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

Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month is a national initiative designed to encourage drivers of all other kinds of vehicles and motorcyclists to “share the road” with each other.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)reminds motorists to safely "share the road" with motorcycles and to be extra alert to help keep motorcyclists safe. The NHTSA also stresses the importance of riding sober.  Statistics show that the percentage of intoxicated motorcycle riders in fatal crashes is greater than the percentage of intoxicated drivers on our roads. Motorcycle crashes are one of the most prevalent causes of death and injury on roads.  Motorcyclists are about 30 times more likely to die in a crash than passenger vehicle occupants. Motorcycle fatalities accounted for 14 percent of total highway deaths for the year although motorcycle registrations represent only about 3 percent of all vehicles in the U.S.

In Steel Institute of New York v. City of New York, the City of New York's local statutes and regulations that govern the use of cranes, derricks, and other hoisting equipment in construction and demolition were challenged as being preempted by OSHA. The Steel Institute clearly sought to relieve the construction industry from having to comply with the City’s more stringent, and likely more costly, standards. If the City’s regulations were found to be directed towards workers’ safety, they would have been preempted and unenforceable. What saved the City’s regulations was the extraordinarily high density of people and property in the City such that in most cases construction worksites abut or spill over into adjoining lots and public streets.  The District Court stated: “Cranes therefore pose a unique risk to public safety in New York City ....”

Every year 80,000 to 160,000 patients in the United States suffer misdiagnosis-related significant permanent injury or death that were possibly preventable, estimate the authors of an analysis published online in BMJ Quality and Safety.  Analyzed were 350,706 diagnosis-related claims of medical malpractice reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank over a period of 25 years (1986–2010).  The study found that diagnostic errors were the leading type and accounted for the highest proportion of total payments. The most frequent outcomes were death, significant permanent injury, major permanent injury and minor permanent injury. The inflation-adjusted, 25-year sum of diagnosis-related payments was $38.8 billion.

This blog entry is a tribute to our long, and I mean long, time secretary, Alice, who passed away earlier this month.  Alice started working for our firm's founder, Louis H. Levine, before he even founded the firm in the 1950's, and she continued at the firm for about 60 years.  She was a remarkable person who gave more to our office on a professional and personal level than can be adequately expressed.  We are saddened that she is gone, and hope that she rests in peace.

A public hearing was held yesterday, April 26, 2013, at The New York City Buildings Department regarding proposing new rules implementing tougher requirements for department-approved courses that individuals in the construction trades must take as part of trade license qualification, license renewal and worker training. The proposed requirements include course content requirements, course review, course instructors, course facilities, attendance records, course completion and course providers. The construction trades that must take department-approved courses include: Concrete Safety Manager, Hoist Machine Operator, Site Safety Manager, Site Safety Coordinator, Rigger ,Filing Representative, Construction Superintendent, Electrician, Master Plumber, Master Fire Suppression Piping Contractor, Supported Scaffold Worker, Suspended Scaffold Supervisor, Suspended Scaffold User, Mast-Climbing work platform.

Section 1225-c(2a) of New York’s Vehicle and Traffic Law prohibits operating a motor vehicle upon a public highway while using a mobile telephone to engage in a call while such vehicle is in motion without a hands-free device.  In The People v. Andrew Welch, the defendant was charged with violating VTL § 1225-c.  At trial, the police officer testified that he observed the defendant drove past him with a cell phone in his hand which he held close to his chin, and was talking into it.  The defendant testified and admitted that he had the cell phone in his hand and was talking into it, but asserted he was using the phone's Siri feature to activate a call. Justice Karen Morris of Brighton Town Court held that the defendant's testimony, if believed, rebuts the inference that he was engaged in a call and instead establishes that he was activating a call, an action that is not illegal.  She thus found the defendant not guilty.

In 2012 in New York City, there were 274 traffic deaths, the most in four years. In 2010, 11,000 pedestrians and 3,500 bicyclists were injured by motor vehicles in New York City. A study by doctors at NYU Langone Medical Center published in the current addition of the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery shows that even sidewalk and signal-obeying crosswalk users are at risk. Six percent of pedestrians were injured while on a sidewalk. More of those injured on the street were injured while using a crosswalk with the signal (44%) compared with 23% who crossed midblock and 9% who crossed against the signal. Factors lowering the severity of injury include above-average body mass, bicycling vs. being a pedestrian, being struck by a taxi, and being struck in the crosswalk by a turning vehicle. More severe injuries were associated with alcohol, being less than 18 years of age, hearing impairment, and struck by a truck or bus.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced a voluntary recall of SeriScaffold Surgical Scaffold Product, a bio-resorbable surgical mesh for use in open or laparoscopic procedures manufactured by Allergan, Inc.  The reason for the recall is that the mesh may have been packaged in improperly sealed pouches with resultant contamination, and surgical sterility cannot be assured. More specifically, the outer of the two pouches may have become compromised.  There is an explicit warning from Allergannot to use SeriTM Surgical Scaffold if the sealed pouch is punctured, torn, or otherwise compromised. It is unclear how it was learned that the product packaging was defective, Our office knows of at least one person who suffered an infection believed to have resulted from contamination of SeriScaffold.

On September 26, 2012, New England Compounding Center (NECC) recalled more than 17,000 steroids delivered to medical facilities in 23 states because of an outbreak of fungal meningitis suffered by patients injected with the contaminated product.  Now this past week Med Prep Consulting, Inc. “voluntarily” recalled all lots of its products after being notified by a Connecticut hospital that it observed visible particulate contaminants confirmed to be mold in 50 ml bags of Magnesium Sulfate 2 grams in Dextrose 5% for Injection products compounded at its facility. Administration of an intravenous product found to be contaminated with mold could result in a fatal infection in broad array of patients.

In February SimplyThick, LLC, the manufacturer of SimplyThick, announced online a major change to its product warnings. The new warning will state that SimplyThick is “NOT intended for use with preterm or infants under 12 months of age. Or children under the age of 12 years with a history of NEC.” This action follows two advisories by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (“FDA”) that infant’s fed SimplyThick may develop necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a condition in which tissue in the intestines becomes inflamed and dies, which can be fatal. In May 2011, the FDA advised against feeding SimplyThick to infants born before 37 weeks gestation because it could cause NEC. In September 2012, the FDA expanded its warning to all infants under the age of 12 months.