New York, NY Personal Injury Blog

Cell phone use while driving has become a social norm. While it is a common habit of drivers, it also causes distracted driving that can result in injuries or fatalities. Recently, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) made a recommendation that would ban all non-emergency cell phone use by drivers.

The NTSB is a Federal agency whose mission is to review transportation accidents, define the reasons for the accidents and promote transportation safety. In review of cell phone related motor vehicle accidents, the NTSB created a recommendation that will drastically alter cell phone use while driving for all 50 states.

The recommendation creates total ban on all cell phone use while driving. The total ban includes all cell phone use, including hands-free devices and bans cell phone use by drivers of all ages. The ban encompasses all cell phone usage that is non-emergency. While the ban is aimed at drivers, it does not affect passengers.

Stepping onto an elevator should be the most mundane part of our day. We trust the elevator companies, maintenance workers and building owners to guard our safety by properly designing, manufacturing, installing and maintaining elevator equipment.

New York City workers in particular depend on elevators, as many of them work on high floors in skyscrapers. One such worker stepped onto an elevator in mid-December on her way to her advertising-agency job.

Before the doors could close, the elevator lurched upward, trapping the worker between the elevator shaft and the elevator car. The woman, in her early forties, died at the scene. The two people already in the elevator watched helplessly as the elevator accident rapidly unfolded. They were treated for psychological trauma after the shocking event.

A report recently released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) highlights the danger of crashes involving curb-side buses. It also exposes a lack of federal regulation that leaves passengers and others on the road at risk of being involved in dangerous bus accidents with these vehicles.

The report was requested by Senator Charles Schumer and Representative Nydia Velazquez after a curb-side bus crashed in the Bronx in March, killing 15 people. The accident inspired investigation into curb-side buses that pick up passengers on the side of the road instead of paying fees to bus-terminal operators, resulting in lower bus fares, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The NTSB report states that federal officials do not have much data on the buses, like how many miles the buses travel each year or even how many companies do curb-side pickups. However, statistics show that curb-side buses have fatal accidents seven times more often than conventional buses.

A recent change to New York's no-texting-while-driving law has resulted in a ticketing boon for New York police.

Texting can be incredibly distracting, and has been the cause of countless car accidents in New York - which is why states throughout the country, including New York, have passed statutes prohibiting texting while behind the wheel.

Penalties for Violating Texting-While-Driving Law in New York

Even though New York's texting law has been in effect since 2009, police were previously unable to issue tickets under the law unless they could pull the driver over for violating another law. However, the 2011 change made a violation of the texting-while-driving law a primary offense - so police are now able to stop drivers solely for violating the texting law. A violation of this law now carries a three-point driving penalty - which can lead to a fine of up to $150.

A tragic accident claimed the life of a young mother last month and left her brother - champion boxer Pedro Luis Sosa - in a coma. The two fell 75 feet after they were thrown from an overpass during a chain-reaction Bronx auto accident.

The accident occurred on the Cross Bronx Expressway on the evening of Sunday, October 30. At the time, temperatures were close to freezing and the overpass was covered in black ice.

Mr. Sosa and his sister Jennifer were caught up in a multi-vehicle accident that started after some drivers began to hit their brakes to "rubberneck" at another accident. According to one witness, vehicles began spinning "like tops" and colliding into one another. When the Sosas got out of their vehicle to survey the damage, they were hit by a car and knocked off the overpass.

Mr. Sosa was still unconscious as of November 2, but doctors reported that he did not suffer brain damage or spinal cord injury. It is unclear whether Mr. Sosa will be able to resume his promising boxing career.

An ordinary morning turned to chaos late last month in Harlem, New York when the scaffolding surrounding a five-story building collapsed and landed on a city bus. Seventeen people suffered personal injuries in the accident.

The building was scheduled for demolition as part of the State of New York's Brownfield Cleanup Program. Preliminary investigations show that the accident was likely caused by bricks that came loose while work was being done on the building's chimney. The bricks apparently fell onto the scaffolding, causing it to fall.

According to a spokeswoman from the New York City Department of Buildings, the department had received a complaint about falling bricks at the demolition site about two weeks before the collapse. However, inspectors who were dispatched to the scene did not observe any problems.

The department issued six violations against the demolition company responsible for the collapse. The alleged violations include housing illegal mechanical equipment on site and following an improper course of demolition. Building demolitions are supposed to be done in a certain order to help ensure safety.

Recent developments such as the passage of New York's Complete Streets law show that our society has a growing commitment to making New York City streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. But as two recent NYC bike accident tragedies reveal, we still have a long way to go.

A 24-year-old Brooklyn artist was killed on a Friday evening in September when he was struck by an SUV at a Williamsburg intersection. This came only a few days after a 29-year-old dancer died from injuries sustained when she was hit by a Mercedes on Brooklyn's Bushwick Avenue while trying to avoid construction debris. Two creative young people's lives came to an abrupt halt due to two tragic, fatal and very likely avoidable bike accidents.

The Alliance for Bicycling and Walking reports that bike commuting has increased by nearly 50 percent in the past 20 years, and cycling is a very attractive option for young people trying to make ends meet in NYC. New York's State Vehicle and Traffic Law requires bicyclists to follow the same traffic laws as motorists, but truck drivers, bus drivers and other vehicle operators must exercise particular caution when it comes to sharing the road.

According to a recent New York Supreme Court ruling, the criminal trial of the owner of a collapsed crane that killed two construction workers in 2008 is set to start in mid-November in New York City.

2008 Crane Accident

This particular criminal prosecution stems from a construction accident on East 91^st Street that killed a crane operator and another construction worker when a crane collapsed in May of 2008. The charges involve what investigators are calling a defect that caused the crane to collapse to the street - killing the two workers in the process.

What is even more surprising about this particular accident is that another crane with the same owner toppled on East 51^st Street just two months earlier, killing seven people. The owner was not charged in this accident though, but a rigging contractor was charged with manslaughter for using faulty slings while bracing the crane.