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

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Several people were injured and one person died in two fire accidents in New York City this week-end.

Early Saturday around 12;14 am two civilians and two firefighters were injured in a three-alarm blaze in Washington Heights. According to the NY Daily News , the fire started in an apartment on the sixth floor of a building located on Broadway and W. 151st Street. The fire and the smoke spread quickly through the building and 138 firefighters were needed to stop it.

On Sunday morning around 4:00 am,  another fire started in a house in Jackson Heights, Queens killing an 88 year old man who was living there.  65 firefighters were called to the rescue. It took them 45 minutes to stop the blaze that ravaged the house located on 87th Street and 35th Avenue in Queens, NYC. The victim was found dead by the firefighters with severe burns on his body.

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Yellow_cabA taxi driver fatally ran over a woman who was lying on a New York City street and didn’t stop. At his arraignment he said he thought he hit a pothole, not a human being.

Saturday morning around 3:30 am, 68 year old John Bangura was driving his yellow cab on First Ave near 17th Street in Stuyvesant Town, Manhattan. For some unexplained reason, 44 year old Kenya Flores was laying on the ground when the taxi ran over her and dragged her briefly on First Ave. Before laying in the path of the taxi, Flores had laid down in a bus path.

According to the NY Daily News, witnesses saw the taxi trying to drive around a car who had stopped in front of him when he hit the woman.  He dragged her down the street and sped away.  Flores was taken to the hospital where she later died.

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A pedestrian was fatally struck by a sanitation truck in New York yesterday morning around 6:00 am. The pedestrian, a 55 year old woman had the right of way. She was crossing First Avenue in the crosswalk with the walk sign on when she was struck by a sanitation truck driver who was making a left turn from 92nd Street onto First Ave. After the accident the police indicated that the victim was injured but conscious. She had a deep cut on her forehead and she also complained of leg and wrist pain. She was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead 20 minutes later.  She may have suffered fatal internal bleeding.

The driver of the sanitation truck stayed at the scene of the accident. So far he hasn’t been arrested or charged. Under the Right of Way Law, New York drivers injure or kill a pedestrian who has the right of way can be criminally charged.

MTS rampResidents of Yorkville had long predicted that such an accident would happened when in 2014 they tried to oppose the construction of the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station, a massive garbage site visited by hundreds of garbage trucks every day.

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In New York State, 142 bicyclists and 925 pedestrians died in accidents during the 3-year period of 2011, 2012 and 2013 according to the recently released  Alliance for Biking and Walking 2016 Benchmarking Report. The number of bicyclists and pedestrian fatalities increased compared to the 3-year period of 2008, 2009 and 2010. This doesn’t mean however that the streets and the roads in New York are getting more dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists. A study of the bicyclist fatality rates between 2005 and 2013 shows that the bicyclist fatality rate over the 3-year period of 2005, 2006, 2007 was 13 fatalities per 10K biking commuters compared to 9 on average for the 3-year periods of 2008-2010 and 2011-2013. For New York pedestrians the sames rates were respectively 6, 5 and 5.

Even though these rates indicate that the roads of New York have gotten slightly safer, New York State’s bicyclist fatalities as a percentage of all traffic fatalities is 3% which is the second highest rate of all states in the US behind Florida with 4%. Looking at the pedestrian fatality rate as a percentage of all traffic fatalities, New York has the highest rate of all states in the US with 24%  (click on graph below to see them in a larger size)

bicyclist fatality by state
pedestrian fatality by states
Looking at selected demographics, data shows that in New York State from 2005 to 2013 an average  31% of bicyclists killed in bicycle accidents were Hispanic, 11% were seniors (over age 65) and 15% were youth (under age 16).

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A 77 year old woman died after being hit by a car in New York. The pedestrian accident occurred at the intersection of Madison Avenue and 36th Street around 8:30 am on Monday morning.  77 year old Carol Dauplaise, a Manhattan jeweler, was crossing Madison Avenue from east to west. She had the green light and was in the crosswalk. As she was crossing, Buddhi Gurund, a limo driver for Tel-A-Car, made a left turn onto Madison Avenue from 36th street and struck her.  Other pedestrians who witnessed the accident rushed to the rescue and lift the car off to try to save the woman. She was transported to the hospital where she later died from her injuries.

Carol Dauplaise was a successful jeweler who had developed her own business into a multi million-dollar business. She started her own company in 1979 with only two other employees: a sales person and a design assistant.  Her company is now employing 50 people in New York City. Her store was located a block away from the accident on 37th Street.

The limo driver told the police that he didn’t see the victim.  According to the Gothamist he was arrested and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.

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After a construction worker died and four others suffered personal injury in a construction accident in Brooklyn, NYC, in 2011, the negligent “special instructor” who failed to perform crucial safety inspections on the site of the accident had his license revoked by the New York City Department of Buildings on Friday.

Back in 2011, Steven Schneider, an engineer, was hired as a special safety inspector on the construction site of a 14-unit condo building in Brighton Beach. As part of his duties Schneider was required by the code to perform structural tests such as testing of steel and masonry construction, structural stability and underpinning of adjacent buildings. Investigations show that Schneider never performed any of these tests and therefore didn’t notice that construction workers  had improperly poured concrete on unstable steel structures. This gross negligence led to the collapse of several floors of the building.  During the accident several workers were buried in the debris. Among them was Ivan Lende, a 54 year old worker from the Ukraine who died in the accident. Four of his colleagues were injured. Investigation results also show that Schneider  was unable to provide inspection documentation at many other NYC sites where he had been hired as a safety instructor. Not only did Schneider have his license revoked by the NYC DOB but his case was also referred to the state for “further disciplinary action”.

The DOB also announced Friday the revocation of the plumbing license of Andrew Trombetta. Andrew Trombetta is a master plumber who was involved in the East Village gas explosion that killed two people and injured many others in March 2015. Andrew Trobetta rented his licensed to the unaccredited plumber who installed the illegal hook up that led to the explosion. Earlier this month he was charged with falsifying inspection reports while four other people were charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

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Kew_GardensA commuter was killed after being dragged by a New York City Subway. The accident happened yesterday night at the Union Turnpike-Kew Gardens in Queens, NYC around 6:45 pm. The man was boarding the southbound F train when he got caught between the doors. The train then took off, dragging the man along the platform.  He was transported to the hospital where he later died. The New York Post reported the man may have been intoxicated. The police are investigating.

Door holding is something that New York Subway riders are practicing everyday but in this case a part of the man’s clothes apparently got caught in the closed doors and the engineer may have in fact received a signal that the doors were closed.

Picture: the subway station where the accident happened, source Wikipedia

 

 

 

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deblasioA week after a man died in a crane collapse in New York, the Mayor announced that the city will kick off a massive inspection blitz of construction sites and quadruple penalties for serious violations of safety on construction sites. The construction boom in the city has led to a dramatic increase of construction accidents. Last year there were 433 accidents, an increase of 75%  compared to 2014. Before the boom in 2009 there were  218 accidents, 98% less than in 2015.  According to DOT investigations, most of the construction accidents that happened last year in New York City could have been prevented if the contractor had simply followed the existing safety rules. Unfortunately too often contractors and developers are cutting corners and putting the life of their workers at risk to increase their profit.

Despite the cold weather Mayor de Blasio held his press conference in front of a East Village Construction site where a construction worker fell to his death on Christmas Eve. 33 year old Luis Alberto Pomboza, was working on the renovation of a multi-family  townhouse at 356 East 8th Street. Pomboza was demolishing a wall when a large portion of the wall fell on him and caused him to fall 4 stories. An Ecuadorian immigrant and father of 5, Pomboza was transported to the hospital in critical condition. He later died there from serious head trauma.  The construction site superintendent who was legally required to be on the construction site to ensure the safety of workers and the public wasn’t there when the accident happened. De Blasio indicated that last year 70% of the construction accidents in New York City occurred in buildings with 10 stories or less. Therefore the investigation blitz  that starts this week will focus on these types of construction sites. Inspectors will target contractors with bad safety records and working on buildings lower than 10 stories as well as all construction sites higher than 15 stories. The DOB will inspect a total of 1,500 job sites in the 90 coming days.

Fines for “serious failures to safeguard construction sites” will increase from $2,400 to $10,000 and if the construction site is lacking a site superintendent the penalty will reach a maximum of $25,000 instead of $5,000. Additionally starting in July, superintendents will be required for all major construction projects at buildings under 10 stories. Superintendents will be required to log daily reviews of site safety.

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A pedestrian was fatally hit by a dump truck in New York City on Friday. The accident between the truck and the pedestrian happened at the intersection of 11th Avenue at West 37th Street, Manhattan, in front of the Javits Center. The 48 year old woman was crossing 11th Avenue when the truck made a right turn from 37th Street onto 11th Ave.  Brenda Katz who was in a cab just behind the truck told DNA Info that the pedestrian was most probably in the dead angle of the truck driver and that he didn’t see her. She said the back wheel of the truck ran over her. The woman died at the scene of the accident. According to the Daily News the victim was travelling from Canada.

dump truck accident location

 

 

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A 63 year old grandmother died in a truck accident yesterday in New York. The accident happened yesterday night at 8:48 pm at the intersection of Broadway and West 165th Street in Manhattan. Maria Minchala had just come out of the church and was on her way to work. She was crossing Broadway in the crosswalk when a flatbed truck hit her.

The truck driver who was operating a NYC Tire and Auto Care Inc. truck, was making a left turn onto Broadway when he hit her. He stayed at the scene of the accident and told the police that he never saw the victim. He explained that as he was turning he felt a bump and pulled over. He stepped out and discovered the victim.

Maria Minchala was rushed to the hospital but she didn’t survive. She was the second pedestrian to die in a traffic accident in NYC yesterday. Earlier in the day a 16 year old girl was fatally struck by a hit and run van in Queens (see previous blog)

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