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 brooklyn wrongful death

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A reckless truck driver fatally struck a NYC pedestrian as he was in the crosswalk with the light in his favor. The truck accident occurred early morning  around 6:30 am on October 4th.

63 year old Benjamin  Berger was crossing the street at the intersection of Flushing Avenue and Bedford Avenue. He was in the crosswalk with the greenlight in his favor when a box truck turning left from Flushing Avenue onto Bedford Avenue literally rolled over him. A surveillance video posted by Williamsburg News shows the truck turning recklessly without slowing down and driving over the victim.  When  paramedics arrived at the scene of the accident they found the victim dead with severe body and head injuries. The man was living just a block away.

The driver was identified as 44 year old Torriez Bailey from Maryland. He was arrested by the police and charged with failure to use due care and failure to yield to a pedestrian.

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The New York block where a cyclist and two pedestrians were struckA reckless driver who tried to flee the police in Brooklyn, NYC, struck a bicyclist and two pedestrians, continued driving, struck three other pedestrians, crashed into a vehicle and then into a wall before running away with a passenger. One suspect is in custody while the other is still at large.

According to the police, two officers patrolling in Bedford-Stuyvesant saw a car with mismatched plates which is usually an indication that the car might have been stolen. They also noticed that the two people inside the car were smoking marijuana.   As they got out of the police car to talk to the driver after turning on their lights and pulling the car over, the driver of the vehicle took off.

As he was fleeing from the police, the reckless driver  first struck a cyclist and two pedestrians at the intersection of Macon Street and Ralph Avenue. He did not stop and continued speeding on Ralph Avenue. As he reached Hasley Street, the driver hit a grandmother and her grandson who were crossing the street. He then crashed into another car and careened into the wall of building. The driver and the passenger then got out of the car and ran away.

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scene of the fatal chain crashA pedestrian was fatally struck between two parked cars in Brooklyn, NYC on Saturday morning around 9:35 am.

The accident occurred as 48 year old Everton Stewart was cleaning his car parked in front of his parents’ house located in Canarsie on E. 89th Street near Avenue L. He was standing between the back of his car and the front of his father’s car which was parked right behind him when another car that was coming down the street slammed into his father’s car and pinned him between the two vehicles. The man was rushed to the hospital but he did not survive.

The driver who caused the chain accident, a 46 year old woman with a child in the car, swerved to avoid a car and then according to the police “accelerated for no reason” and crashed into the father’s car.  She was arrested by the police and charges are still pending.

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440 HarmanA Nassau contractor whose negligence caused the death of a 5 year old child in Brooklyn, NYC, in 2019 has been indicted on  manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, offering a false instrument for filing and falsifying business records. He is due back in court in May.

Alysson Pinto-Chauman had her skull crushed in front of her mom

The accident occurred on August 29 2019. 5 year old Alysson Pinto-Chaumana was with her mom and a group of friends standing in front of the high wall of a property located on Harman Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn when part of the wall suddenly collapsed on the toddler. Her skull was crushed in the accident. Her mom who was standing next to her witnessed the entire scene and said the vision will be engraved in her memory forever.

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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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garbage truck accident Brooklyn TwitA 62 year old man was killed in a garbage truck accident in Brooklyn, NYC, on Friday afternoon. The accident occurred around 3:30 pm in front of the Atlantic Terminal Mall near the Barclay Center.  The pedestrian was crossing Flatbush Avenue at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue when he was struck by a commercial garbage truck belonging to the private hauler Safeway Services Corp. The 37 year old driver remained at the scene of the accident.

The pedestrian was struck a few feet away from the faded crosswalk and pictures from the accident scene on social media may indicate that the pedestrian was using a walker. It is not clear if the garbage was driving through the intersection and was on Flatbush Avenue with the light in his favor or if he made a right turn from Atlantic Avenue onto Flatbush and both pedestrians and turning traffic had the green light when the accident occurred.  In that case the truck driver should have yielded to the pedestrian. It is not clear either if the garbage truck was equipped with guardrails.  The law requires that all garbage trucks above 10,000 pounds be equipped with guardrails by 2024.

The intersection remains dangerous despite structural improvements in 2018

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location of the fatal hit and run accidentLast May, a man behind the wheel of a Rolls Royce fatally struck a pedestrian crossing  Bayard Street at the intersection of McGuiness Boulevard and sped away. The pedestrian was 58 year old Matthew  Jensen. He was a beloved teacher at PS 110 and the Greenpoint community was very moved by his death. After the accident (see previous blog). 

The negligent driver is a 30 year old FDNY EMT

The NYPD announced yesterday that they identified the hit-and-run driver as Tariq Witherspoon, a 30 year old FDNY EMT. They arrested him and charged him with speeding, reckless endangerment, leaving the scene of an accident and criminally negligent homicide.

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Caption Description File URL: https://www.newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneysblog.com/files/2022/02/dangerous-road-conditions-NYC-scaled.jpg Copy URL to clipboard ATTACHMENT DISPLAY SETTINGS Alignment None Link To Media File URL https://www.newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneysblog.com/files/2022/02/dangerous-road-conditions-NYC-scaled.jpg Size Full Size – 2383 × 2560 Selected media actions 1 item selected Clear Insert into postA Brooklyn woman is the 12th pedestrian to die in a car accident in New York City since the beginning of this year. In a very graphic video the 64 year old pedestrian is seen walking West on the North sidewalk of Foster Avenue. As she arrives at the intersection of East 17th Avenue, she waits for the light to turn green and then proceeds to walk on the snowy street. At the same time, the driver of a grey Chevy makes a right turn from Foster onto 17th Street, does not yield  or slows down and slams into the pedestrian.

The driver, a 57 year old woman,  stayed at the scene of the accident and so far was not charged. The victim was rushed to the hospital where she died.

While the video clearly shows that the driver did not yield to the pedestrian, the snow that had not been proprely removed from the intersection made the area even more dangerous to navigate for pedestrians and vehicles.

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location of the deadly school bus accidentA 15 year old girl was fatally struck by a yellow school bus driver in Brooklyn, NYC.  The accident occurred yesterday morning around 7:55 am. Antonia Zatulovska was on her way to school. She was in the crosswalk at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Avenue P when a long yellow school bus with children on board made a turn off Avenue P onto Bedford Avenue and rolled over her. Surveillance video caught the shocking accident.

After he rolled over the victim, the driver of the bus briefly stopped and then sped away. Police tracked him down and found him and the bus on Neptune Avenue near West 6th Street in Coney Island.

Bus driver not charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident so far

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location of the fatal crashTwo childhood friends were driving back home from an after-hours party when the one driving ran a red light and crashed into another car. The passenger was ejected and died. The accident occurred around 6:30 am last Saturday morning. According to the police, 26 year old Jovanni Padilla was speeding down Saratoga Ave when he ran a red light at the intersection of Sutter Ave and crashed into a KIA SUV. His best friend, 23 year old Kainen Martin was asleep in the passenger seat. Ther impact was so intense that he was ejected from the car.  The police found him lying in the street and he was rushed to the hospital where he later on died from his injuries. The driver, Jovanni Padilla did not have a license and was drunk at the time of the accident. He was also trying to escape on foot when the police arrived and caught him. Padilla was first charged with DWI and driving without a license  and later on with mansluaghter, assault and vehicular manslaughter. The driver of the KIA SUV was hospitalized with minor injuries.

Best friends since childhood

Jovanni and Kainen had been best friends since they were children. Padilla felt so guilty after he understood that his friend had died that he asked the cop  “Just shoot me in the head”. He later on attended the candle light vigil held at the house of Kainen’s mother  in Brooklyn. Both Jovanni and Kainen’s family knew each other and both were distraught by the fatal accident.