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 wrongful death NYC

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Location of the deadly e-bike accidentA e-bicyclist died in an accident in New York City a little bit after midnight on Christmas.

The accident occurred in a very dangerous area of sunset park in Brooklyn where several people were previously killed in traffic accidents.

33 year old Alejandro Santos  was riding a e-bike on Third Avenue near the intersection of 24th Street when he collided with the rear of a flat-truck bed that was unoccupied at the time of the accident. The young man was transported to the hospital with serious injuries to his legs as well as internal injuries. He died later on at the hospital.

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location of the deadly pedestrian accidentA pedestrian was killed by a reckless driver in Brooklyn last week. The 53 year old woman was crossing the street in the crosswalk at the intersection of Glenwood Road and 55th Street when she was struck by a car driven by 22 year old Michael Rajpaul.

Rajpaul was chased by another driver who he previously hit

Previous to hitting the pedestrian with his 2008 Hyundai, Rajpaul had a fender bender with a BMW. Instead of staying at the scene of the accident he sped away and the driver of the BMW chased him. As he drove South on 55th in the wrong way and at high speed, he ran a red light and was t-boned by another car driving through the greenlight. His car spun around and he hit a 53 year old pedestrian wo got thrown into a parked car. She was rushed to the hospital but the impact was so intense that she died from her injuries.  None of the drivers were injured.

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After reaching a record high in September, NYC auto accident fatalities remained high with 12 pedestrians, 1 cyclist, 4 passengers and 7 drivers killed in auto accidents in October compared to respectively 13 pedestrians, 6 bicyclists, 2 passengers and 14 drivers last September and 9 pedestrians, 3 cyclists, 1 passengers and 5 drivers in October 2019 (click on graphs for full format)

After remaining below 20 for the last 4 years, motor vehicle accident fatalities for the month of October  are back to pre Vision Zero levels with a total of 24 people killed on NYC streets.

Auto accident deaths NYC October 2020
While the number of traffic deaths was higher, the number of people injured in car accidents in New York City was at the lowest level for for the 8 years under review in the graph below. A total of 4,235 people sustained injuries in traffic accidents in the city compared to respectively 5,204, 5,498, 5,450, 5,083, 4,851, 4,692 and 4,830 in October 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.

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Facebook pic of the victimA man speeding and under the influence of alcohol or drugs crashed into the car of a hospital worker on his way to work and killed him.

Daniel Crawford, a phlebotomist at Queens Hospital Center was on his way to work last Friday morning around 4:00 am. He was driving his Toyota through the green light at the intersection of  Parsons Boulevard and Union Turnpike in Jamaica, Queens, when he was T-boned by a Mercedes Benz driven by 22 year old Alamin Ahmed.  Crawford was rushed to the hospital where he usually goes to work but he could not be saved.

A dad, a frontline worker and a future nurse

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No turn for trucks signalA delivery worker on a moped was killed in a truck accident in Queens, NYC  . The accident occurred last Thursday around 8:30 am at the intersection of Astoria Boulevard and Crescent Street.  The driver of a Bud Light delivery truck made a right turn from Astoria Boulevard onto Crescent Street and struck 35 year old, Alfredo Cabrea Licona, a delivery worker riding a red scooter. Alfredo skidded beneath the tractor trailer and it took 10 minutes for  the emergency team to extricate him from under the truck. He was rushed to the hospital with critical injuries and died shortly after his admission to the hospital. Alfredo left behind a wife and two children living in Mexico depending fully on his financial support. He spent 11 years working in the city and was planning his return to Mexico for the end of the year. People who knew him said he was a good and honest man who was working hard to take care of his family.

The accident was preventable

The truck driver stayed at the scene of the accident and so far was not charged. At the time of the accident, the truck made a right turn onto Crescent Street despite a signal forbidding trucks to turn on the street except for local delivery (see picture). There are only residences and a church on the segment of Crescent Street where the truck made a turn, therefore the turn was probably illegal.  Additionally while making the turn onto Crescent street the truck went over the “supposedly” protected bike lane. For months before the accident, street safety activists have been asking the Department of Transportation to adequately protect the two way bike lanes on Crescent Street because trucks and cars would constantly interfere with cyclists. The bike lane is only protected by “flex declineators which flex down to the ground when cars drive over them and as a result do not offer real protection to bike lane users.`

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location of the bike collision
A New York cyclist who was struck by a car died from his injuries one week after the accident occurred. On Saturday November 7th around 1:00 am , Juan Tiu-Caxaj was riding his bicycle on Autumn Avenue. As he crossed Fulton Street he collided with a car heading westbound on Fulton Street. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident. He was not charged. The young victim suffered head trauma and was transported to the hospital. His condition was stable but  it deteriorated and he died from his injuries a week later.

According to the police, the cyclist rode through a stop sign just before the collision.  The investigation is still ongoing to find out the exact cause of the accident.

According to Vision Zero studies, East New York is among the most dangerous areas in New York for bicyclists. However so far not much has been done in this neighborhood to promote bicyclists safety compared to other areas of New York City like Manhattan.

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location of the deadly tractor trailer accidentA 71 year old pedestrian was fatally struck by a tractor-trailer in the Bronx, NYC, just one one week after a cyclist was killed by a big rig in the same borough. The victim was crossing the dangerous intersection of East 38th Street and Exterior Street around 4:00 pm yesterday when a MAC tractor-trailer truck travelling South hit the pedestrian and fled the scene of the accident leaving behind him the victim dying on the ground.  The NYPD was alerted by a 911 call of  and when they arrived at the scene of the accident, they found the man lying on the street, unconscious and with severe head trauma. The senior pedestrian was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. The police are still looking for the truck which had a white rig and a red trailer and the truck driver.

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location of the fatal moped accidentA man riding a moped was fatally struck by a reckless driver in the Bronx, NYC.

Early Sunday, around 12:30 am, 57 year old Frank Davila was riding a moped South on Rosedale Avenue when he was struck by 33 year old Stephanie Mendez who was driving a 2005 Grey Volvo Sedan.  At the time of the accident Mendez was driving with a suspended license.  The police checked her blood alcohol which registered 0.074 which is below the legally drunk level. Despite a blood test below the legal level, the police charged her with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and driving with a suspended license. The investigation is not over yet though but so far Mendez has not been charged with criminally negligent homicide or vehicular manslaughter.

Paramedics found Davila unresponsive and unconscious on the sidewalk. They rushed him to the hospital but it was too late and the 59 year old father was pronounced dead.

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One pedestrian died and two were seriously injured in New York City last week. In all cases, drivers were recklessly driving and in two cases drivers took off after the accident leaving their victims lying on the street.

The first accident occurred on Tuesday in the Bronx. 72 year old Sidney Sale was walking back home after stopping at his local Bodega. As he was crossing the intersection of East 211th  Street and Paulding Avenue in Williamsbridge in the Bronx he was struck by a car. The pedestrian who was in the crosswalk, fell on the ground. The reckless driver did not stop and fled on East 211th Street.  Immediately after, another driver making a left turn onto East 211th Street from Pauling hit the victim for the second time and dragged him along the street. The second driver stayed at the scene of the accident. Sydney Sale suffered trauma all over his body and was rushed to the hospital where he later died from his injuries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM0azfwcrtk

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location of the deadly crash between a cyclist and a tractor trailer truckA 34 year old man died in a bicycle accident in the Bronx, NYC, yesterday. The cyclist collided with a tractor-trailer truck on Bruckner Boulevard around 1:45 pm.  It is still not clear how the accident occurred. An initial police report indicates that the cyclist was riding westbound on Bruckner Boulevard and that the Tractor Trailer Truck driver was heading South on Brown Place. No information was provided about who had the light. The report just concludes that the cyclist ran into the back of the truck. The area is often congested as road users use this part of the Bruckner Boulevard to access the Willis Avenue Bridge.

Why would a cyclist run into the back of a truck?

This seems  to be a very strange conclusion and hopefully further investigation will reveal what exactly led to the death of this cyclist. Unfortunately the NYPD has a long history of blaming cyclists for crashes and giving slack to faulty drivers. Last year, Mario Venezuela, a Queens teenager, was fatally hit by a negligent truck driver. The police blamed the teenager for his own death however surveillance footage of the crash shows that the truck driver was reckless and cause the death of the teenager. A video of the crash shows the truck driver veering to his left before cutting hard into a right turn without using his turn signal and crashing into Venezuela.