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 personal injury

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25 firefighters were injured in a fire in New York. 23 of them had to be hospitalized and 2 of them were treated at the scene of the accident according to AM New York. No civilians were injured. The fire started in the lower level of a large Tribeca commercial and residential building located at the corner of Church and Murray at the end of the afternoon last Friday. The FDNY is still investigating the cause of the fire. According to the Gothamist, the fire was ignited in the kitchen of a restaurant located on the ground floor and quickly spread into the duct work and the rest of the building. Heavy black smoke came out of the building and spread through the financial district. The fire that began as a two-alarm fire turned into a 6-alarm one necessitating 200 firefighters to respond.  The Post indicates that the building had 3 unresolved fire safety violations from 8 months ago:

  1. failure to provide a fire-alarm system.
  2. inappropriate fire exit.
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crash location3 people were injured in a car accident in New York early this morning. Around 1 AM this morning, a black sedan and a grey SUV  were driving South on Park Avenue.  They collided in front of a construction site on 85th street that occupied the right lane of Park Avenue. Speed may have been a factor. The collision was extremely violent and both cars were mangled. The driver of the SUV is in critical condition while the other driver and passenger of the sedan were also  seriously injured. The police are still investigating the exact cause of the accident.

The accident occurred on Park Ave South at the 85th Street intersection where the road is partially obstructed by the scaffolding of a construction site. According to CBS  News New York, it is the second accident that occurred near the construction site. Last month a construction worker was hit by a car at the same location.

picture of the crash location:courtesy of Google

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A construction worker suffered minor injuries after collapsing at a construction site in Manhattan yesterday morning. The man was in a hard to reach area  of a construction site located at 348 West 14th Street, downtown Manhattan. The accident occurred around 9:00 am. Because of concerns about the stability of the building, firefighters had to use a tower ladder to get access to the worker and to remove him from the location where he passed out. The worker was then transported to the hospital. So far, the exact causes of the accident are unknown. However above average temperatures may have been a factor. (read more in the NY Daily News)

Every summer in America, thousands of construction workers are becoming ill because of the heat. Some even die. Here are a few guidelines that employers should make sure to follow if they want to prevent their workers from getting ill when the temperature rises:

  • New and temporary workers should always be closely monitored when starting to work during warm weather as they are the most affected by heat illnesses. Heat illnesses often occur during the first 3 days of work in the heat. One third of the fatal accidents related to heat occur on the first day of work in the heat.
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accident sceneA one year old baby suffered injuries after being hit by a yellow taxi.  The baby was sitting in a stroller next to the parents on the terrace of a restaurant  located at 85th Street and Second Avenue in the  Upper East Side of Manhattan when the accident happened. Two yellow taxis crashed into each other.  The impact caused one of the taxis to jump the curb and hit the stroller.  Two taxi passengers, a 46-year-old woman and a 9-year-old girl also suffered minor injuries. The two taxi  drivers  weren’t injured. They both jumped out of their taxis and started to argue. According to a witness, they didn’t seem to care much about the injured passengers or the family that they almost killed. Both drivers told the police that the other one didn’t have the green light. The police are still investigating the accident.  They are going to look at footage of the surveillance video camera from the restaurant to  figure out who was right and who was wrong. It was a miracle that no other pedestrians suffered  serious injury as the accident occurred during a sunny  Sunday afternoon  with terraces and sidewalks packed with people. Read more here

 

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5 people were injured in a collision between a yellow cab and a SUV in Manhattan early Wednesday morning in NYC. Two people were critically injured and two others were in serious condition, the fifth person only suffered minor injury. Among the victim was a two year old baby. An investigation is still ongoing to find out the exact cause of the accident.

The accident occurred around 1:20 am in Chelsea. The yellow taxi mini-van was driving West on 23rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The driver was transporting two passengers, a male and a female. For reasons that are still being investigated the taxi driver rammed into an Acura MDX SUV.  A woman was driving the SUV. She had two passengers, another woman and a 2 year old child.

A witness told the New York Post that the taxi female passenger had blood all over her face while the SUV passenger and the baby seemed ok. Pictures in the New York Post show that both cars were seriously damaged. The front of the taxi was completely destroyed.

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The police are still looking for a hit and run driver who almost killed a pedestrian in New York. The 36-year-old man was crossing Riverside Drive at the intersection of West 155th Street when a speeding car hit him and sped away in the night. The pedestrian suffered a fractured skull , a broken arm and a deep laceration of his head. He was in critical condition when he arrived at the hospital but he is now stable. After the accident the police said that they were chasing the driver who hit the pedestrian. They had tried to pull the driver over for a traffic violation ten blocks away.

Police chases are triggering too many crashes and often end in killing or badly injuring innocent people like this unfortunate pedestrian.  They should very limited in New York City depending upon the reason for the pursuit.

Read more on CBS New York website

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subway accident fire nycAnother subway accident occurred on Monday morning in New York. This time, 30 feet of train track trash caught fire in a tunnel between 145th street and 133rd street in Harlem. Hundreds of panicked passengers were stuck in trains as a smoky blaze developed in the tunnel. Thousands more passengers, most of them on their way to work, were stuck waiting in overcrowded sweltering subway stations.

The fire was reported this morning at 7:18 am by a subway conductor. Trains were stopped and an order was given to the subway conductor to stop the AC to prevent the smoke from being sucked into the cars by the AC system. The service was finally restored at 9:34 am. 9 passengers had to be transported to the hospital for minor injuries related to heat and smoke.

MTA Chairman and CEO Joe Lotha apologized and said the he would increase the effort in Operation Track Sweep. This operation includes 500 employees who are supposed to maintain the tracks clear from garbage.

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subway-derailmentA subway derailed in New York yesterday. According to the FDNY at least 34 people were injured in the accident. 17 of them were transported to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries. A baby and her asthmatic mother as well as other passengers suffered from smoke inhalation. The derailment occurred on the A train between 125th and 135th street shortly before 10:00 am. The train careened off the tracks and scraped the sides of the tunnel wall. In one of the cars a door was ripped open. The track division chairman for the Transport Workers Union, Paul Navarro, said the train “was peeled open like a can opener” According to passengers, the train started to shake violently and the lights started to flicker before the whole train was plunged into darkness and smoke. Passengers started to panic. Some used their shirts as a mask to protect themselves from inhaling the heavy smoke. They remained in darkness and in the smoke for at least 10 minutes until the conductor spoke over the intercom to announce that the train had derailed and that emergency responders were coming through the cars. Some straphangers were evacuated trough the tunnel and others through the train onto the 125th street platform.

According to preliminary investigation by the MTA, the subway derailment was caused by human error. A loose piece of rail was left on the tracks the night before by workers who were doing repair on the A line.

New Yorker’s have been used to getting delayed or stuck in subway cars countless times because of the aging subway  system but they never feared that they were in danger while riding the train. Recently passengers on the F train were stuck in a car without AC and without lights for nearly 3 hours.  However this accident is causing New Yorker’s to wonder how safe it is to ride the subway. Read more in the New York Times 

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A cop was injured in a car accident in New York, early Sunday night. The cop was standing near the exit of a garage located next to the 23rd street Pier. Around 3:20 am a SUV that was exiting the garage in a rush went through a wood barricade and clipped the cop. The cop suffered hand and knees injuries. He was transported to the hospital. The car driver may have been fleeing the scene of a brawl that occurred at the pier at the end of a boat party. The driver and the passenger were both arrested.

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A bicyclist was severely injured by a reckless driver who was chased by the police. The driver identified as 28 year old Raheem Addison had 25 license suspensions in 12 different states and 21 prior arrests. He had been partying for hours at a pride event before getting behind the wheel of a car parked in a Midtown garage. As he left the garage he almost hit a family. Someone alerted the police. When the police arrived near the garage, they saw the man parked outside the garage, in the driver’s seat. When he saw them, the young driver took off. The police started to chase him in the middle of one of the most populated areas of Midtown Manhattan. The driver, who was intoxicated, crossed the double line on 34th street before making a left turn and enter 7th Ave in the wrong direction. He hit a 32 year old bicyclist, severely injuring him and continued his erratic driving almost hitting other pedestrians who had to jump out of the way of the car to avoid him. The driver drove the wrong way for two blocks, turned on 26th street and shortly later abandoned the car running away on foot. Police eventually found him and he was taken into custody. The owner of the car who was seated next to him as a passenger during the entire chase was released without charges. The bicyclist who was ejected across the street at the time of the accident was transported to the hospital with critical injuries. He is now in serious but stable condition.