan, NYC were injured in a scaffold accident on Saturday afternoon including two seriously. The construction accident happened while the workers were “repointing” the facade of a six-story building located on Seanman Ave near Beak Street . The four hard hats were standing on a scaffold when a cable holding it snapped. The scaffold collapsed and the four men were left hanging in the air, saved by their safety harnesses. Two of the construction workers suffered serious injury. One of them was struck in the head by the snapping cables. The two others only suffered minor injuries. This accident demonstrates that it is essential that construction workers performing work at heights be provided with fall protection including safety harnesses and lanyards.

Minutes later the FDNY were on location and were able to pull two of the construction workers to safety through the windows. They saved the third one with the help of an aerial ladder and pulled the fourth one onto the the roof with a rope.

The 4 workers were transported to the hospital. The NY Department of Buildings is investigating the accident. Read more in the NY Daily News

Published on: January 25, 2016

New York Court of Appeals: injured third party can sue hospital for medical malpractice

By GGCRBHS&M

In Davis v. South Nassau Communities Hospital, Edward Davis sued this New York hospital for medical malpractice after he was injured in a car accident caused by an impaired hospital’s patient. The patient was Lorraine Walsh. Walsh presented herself to the South Nassau Communities Hospital Emergency Room with stomach pain. The ER doctor gave her a very powerful pain medication and told her she could go home. Because the patient was allergic to morphine, she was given Diluadid, an opioid, which is stronger than morphine and Ativan, a fast acting benzodiazepine with a 6 hour half life intravenously. The medication that was given by the ER doctor can impair the ability to operate a motor vehicle. However the doctor didn’t warn the patient nor ask if she was indeed driving home alone.

As she was driving back home, Lorraine Walsh, impaired by the medication, crossed a double yellow line into oncoming traffic and struck a vehicle driven by Edward Davis. Edward Davis suffered personal injury caused by the car accident. Davis then filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital and the physician. The suit was dismissed by the by the trial court and by the Appellate Division. Davis then appealed to the New York Court of Appeals.

The Court of Appeals had to rule on an interesting question: can a third party injured by an impaired patient sue a medical provider under the theory that the medical provider’s malpractice was the cause of of the third party injury even though the third party didn’t have a direct relationship with the medical provider. In a 4-2 decision, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that Davis’claim was permissible. The Court held that defendants had a duty to plaintiffs to warn Walsh that the drugs administered to her impaired her ability to safely operate an automobile.“Our decision herein imposes no additional obligation on a physician who administers prescribed medication. Rather, we merely extend the scope of persons to whom the physician may be responsible for failing to fulfill that responsibility.” Judge Stein and Judge Abdus-Salaam dissented in a lengthy opinion

Published on: January 22, 2016

Man critically injured in New York Car Accident

By GGCRBHS&M

A man who was involved a car accident on a New York highway was hit by another car going in the opposite direction. The accident happened yesterday night around 7:30 pm on the FDR near 41st Street. Two cars collided on the northbound side of the highway. One of the drivers exited his car and attempted to cross the highway on foot. As he was crossing the FDR Drive he was struck by a car and critically injured. Read more in the NY Daily News

Published on: January 21, 2016

Pedestrian in critical condition after being hit by a SUV in New York

By GGCRBHS&M

Two pedestrians were injured in a car accident in New York this afternoon. The accident happened around 2:30 pm near the intersection of Lexington Avenue and East 102nd Street in East Harlem, N.Y.C. The driver of a SUV who had just left the gas station located at one of the corners of the intersection drove the wrong way down a one way street. He then lost control of his vehicle rolling over an off-duty police officer’s foot before pining a woman against a laundromat. The woman was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Read more in the NY Daily News

Published on: January 21, 2016

Seven people suffered personal injury in a New York high-rise fire

By GGCRBHS&M

A fire at a New York High-rise left seven people badly injured last Monday night. The fire started in a trash compactor located on the 9th floor of the Lionel Hampton Houses in Harlem, NYC (see picture). A heavy smoke spread through the building forcing residents to break their own windows to be able to breath. Seven people had to be transported to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation injuries including a woman who is still in a coma. The fire may have been the result of a negligent tenant who threw something flammable such as a cigarette into a compactor. Read more in the NY Daily News.

Smoke inhalation can result in severe respiratory injuries and sometimes death. Respiratory injuries are the number one cause of deaths related to indoor fire accidents. When an indoor fire erupts, the combustion of multiple building materials releases a hot smoke that spreads toxic amounts of carbon monoxide and cyanide in the air. The heat of the smoke can cause internal burning to the respiratory system. The carbon monoxide and cyanide released during the combustion can lead to poisoning, pulmonary irritation and swelling. If severe, these injuries combined together are often fatal.

The same night, a 53 year old woman suffered serious burn injuries in a Bronx apartment fire. The investigation determined that the fired was caused by a discarded cigarette. (Read more in the NY Daily News).