NYC Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

A recent New York State law is intended to eliminate blind spots for truckers driving in New York City and reduce truck accidents involving pedestrians.

Since January 13, large trucks with New York registrations must have front-end mirrors installed if they intend to travel in any of the five boroughs of New York City. The new law applies to all trucks that weigh at least 26,000 pounds with conventional cabs.

The National Safety Council (NSC) is a non-profit, non-governmental agency dedicated to protecting and promoting the health and safety of the public by preventing accidents and illness.  To carry out its mission, it conducts its own events and promotes those of other organizations consistent with its mission. 

Researchers at the Univeristy of Maryland have found that accidents involving pedestrians wearing headphones are on the rise.  Between 2004 and 2011, the number of accidents reported nationally rose from 16 reported in 2005-2006 to 47 reported in 2010-2011.  In both instances, the majority of victims were males under the age of 30.

Ninety percent of the cases reviewed in the study occurred in urban areas such as New York City and Los Angeles; more than half of them involved trains. The study's lead author, Dr. Richard Lichenstein, said, "I saw this as an opportunity to -- at minimum -- alert parents of teens and young adults of the potential risk of wearing headphones where moving vehicles are present."

Dr. Lichenstein said that he undertook the study after a local teenager was killed by a train while walking on the tracks when wearing headphones.  Witnesses said that the driver blasted the horn before hitting the youth, who apparently did not hear the warning.

Source:  CTV News, "Accidents involving headphone-wearing pedestrians on the rise", Jan. 17, 2012.

Bronx juries awarded approximately $80 million in civil verdicts, according to the Daily News. The largest awards were made in personal injury cases involving construction accidents, medical errors and car accidents. Significant verdicts were also handed down in some wrongful arrest cases. There were more than 20,000 civil lawsuits filed in the Bronx in 2011.

The improvement of bike lanes on Oriental Boulevard in the Manhattan Beach section of Brooklyn has infuriated local residents, even though the New York City Department of Transportation believes that the new signs are simply replacements of existing signs that will reduce pedestrian accidents and improve rider safety.

Employers are required to abide by state and federal safety laws to prevent injury and illness to workers. When they do not, they can are subject to fines and other penalties. However, even with this incentive, employers still cut corners. An example of employer disregard for worker safety surfaced recently in a high profile New York construction project in Queens.

Who maintains the sidewalks in New York City? There are 12,750 miles of sidewalk in the City of New York, and the Department of Transportation (DOT) is technically responsible for all of them. However, in reality, DOT only repairs or replaces one percent of sidewalks each year and relies on property owners to take care of the rest.

In our recent post about the elevator accident that took the life of a 41-year old woman in New York City, we noted that a recent inspection had revealed some problems with the elevator. One possible reason that the problem was not addressed may be the structure of the bureaucracy responsible for building safety, according to a recent article by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stinger that was published in the Huffington Post.