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.

Articles Tagged with New York Wrongful Death

Published on:

New York Crane AccidentA knuckle boom crane fell on a construction worker and killed him yesterday afternoon on a construction site located at 219 E. 44th Street near Second Avenue, New York City. The crane was fitted on a truck parked in front of the building and was used to unload material that was being delivered to the construction site. 40 year old Trevor Loftus , was standing on top of the flatbed truck holding his phone when the articulated arm fell on him and killed him. Loftus served as the crane safety coordinator for Kenry Contracting of Yonkers which is his own company. According to the Buildings Department, construction material was being lifted off the truck when a mechanical failure caused the arm to collapse and killed the construction worker.
Read more in the NY Daily News 
Picture: Buck Ennis

Published on:

40 people died and  10,069 suffered personal injury in a traffic crash in New York City between January 1st and April 1st 2015 compared to respectively 51 and 10,805 in 2014 and 69 and 11,676 in 2013.  it is also interesting to note that there were more accidents during the three first months of this year compared to the same period of the 2 previous years. These numbers indicate that streets are getting a little safer for New Yorkers and that Vision Zero may be starting to show some results.

traffic accidents deaths and injuries NYC jan to march 2015
23 pedestrians died in traffic accidents in NYC during the first three months of the year compared to 31 for the first three months of 2014 and 44 for the same period of 2013. This number is still high but over the last two years it almost decreased by half which is a positive evolution.  The number of pedestrians injured in a crash in NYC during that same period was 2,423 in 2015 compared to 2,847 in 2014 and 3,080 in 2013.

pedestrian detahs and injuries in NYC jan to march 2015

1 person died in a bicycle accident in New York City during the first trimester of 2015 compared to 2 the previous year and 1 in 2013. 355 cyclists suffered personal injury during the same period compared to 399 in 2014 and 510 in 2013. It is difficult to look at bicycle accident statistics for the months of January, February and March as it is the end of the Winter season and not many people use their bikes.

Published on:

New York Truck accidentThankfully nobody was injured in a truck accident that happened Saturday at the site of  a new Memorial for Traffic Fatalities in Brooklyn, NYC. Activists for the group Right of Way were in the process of creating a huge mural depicting the silhouettes of the 264 people who died in traffic accidents in New York in 2014 when an 18-wheeler plowed into it.

Organizer Keegan Stephan was standing closest. The crash pulled parts of the plywood fence from its frame, and he said he and other volunteers who were wheat-pasting posters down the block had to jump back to avoid being struck. The driver could have done worse. “Fortunately he just hit a wall,” Stephan said. “If someone had been standing there that person would be dead.”

Read more in the NY Daily News and in the Gothamist and see video below for more info about the accident (at 1:40 min) and about the Memorial for people killed in traffic accidents in New York City in 20014

Published on:

A year ago 8 people were killed and many others suffered severe personal injuries in a gas explosion that destroyed two five-story buildings in Manhattan. A vigil led by Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito was held this to mark the anniversary of this tragedy. Cecilio Hernandez, a Mexican immigrant who lost his wife and his daughter in the explosion will be among the attendees with Oscar, his teenager son who was badly injured and spent months in the hospital recovering from his injuries. The family lived in the 1644 Park Avenue building. Four other victims lived in this building: Griselde Camacho, 44, Carmen Tanco, 67, George Amadeo, 44, and Alexis Salas, 22.  The two other victims 43 year old Andreas Panagopoulos and 34-year-old Mayumi Nakamura lived at 1646 Park Avenue.

The investigation indicates that the ground beneath the building was saturated with natural gas.

The 8:30 a.m. vigil was held at 108 E. 116th St. and attended by other survivors of the blast along with Mark-Viverito and other elected officials. Read more in the New York Daily News

Published on:

Franklin Reyes admitted that he struck Ariel Russo, resulting in her death, because he was speeding while trying to avoid being arrested by the police without a license after he was caught making an illegal turn. He will spend up to nine years in jail. 4 year old Ariel Russo was walking to school with her grandmother when Reyes lost  control of his car and struck both of them at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and West 97th street in NYC. Ariel died in the accident and her grandmother, 46 year old Katia Gutierrez was seriously injured. Read more in the NY Daily News 

Published on:

Dangerous IntersectionA tractor trailer fatally hit a young man who was crossing a street in the Bronx, NYC, Tuesday night. The truck accident happened around 10.20 pm. 20 year old Kenny Valette was crossing Webster Ave near E. 174 Street when he was struck by a large truck that was making a right turn from the Cross Bronx Expressway exit ramp. The drivers remained at the scene while Valette was transported to the hospital where he died from his injuries. Read more in the NY Daily News.

According to NYCcrashmapper.com, 1 pedestrian, 11 passengers and 3 vehicle drivers suffered personal injury in 29 collisions that took place  at the intersection of East 174 street and Webster Ave between August 2011 and February 2014. As shown in the Heat map this intersection is very dangerous.

Published on:

10 pedestrians died and 1220 suffered personal injury  in traffic accidents last December bringing the total number of pedestrian deaths to 135  in 2014 compared to 168 in 2013 and 130 in 2014 according to car crashes data recently released by the NYPD.  The total number of pedestrians injured in vehicle accidents for 2014 was 11,000 compared to 11,978 the previous year, a decline of 8%. While pedestrian deaths are back around the level of 2012,  deaths as a result of a bicycle accident increased by 73% with 19 fatal bicycle accidents in 2014 compared to 11 in 2013. The number of people injured in a bicycle accident decreased by 2% with 3960 cyclists injured in 2014 compared to 4043 in 2014.

Globally New York City roads were less dangerous in 2014 than in 2013 with a total of 250 people dying in crashes in 2014 compared to 286 in 2013 – a decline of 12% – and 50,896 road users suffering personal injury in 2014 compared to 54,818 in 2013 – a decline of 7%.

new york traffic accident deaths 2013 2014new york traffic accident personal injuries 2013 2014
Even though pedestrian deaths and injuries decreased in 2014, the number of pedestrians suffering personal injury in a vehicle accident was above 1200 in December, the highest monthly number for the last two years. Monthly pedestrian deaths never went over 15 in 2014, an improvement compared to 2013, a year during which the monthly number of deaths jumped to 25 in November and 20 in January.

Published on:

A preliminary report related to the accident between a northbound Metro-North Railroad passenger train and  a 2011 Mercedes Benz ML350 sports utility vehicle (SUV) that killed six people in Valhalla, NY was published a few days ago by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The accident happened on February 3rd 2015 . The report indicates that witnesses saw the SUV stopped on the railroad crossing before the gate went down. As the gate lowered it fell on the back of the car. The driver exited the car, looked at the back and went back in the car. She then proceeded to drive forward when she was struck by the train. The driver of the train operated the emergency brake 300 feet before the collision and hit the SUV at a speed of 49mph. As the train and the car continued to travel northbound, a dozen large pieces of the electrified third rail detached, piercing the SUV, tearing into the first passenger car in two locations and setting it on fire.  The preliminary report doesn’t provide any information on how and why the third rail pieces were able to detach.  Furthermore according to the NTSB the warning lights, alarms and gate arms were functioning however the accident  has prompted new attention to the safety of such crossings around the New York City region. Read more in the New York Times

 

Published on:

A woman in her 2o’s was crossing the street at the intersection of 76th Street and Woodisde in Queens, New York City, on Sunday night when she was struck and killed by  the driver of a box truck. The driver of the truck hit the victim as he was turning onto Woodside Avenue but he didn’t stop. He drove away leaving the woman to die in the street. A witness at the scene followed the box truck for a few blocks, stopped the driver and managed to hold him until the police arrived. The police arrested the driver, 27 year old Valentine Gonzalez and  charged him with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and driving without a license. Earlier in the day in Queens another woman was struck by a hit and run driver (see previous post)

Read more on ABC7 website

Published on:

14640732899_99d7bf1992_n.jpg “Pedestrians vs. Cars: Manhattan’s Deadly Traffic Problem and What Can Be Done About It” was the subject of a discussion led two days ago by DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, councilmember Helen Rosenthal, Dana Lerner, and members of the NYPD at the New York Society for Ethical Culture. During the dicsussion Jill Abramson noted that most of the time when a driver kills a pedestrian, nothing happens, not even a ticket. The discussion also covered subjects such as grievance for families who have lost a loved one in traffic accidents, recent traffic accidents data and speed cameras.

Read more in the Gothamist
Picture: Right of Way