Personal Injury Attorneys - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and the Bronx

Following its successful television advertising campaign on New York Mets and Yankees games, Levine & Slavit has begun an advertising campaign on New York City based all-news radio station 1010 WINS. Set to begin on August 27, 2007, thead reads: "Many people are not prepared and dont know how to proceed when injured in an accident. The law firm of Levine & Slavit has been representing accident victims for 50 years, located in Manhattan with an additional office on Long Island. We handle cases in New York City and surrounding counties. If you have been injured through the negligence of another, whether in a construction accident, motor vehicle accident, slip, trip and fall, or by Tagged with: Events

Two firefighters were injured Thursday, August 23rd, 2007, when a forklift fell from scaffolding and crashed into a shed at the former Deutsche Bank building in Manhattan. Both firefighters were taken to St. Vincent's Hospital. Sources said both of the firefighters sustained serious head injuries. Fire officials said a tool fell off the scaffold and landed atop a sidewalk shed that the firefighters were standing under. The force of the impact caused a helmet one of the firefighters was wearing to crack. The fire department said that a construction worker entered an elevator at the work site at about 2 p.m. with a pallet jack, when he lost control of the motorized lifting tool. The pallet jack crashed through the hoistway door and fell through a construction shed on the ground level, the fire department said in a statement. It was initially thought that other people at the scene may have been injured. Fire officials continue to investigate the cause of the

Mattel, the worlds largest toy company and the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, yesterday announced the biggest recall in its history. The company said it was recalling 436,000 Chinese-made die-cast toy cars depicting the character Sarge from the animated film Cars because they are covered with lead paint. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission advises consumers to immediately take the recalled toys away from children and contact Mattel. Consumers will need to return the product to receive a replacement toy. At the same time, the toy maker said it was recalling 18.2 million other toys because their small, powerful magnets could injure children if swallowed. The magnetized toys were also made in China, but they followed a Mattel design specification. Barbie toys were among those recalled for strong magnets. About half of the toys in each recall were distributed in the United States. Separately, laboratory tests have found that some Chinese-made vinyl baby bibs so

Medicare, in a significant policy change, will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, which the government says could save lives and millions of dollars. Under the new rule, effective October 1, 2007, and applicable to discharges occurring on or after that date, Medicare will not pay hospitals for the costs of treating certain conditions that could reasonably have been prevented. Significantly, under the new rules, the hospital cannot bill the beneficiary for any charges associated with the hospital-aquired complication. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that patients develop 1.7 million infections in hospitals each year, and it says those infections cause or contribute to the death of 99,000 people a year, or about 270 a day. The rule identifies eight conditions that Medicare no longer will pay for. Those conditions are: pressure ulcers, or bed sores; objects left in a p

New York State officials announced, on August 9, 2007, thatsome damage to the Throgs Neck Bridge showing advanced wear and tear was found during a routine biannual inspection that began prior to last week's Minneapolis bridge collapse. As a result, restrictions to the access to the bridge by oversized rigs will be increased. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority ("MTA") said the bridge is safe for drivers. To ease the bridge's deterioration, the state is rescinding a two-year program that allowed certain trucks weighing 105,000 pounds to travel on the center lanes at 30 mph at any time of day. Those trucks must now either reduce their loads to the legal bridge weight limit of 80,000 pounds or apply for a special permit to travel on the bridge at night with an escort. According to the MTA, some truck drivers have been ignoring the weight limit, so it is stepping up enforcement on the bridge by using portable weight machines to test trucks. The Throgs Neck Bridge is on

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg reported for jury duty at the New York State Supreme Court, NewYorkCounty,on August 6th, 2007.Hewas called for voir dire along with others into a courtroom where attorneys were set to begin picking a jury fora wrongful death lawsuit brought bya woman whose husband had died after years of operating a printing press that attorneys said contained asbestos in its brakes. The Mayor was not selected for that case. Mayor Bloomberg returned to the Manhattan courthouse the following day where he was considered as a juror in a personal injury suit involving a taxicab crash. He was not chosen for that case, perhaps in part because of his appointing power at the NYC

A hearing was held before the Committee on Consumer Affairs of the New York City Council August 7th, 2007, into what caused the Consolidated Edison steam pipe explosion in Midtown Manhattan on July 18th. Council members were exasperated by failure of Con Eds chairman and chief executive, Kevin M. Burke, to appear at the hearing, particularly in light of Mr. Burkes handling of nine-day outage that crippled the Astoria section of Queens in July of 2006. Council members were also decidedly unhappy with the inability of the person Con Ed did send, William Longhi, its senior vice president for central operations, to say what caused the blast. Mr. Longhi did not have answers to questions the council posed weeks ago when it called the hearings. He refused to give even a preliminary opinion as to the cause of the blast. Mr. Longhi likened Con Eds investigation to an investigation by the National Transportation

Mattel is recalling 967,000 toys, including 83 products featuring Sesame Street and Nickelodeon characters, because the products are covered in lead paint. The products are sold in retailers including Wal-Mart, Target and Toys "R" Us. More than 300,000 tainted toys, which include Elmo Tub Sub, the Dora the Explorer Backpack, and the Giggle Gabber, and may have a date code from 109-7LF to 187-7LF, have been bought by consumers in the United States. The toys were manufactured in a factory in China, whose factories have recently been sources of poisonous pet food, dangerous car tires, and lead paint on Thomas & Friends wooden toys. Earlier this summer, RC2, the maker of Thomas trains, recalled 1.5 million trains and accessories because a Chinese supplier had coated them in lead paint. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commision ("CPSC") recommends that the toys be taken away from children to prevent the lead from being ingested. This is the 17th recall in 10 years for Ma