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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accident sceneA 68 year old man died in a motorcycle accident in New York City last Saturday. Franklin Goodman, a motorcycle enthusiast, was riding his bike on Bushwick Avenue in East Williamsburg. The weather was extremely foggy and the visibility very limited. Goodman was on his way to work at Brooklyn Rebar, a construction material company. His shift was starting at 5:00 am.

Around 4:50 am a taxi making a left turn onto Montrose Ave cut through his lane. The motorcyclist slammed on the brakes, skidded on the street and stopped near a delivery truck. He suffered critical injury during the accident. The paramedics took him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Goodman was a beloved lifelong motorcyclist from Bensonhurst. He spent most of his life driving a motorcycle in the city and had no intention to stop. He had the reputation of a very careful driver. His death stunned all his entourage. He leaves behind him a wife and a daughter. Read more in the NY Daily News

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accident sceneA tractor-trailer truck hit a pick up truck killing  3 of the occupants and injuring 5 other people Tuesday early morning. 51 year old Henry Walker, his 21 year old son Khalil and 3 other workers were driving from Pennsylvannia on their way to a construction job in the Hamptons.  As they were driving on the Cross Bronx Expressway near Webster Ave,  a tractor-trailer truck stopped abruptly in front of them.  Henry Walker who was driving was able to stop just behind the truck. Unfortunately another tractor-trailer just behind them wasn’t able to stop on time. He slammed into the pick up truck killing the dad, the son and one of the workers. 5 other people were injured in the crash.

Henry was a contractor from Tonyhanna, PA and his son was a communication student at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. He was working with his dad to make extra money to study in Japan.  They left behind their devastated  mother Sandy Walker. The family had just lost a daughter to diabetes last April.

Read more in the NY Daily News 

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A construction worker was pinned between a forklift and a van and died from his injuries. The forklift accident occurred  in front of a FDNY warehouse in Queens on Saturday afternoon. The 28 year old man drove the forklift in front of the warehouse in order to upload merchandise from a van. He put the forklift in neutral and stepped out. As he was walking toward the van, the forklift started to roll behind him, crushing him against the van. He was rushed to the emergency room but he died at the hospital. According to the NY Daily News, the equipment belonged to the FDNY.

Forklift accidents are unfortunately too common. 11% of the forklifts operating in the US are involved in accidents every year. Among these accidents 35,000 workers will die or suffer severe injuries and 65,000 will suffer minor injuries. Here are a few tips to prevent such accidents from happening.

 

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Bianca Bennett died in a NYC crashA NYPD officer died and a sergeant was seriously injured in a car accident that occurred last week in the Bronx. 27 year old rookie officer Bianca Bennett was a passenger in a car driven by Sergeant Randolph Price. Both cops were off-duty. They were returning from a diner with friends in City Island.  Price who was speeding, lost control of his vehicle and careened into a tree stump. The car flipped upside down and burst into flames. Two other cops on their way home from the firing range saw the accident and ran to the rescue. They were able to pull Price out of the flames but it was too late to save Bennett. According to them she was so badly burned that it was impossible to determine if she was a woman or a man.  27 year old Bennett was fiancee to her high school sweetheart Micheal Coleman, they were about to get married in April. A vigil was held yesterday in the East Village. Read more in the NY Daily News

 

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Trasnportation Alternatives logo9 people including 7 pedestrians and bicyclists died in NYC car crashes in the first 10 days of 2017. In a recent statement, Paul Steely White, the Transportation Alternatives Executive Director, expressed his outrage and asked the city of New York to accelerate street redesigns. He also wants the New York police to change their attitude and be more accountable.

In his statement, Steely White, noted that 7 of the 9 fatal crashes occurred in locations that have been previously identified by Vision Zero as “priority areas”.  Transportation Alternatives asks the city to allocate immediate funding to redesign these high crashes locations.

Steely White also expressed his outrage towards NYPD investigators behavior. The  NYPD has a horrible habit of blaming the victims and exonerating drivers. For example, the driver of the box truck who fatally struck Rafael Nieves last week and left the scene of the accident was let go without his case being referred to the district attorney (see previous blog). The police also didn’t charge the driver who killed 43 year old Marlon Palacios. The driver told the police his leg had become stiff and got stuck on the accelerator.  The police have the power to act as a judge and a jury while a court should make such decision.  Additionally  the police are supposed to deter dangerous driving in New York City but they often blame the victims and let go reckless drivers.

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accident sceneA  NYC pedestrian was fatally struck by a dump truck. A bicyclist died after being clipped by a box truck. A pedestrian lost his life after being hit by a car. All 3 accidents occurred in Brooklyn Monday afternoon.

85 year old Rafael Nieves was walking back home from a trip to the supermarket around 1pm in Williamsburg. As he was crossing Grand Street near Lorimer a dump truck ran over him. The driver didn’t even stop. The police located him later on. According to their investigation the truck driver didn’t know he hit someone. Nieves, a Puerto Rican military veteran leaves behind him two children and five grand children.

A few hours later, around 4:45 pm, a 70 year old bicyclist died after being hit by a delivery truck. Iosif Plazinsky was riding his bike on Avenue X near Coney Island Ave. The bicyclist was hit twice by the truck. After the first collision he lost balance and fell. Then the truck veered to the right and struck him again. Plazinsky was rushed to the hospital but he couldn’t be saved. The truck driver stayed at the scene of the accident. Plazinsky was a retired construction worker from Odessa. He lived in Brighton Beach with his family. He had 3 grand children and one about to be born.

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A one year old boy died and six people were injured including two severely in a NYC fire accident yesterday morning morning. The fire started in a three bedroom apartment located on the 13th floor of a building located on Mother Gaston Blvd in Brooklyn NYC. Seven people were living in the apartment. Firemen rescued the bay boy but he died an hour later at the hospital. two other people are still fighting for their life and 4 others were injured but expected to survive. They were all transported to a nearby hospital. Read more in Brownsville Patch

Another fire broke at a new wing of the NYU Langone Hospital in Midtown Manhattan. Nobody was injured as the building was still under construction. Black smoke and massive flames caused by tar burning erupted from the rooftop. The smoke invaded the entire Kips Bay neighborhood. Read more in the NY Daily News

Yesterday 8 people including two firefighters were injured in a fire that erupted in a Bronx two-story houses (see NY Daily News). As the weather is getting colder in the City the number of residential fires has been increasing these last days.

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Domino_Sugar_refineryA construction worker fell to his death in New York City on Friday morning around 8:00 am. 59 year old Wilfredo Enrique was working on the facade of  a new residential development when he fell to his death.  Enrique was employed by Two Trees Management and was working on the construction site located on the old site of the Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn. After the accident the site was closed and investigators were working on determining the exact cause of the fatal accident.

According to the most recent complaints reported on the NYC Department of Building website, the scaffold didn’t meet the building safety code standard. The worker fell approximately 4 floors from the master climbingwork platform, after Two Trees Management failed to safeguard the platform.  Since the construction started 41 complaints have been filled. The Department of Building issued a total of 27 violations, most of them immediately hazardous. 3 of them were still open at the time of the accident. Among the open violation were the use of rigging equipment by a non licensed rigger and the failure to safeguard all persons and property affected by the construction operations.

The accident occurred just a few weeks after the death of two other NYC construction workers in Queens (see previous blog). According to Union representatives, Enrique is the 29th construction worker who died over the last two years in New York City. The boom in the construction sector in New York has led to an increase in construction jobs in the city. In 2015, the New York Building Congress recorded 138,200 construction jobs, the highest in 40 years.

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constructionLast September we wrote a blog about a third of NYC construction accident deaths not being counted or investigated by the city. After Crain’s reported this continuing problem, Mayor de Blasio acted in a very nonchalant manner and brushed off the issue. Unions workers were outraged by his attitude.

Among the multiple deaths that the city didn’t count or investigate last year was the death of Alton Louis, a construction worker employed by CRV Precast. Alton Louis collapsed and died during the summer of 2015 after the subcontractor failed to implement a heat stress program and had him working a full shift during a day when the temperature reached 105 degrees. CRV precast was cited by OSHA for the death of the construction worker, but neither the NYC Department of Buildings nor the NYC Department of Investigation investigated the company. CPR was fined $6,300 by OSHA for the death of Alton Louis while the City looked the other way.

Two weeks ago, two construction workers died in Queens (see previous blog). Crain’s reported that one of these construction workers was employed by CVR Precast. The other hard hat who died worked for a firm subcontracted by CVR Precast.

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matthew vo nohlen A man who fatally struck a bicyclist in NYC last July was arrested and charged with manslaughter. Last July Matthew Von Olen was riding his bike on Grand Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, when he was intentionally struck by a car.  According to acting DA Eric Gonzales, the driver recklessly swerved into the bike lane and struck the bicyclist. He hit him from behind knocking him off his bike. He then drove over him and dragged him 10 to 20 feet as he was speeding away (see previous blog). The man was identified as 56 year old Juan Maldonado from South Williamsburg. He was arrested yesterday morning. He was brought to Brooklyn Supreme Court and indicted on eight counts including leaving the scene of an accident, criminally negligent homicide and second-degree manslaughter. He may be sentenced to up to 15 years in jail if convicted. 35 year old Matthew Von Holen was the founder of BikeStock and and an avid cyclist.

Read more in the Gothamist Picture source: Facebook