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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96 people died and 27,923 suffered personal injuries in 110,992 motor vehicle accidents in New York City during the first 6 months of 2017 based on the most recent statistics released by the NYPD.

This is the first time that the number of people dying in NYC traffic accidents during the first six months of the year is below 100.  In 2013, before Mayor de Blasio launched Vision Zero, 121 people died in auto accidents in the city during the same period. Vision Zero was launched at the beginning of 2014 and since then the total number of people dying in NYC crashes slowly decreased from 110 during the first semester of 2014 to 107 during the first semester of 2015 and the first semester of 2016. It dropped to 96 for the same period of 2017. Multiple Vision Zero measures such as the reduction of the city speed limit to 25 mph as well as the installation of cameras may have contributed to this decline in fatal crashes.

traffic accident deaths in NYC for the first semester of 2013 to 2017
The decrease in traffic deaths in New York City occurred despite a significant increase in crashes over the last 4 years. In 2013, 99,474 crashes were reported to the NYPD during the first semester. This number increased steadily to 100,834 in 2014 and 104,636 in 2015. It then jumped to 111,588 in 2016. It decreased slightly during the first six months of this year to stabilize at 110,992. Distracted driving is the most common factor in these accidents.

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accident sceneA pedestrian died in a Bronx car accident  on Friday afternoon. The 77 year old man was trying to cross the Hutchinson River Parkway near the Pelham parkway when he was hit by a car. He was rushed to the hospital where he died. The driver who hit him stayed at the scene of the accident. He wasn’t charged. Read more in the NY Daily News

Also in the Bronx during the weekend 4 people were injured in a car accident related to speed.  Around 6 AM on Sunday morning the driver of a black sedan lost control of his vehicle and crashed into several pillars before hitting another car.  The accident occurred near Sands Place  in Middletown, Pelham Bay. It is a miracle that nobody died according to the NY Daily News

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bicycle garbage truck accident locationA garbage truck fatally hit a bicyclist in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NYC early Saturday morning. The driver didn’t stop.  27-year-old Neftaly Ramirez had just finished his shift at a Brooklyn Pizzeria. He was biking home to the Lower East Side around 12:30 am. As he was riding on Franklin Street near Noble Street in Greenpoint, a garbage truck driving South on Franklin hit him. The garbage truck driver continued on his way leaving the bicyclist dying in the street behind him. The investigation is still ongoing and the police haven’t apprehended the truck driver yet. Therefore it is still unclear if the driver was aware that he hit someone. Ramirez was found by the police with trauma all over his body. He was pronounced dead by EMS soon after their arrival at the scene of the accident.

Franklin Ave in Greeenpoint is a link between Kent Ave and the Pulaski bridge. It is narrow but busy with traffic day and night. According to a local resident, trucks are “flying down the street all night”. There is a shared bike and motor vehicle lane that is completely unprotected (see picture). A large electronic sign was installed at the location of the accident  by the police to ask potential witnesses to report information. Detectives were also looking for potential footage from security cameras. So far the police said that the truck that hit Ramirez was green with white with yellow lettering. It was most probably a private garbage truck. Private dump trucks are among the most dangerous vehicles for pedestrians and bicyclists. They have the highest NYC pedestrian-kill rate per mile driven. One may hope that the police may finally launch a safety initiative directed at private garbage trucks but that is not what happening. The police were seen on Sunday afternoon ticketing bicyclists on Franklin Ave.

Read more in Streetblog

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accident sceneTwo people died and several others were injured in a NYC car accident caused by a drunk driver who was speeding. 34-year-old Andrew Shakespeare was driving back from a wedding on Sunday morning. He had 4 other passengers in his car. He was allegedly drunk and was speeding on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens, NYC. As he approached the 188th street exit, Shakespeare changed lanes and side-wiped a Nissan Sentra driven by a 59-year-old woman. He then lost control of his BMW X5 SUV and careened into a Nissan Rogue driven by a 52-year-old man. Both cars crashed into the center guard rail. A 38-year-old woman driving a Mercedes was then struck by the BMW despite trying to swerve to avoid hitting the two cars. The impact sent her car into trees on the side of the road and back rolling over on the road.

The BMW front passenger, 34-year-old Layon Campbell was transported to the hospital with critical head and body injury. He was pronounced dead upon his arrival. 16-year-old Akeam Grant who was sitting on the rear right seat of the BMW died at the scene of the accident. The two other passengers, a 21-year-old and a 16-year-old survived. One of them fractured his pelvis and his right arm. The other lacerated his right arm. They were both transported to a hospital to be treated.

Among the people in the 3 other cars involved in the crash, both drivers of the Nissans were taken to the hospital for neck and back injuries but were listed in stable condition. The two passengers of the Nissan Rogue were also rushed to the hospital. The front passenger, a 50-year-old man injured his right leg. The rear passenger, a 63-year-old man fractured his rib and his neck. He also suffered from neck and back pain. Both passengers are in stable condition. The Mercedes-Benz driver was also transported to the hospital to be treated for pain in her right shoulder.

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pedestrian accident locationA pedestrian was fatally struck by car in NYC last night . According to the NY Daily News The 53-year-old man was crossing East Tremont Ave at the intersection of Saint Peters Ave when a SUV hit him. The pedestrian died at the scene of the accident. The driver wasn’t charged. The accident occurred at night around 9:30 pm.

East Tremont has been identified by the Vision Zero  initiative as a dangerous corridor. Speeding is frequent and pedestrians crossings are too few on this 4 lane avenue. The DOT presented a plan to redesign Est Tremont Ave to the community Board 9 in April 2016. However this plan covers only a part of East Tremont Avenue and not the area where the pedestrian was fatally struck yesterday night.

Picture of the pedestrian accident location: courtesy of Google

 

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city-seal-prThere were 93 traffic fatalities in New York City for the first 6 months of 2017. This is the first time since traffic accident data began being recorded in the City that this number went below 100. 203 people died in motor vehicle accidents in NYC for the full fiscal year that ended on June 30.

These numbers were announced a few days ago by Mayor Bill de Blasio. “No loss of life on our streets is acceptable, but under Vision Zero, we have seen continued and consistent progress, with traffic fatalities on the decline for three-and-a-half-years, strongly countering national trends,” said Mayor de Blasio.

Since 2014, the city has been taking multiple measures such as street redesign and traffic enforcement to try to make the streets safer for all New Yorkers. Pedestrians, especially children and seniors are the most at risk of being fatally struck by a car. Among the 93 people who died in traffic accidents, 47 of them were pedestrians. Respectively 63, 54 and 55 and  of them died during the same period of 2016, 2015 and 2014.

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9 cyclists died in bicycle accidents in New York City during the first 6 months of 2017 according to recent articles by Aidan Gardiner in DNA Info. During the same period of time last year 12 bicyclists died in New York City and respectively 5, 10 and 7 in 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.  Indeed despite the launch of Vision Zero  in 2014 and after a drop in 2015, the number of bicycle accident fatalities was higher most of the time  than what it was in 2013 before Vision Zero was launched.  The main reason why the number of  cyclists fatalities remain high is because the number of people using bikes in New York City has been exploding over the last few years. According to data from the NYC DOT (see graph below), the number of people commuting to their work by bike has grown by 80% between 2010 and 2015, faster than in any American city.

bicycling statistics NYC
A better way to find out if the streets are safer for New York City bicyclists is to compare the ratio of cyclists deaths to the number of commuters for example. In 2013 this ratio was 10/37589 = 0.026%, in 2014 it was 5/41,789=0.011% and in 2015 10/44,976=0.022%. This ratio indicates that streets were safer in 2014 and 2015 than they were in 2013. However the ratio also showed that when Vision Zero was launched in 2014  street safety for bicyclists increased significantly but then dissipated after the launch. The data shows that street safety for bicyclists must be an everyday focus at all levels of the Vision Zero program.

The NYC DOT also calculates the New York City Cycling Risk. This indicator compares the Bicyclists Severe Injuries and Fatalities (KSI) to the estimated million cycling trips taken in New York City every year. According to the most recent report of the DOT, the bicycling risk has been constantly decreasing since 2000 and was at its lowest in 2014 (see graph below).

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tow-truck-accident-location A pedestrian died in a tow truck accident in New York City last Friday. 70 year old Donna Hahl of Valley Stream was crossing Jamaica Ave when a tow truck driver making a turn from 217th Street onto Jamaica Ave struck her. The woman had the green light and was in the cross walk. The tow truck driver also had the green light but as he was making a left turn he not only had to yield to traffic coming in the opposite lane but also to pedestrians crossing at the same time. The tow truck driver identified as 29 year old Mandip Singh from Queens remained at the scene of the accident. When the EMS arrived they found the pedestrian lying on the street unconscious and with body trauma. They transported her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.  The driver was arrested for failure to exercise due care and failure to yield to a pedestrian ( Read more in the Gothamist).

Our New York Truck Accident Lawyers team handled a very similar case a few years ago. The victim, a New York physician was biking on the New York Greenway by the Hudson River when a NYPD tow truck crashed into him. The driver didn’t exercise due care and turned onto Greenway without yielding to the bicyclist.  The impact was so strong that the bicyclist was propelled into the air and fell onto another truck. His head hit the hood. He was transported to the hospital with critical head trauma. He died from his injuries a few days later. The driver wasn’t charged despite not yielding at the intersection. The physician was an avid bicyclist and a marathon runner. He would do house calls on his bike but that night he was just enjoying a pleasant ride by the river with his wife. Our attorneys were able to recover $5 million for his widow.

Picture: location of the tow truck accident courtesy of Google Map

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A young man is dead and his girlfriend critically injured after their car crashed into a tractor trailer truck in Queens early Saturday morning. 28 year old Steven Narvaez was driving with his 17 year old girlfriend when he blew a red light at the intersection of Skillman Ave and Queens Blvd a little bit before 6:00 am. His Toyota Corolla T-boned an 18-wheel municipal waste truck.
The young driver was found dead in his seat by the EMS. His girlfriend was transported to the hospital in critical condition.
Both families were crushed by the drama.

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A 96-year-old pedestrian died after a car backing out of a driveway hit her.  Last Tuesday, 96 year Ruth Cohn was talking a walk a block away from the Atria Riverdale senior home where  she lived when the accident occurred. She was struck by a car backing out of a driveway. She was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with legs and pelvic injuries. She died the next day. The driver, a 46 year old woman stayed at the scene of the accident. She wasn’t charged. Read more in the NY Daily News

With baby boomers reaching retirement age, many pedestrians walking in New York City streets are seniors.  They represent 13% of the whole population of New York City however they account for 39% of NYC pedestrian fatalities. According to the DOT, the senior pedestrians fatality rate is 4x that of younger New Yorkers. As part of the Vision Zero Initiative, the DOT is working on various projects to make the streets of New York City safer for the seniors. The complete DOT presentation can be downloaded here. 

pedestrian fatality NYC by age

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