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

There are all too many news stories of motor vehicles mounting curbs and striking pedestrians with tragic results. Two incidents like this occurred in Manhattan just this past Friday afternoon. But one of these incidents has an unusual element: according to witnesses, rather than an apparently random occurrence,the driver of the vehicle and his passenger were following the pedestrians just before mounting the sidewalk. At 5P.M., a 28-year-old pregnant woman, Ysemny Ramos, was killed while she was walking west along East 37th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues. According to the police, the driver, Keston Brown, was apparently intoxicated and following the woman and a co-worker, Tassia Katsiambanis, as they walked down the street. However, at an arraignment, Browns lawyer told the judge that the Gristedes van Brown was driving had a history of mechanical troubles. According to witnesses, the driver of the van pulled alongside the women and began slowly follow

The plaintiff alleged, in Cronin v. Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, --- N.Y.S.2d ----, 2009 WL 711761 (March 17, 2009), that the defendant wrongfully prolonged the decedent's life by resuscitating him on two occasions against the express instructions of the decedent and his family as contained in two Do-Not-Resuscitate orders issued by the hospital and executed by members of the decedent's family. The Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed the granting of summary judgment in favor of the defendant and dismissing the complaint on the ground that the plaintiff was asserting a claim for wrongful living and that no such cause of action can be maintained. The status of being alive does not constitute an injury in New York, said the Court. The decision indicates, however, that had the plaintiff submitted evidence raising a triable issue of fact as to whether the decedent was injured as a result of the resuscitati

In 2000, 160 children age 14 and younger died from obstruction - 41 percent caused by food items and 59 percent by nonfood items. In part due to concerns about children choking, New York State regulation (18 NYCRR 418-1.5) requires handbags, backpacks or briefcases belonging to adults; plastic bags; and toys and objects small enough for children to swallow must be used and stored in such a manner that they are not accessible to children. Unfortunately, an apparent violation of this regulation by an unlicensed day care center for toddlers turned tragic on March 17, 2009, when 2-year-old Olivia Raspanti choked to death at the Carousel Day Care School in Hicksville, New York on a carrot stick that she apparently took from her teachers tote bag. Police suspect Olivia may have been given one of the teacher's carrots earlier in the school day and was seeking another. According to autopsy results, Olivia died of asphyxia caused by choking on food. The State Office of Chil

Recall after recall has resulted from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expansion of the Peanut Corporation of America's (PCA) Salmonella related recall to include all peanut ingredient products produced in PCA's Plainview, Texas facility since January 1, 2007. Just last week, the FDA announced recalls of 18 peanut-containing products because the products have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. Salmonella is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. The government fails to inspect 95 percent of food processing plants. Referring to that statistic as a hazard to the public health, President Barak Obama a Food Safety Working Group, a special interagency panel on food safety which will include the secretaries of health and agriculture, to advise him on which laws and regulations need to be changed, to foster coordination acro

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on March 13, 2009, agreements with five partners to study the effects of anesthetics and sedatives on the neurocognitive development of infants and young children. Exposure to some anesthetics and sedatives is associated with memory and learning deficits and other neurodegenerative changes in the central nervous system, according to research using juvenile animal models by the FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR). Insufficient human data exists to either support or refute the possibility that similar effects could occur in children. The FDA hopes to develop this data through the Safety of Key Inhaled and Intravenous Drugs in Pediatrics (SAFEKIDS) Initiative. The SAFEKIDS Initiative is a multi-year project designed to address major gaps in scientific information about the safe use of anesthetics and sedatives received by millions of children each year. The FDA's research partners in the SAFEKIDS

In the first 10 months of 2008 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) received 948 reports of health problems associated with dietary supplements, but not necessarily directly caused by them, according to a report from the federal Government Accountability Office (G.A.O.). Those included 9 deaths, 64 life-threatening illnesses and 234 hospitalizations. The F.D.A. recently estimated that there are more than 50,000 minor and serious health problems a year related to dietary supplements. For purposes of the G.A.O. report, dietary ingredient means an ingredient that is included in the dietary supplement definition in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), such as vitamins, minerals, and herbs or other botanicals. Many consumers do not know that dietary supplements, unlike drugs, do not need agency approval and that their makers do not have to prove their safety and efficacy before they enter the market and go on sale. The Federal Food,

Cell phones are known to distract motor vehicle drivers to the point that their safety is jeopardized and an accident may occur. But what about whether cell phones might also distract child pedestrians? A study of effect of cell phone use on pediatric pedestrian injury risk suggests that cell phones distract preadolescent children while crossing streets. While distracted, children were less attentive to traffic; left less safe time between their crossing and the next arriving vehicle; experienced more collisions and close calls with oncoming traffic; and waited longer before beginning to cross the street. Seventy-seven children aged 10 to 11 years old completed simulated road crossings in an immersive, interactive virtual pedestrian environment. In a within-subjects design, children crossed the virtual street 6 times while

Home renovation, repair, and painting activities cause elevated blood lead levels in children no doubt about it. A 1997 analysis conducted by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) indicated that home renovation, repair, and painting (RRP) activities were important sources of lead exposure among children with blood lead levels (BLLs) >20 g/dL in New York state. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report dated January 30, 2009 identified RRP activities as being the probable source of lead exposure in 139 (14%) of the 972 children in New York with BLLs of over 20 g/dL. But importantly, the majority of offenders are resident owners or tenants as opposed to contractors. Contractors performed a small percentage (6.5%) of RRP work related to elevated BLLs in New York

With little notice and without a public comment period, a Bush administration change in federal rules on nursing home inspections will have the practical effect of forcing litigants to go to greater lengths, including seeking court orders, to get inspection reports or depositions for cases they are pursuing or defending. The new rule generally prohibits state health departments and contractors from participating in private lawsuits involving facilities that are in the federal assistance program. The rule accomplishes this by reclassifying state employees who inspect nursing homes for the federal government as federal employees who are not allowed to provide "privileged" information or documents to the public without approval from the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Issued in September of 2008 and effective in October, the Bush administration's new rule shuts