NY Accident Lawyers Blog

Like many, if not most New Yorkers who own a car, I’ve been the victim of surly, abusive behavior by cops giving parting tickets and tow truck operators who don’t seem to care who the car belongs to, even the elderly who can find themselves in desperate straits when left stranded on a city street in the debt of winter. I’m surprised more civil suits aren’t filed by victims of this type of abuse.

Now we read in today NY Daily News that an NYPD tow truck operator, who accused a vengeful Bronx cop of giving him a parking ticket, was ordered to take a drug test after the Daily News started asking questions about the incident.

Marvin Robbins, a tow truck drivers’ union official, got a ticket Sunday for parking his Lexus by a fire hydrant outside his apartment in the Melrose Houses.  A tow truck operator with a Lexus?

He says the ticket was written by Officer David Moshier whom he had met two days earlier at a restaurant on E. 149th St. in the Bronx.

Robbins said he told the cop he was assigned to a special Internal Affairs Bureau unit that sends NYPD tow truck drivers to get illegally parked police vehicles.

Robbins was more than three hours into his shift in the Bronx on Wednesday when a supervisor told him to get a Breathalyzer and urine test. All NYPD employees are subject to random drug testing, but Robbins said the timing is suspicious.

They’re being vindictive,” he said of Moshier and police brass.

How does it feel Mr. Robbins?

As unimaginable as it seems, hit and run accidents are far more common in the five boroughs than most New Yorkers realize.

Only yesterday, The New York Daily News reported that a 5-year-old Bronx boy was mowed down by a hit-and-run driver. Fortunately, in this case, the child is showing signs of recovery, but is still on a ventilator in a medically induced coma.

He was hit Saturday on E. 214th St. by a green Nissan Pathfinder that dragged him about 50 feet after he ran into the street to retrieve a baseball. The driver stopped briefly, then fled.

In the internet age with cameras built into phones I would hope that someone got a picture of the Pathfinder’s license plate, or the driver.

Anyone with information is urged to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers tip line at (800) 577-TIPS.

Reckless drivers in New York State will no longer just walk away from accidents they cause with just a slap on the wrist.  Two weeks ago Governor Patterson signed a bill declaring that drivers who flout traffic laws and seriously injure pedestrians in the process can lose their license for six months, or in cases of repeat offenses, one year.  The bill is known as Elle’s Law, after the name of a child who was nearly killed last September when a driver backed down a side street in pursuit of a parking spot.

According to a recent report by The Department of Transportation, 36 percent of serious accidents that injured pedestrians was a result of driver inattention.

Could this just be a hard-wired survival instinct?  Or do New Yorkers simply have better things to do with their time?

According to The New York Daily News today, the Empire State falls far short of national averages when it comes to time spent yakking and texting on their mobile devices, according to a sweeping study released yesterday.

New York ranks 15th in the nation for total number of calls, but nearly dead last for the duration of its conversations.

No surprise teens were the biggest texters, sending or receiving an average of 2,779 messages per month.  When is the last time you heard a teenager complain about traffic, or worry about getting hit by a car when crossing the street?  So talk away they do on their cellphones, oblivious of the potential hazards on city streets.

Bike riding is fun and it’s great exercise.  But hardly a day goes by in New York City where someone isn’t badly injured, or worse, riding their bike on city streets.

Yesterday, the New York Daily News reported, a 16-year-old bicyclist was in critical condition at a Bronx hospital Tuesday after he was mowed down by an unlicensed driver.

The teen was struck down on E. 188th St. in Fordham.  Police said he made a hand signal while attempting to turn left onto Webster Ave. before the life-threatening wreck occured.

The driver, who had two young children in the back seat of her Volkaswagen Jetta, was driving south on Webster Ave. Investigators believe she had a green light.

The woman remained at the scene following the crash, and was issued a summons for unlicensed operation, the sources said.

The force of the crash shattered the windshield on the driver’s side and sent the victim’s bicycle flying through the air.

The New reported that the victim’s girlfriend was distraught and said she wants revenge,which probably means the next call she makes will be to a top New York pedestrian accident lawyer.

A devastating fire ripped through an apartment building in the South Bronx yesterday, claiming the life of a young man, according to The New York Daily News.

The New reported that police and fire marshals are investigating the cause, which was not thought to be suspicious, which is to say they don’t, yet, suspect arson.  But what about the possibility that landlord negligence was the cause?  Why don’t fire officials check for the more obvious of the two causes first?  Arson, in fact, being a relatively rare crime in New York.

The victim was described as being in his 20s, who was alone inside the first-floor apartment on E. 149th St. when the fire started.

Look for more news to surface as the facts begin to surface.  In the meantime, if any top New York personal injury lawyers are listening I suggest you inquire into the facts of this case.  No doubt the family of the dead man will be seeking a consult.

According to a major front page article in The New York Times today, cars making a left hand turn from an avenue on to a side street are the single most common causes of pedestrian accidents in all five NYC boroughs.

Surprisingly, according to a new study, taxis drivers are not the major culprits; and jaywalkers were involved in fewer collisions than their “law-abiding counterparts,” the time article said.

According to Mayor Bloomberg, the city is already planning a host of street changes based on the data in the report.

The mayor must not only see an opportunity here to save lives, and enhance street safety for pedestrians, but also I suspect he must believe these improvements in street safety could save the city tens-of-millions-dollars in negligence claims.

Despite what people think,  personal injury lawyers have been lobbying the city government for years to make city streets safer.

Getting hit by a fly ball is part of game of baseball, even if you’re a fan.  And, so it goes with errant bats.  Fans who sit in the high, check that, very high priced seats get a great view of the game, but they also run the risk of being beaned by flying objects, particularly those fans who don’t stay alert when a batter is at the plate.

The New York Post reported today that a Mets fan who was hit in the face by a broken Luis Castillo bat at a Mets game three years ago is suing the second baseman, the player who lent him the bat and anybody else he and his lawyer could think of including the bat owner and then-teammate Ramon Castro, the Mets, Major League Baseball and the shattered bat’s maker, Rawlings

The Post said Falzon, 50, was in the second row — along the third-base line with his dad, 11-year-old son and 9-year-old nephew — watching the Mets play the Atlanta Braves on an annual family outing to Shea Stadium.

When Castillo came to bat in the seventh, he smacked a fly ball, his bat shattered and shards flew into the seats.

“I was watching the ball,” Falzon said, “and the bat shards hit me in the face. It knocked me off my chair.”

The disfiguring injuries left him with massive bleeding, a broken nose and eye socket, and permanent metal plates and pins. “It broke my whole face,” he said.

His lawsuit, filed on Friday, says his injuries could have been prevented if Castillo hadn’t been using a maple bat.

Look, I understand that this broken bat did a real number to this guys face.  And certainly no one would ever want something like this to happen at a game.  But, that’s part of the game.  Big time players like to use Maple bats.  In fact, maple bats became popular after Barry Bonds used them on his way to hitting 73 home runs in 2001.

In 2008, Major League Baseball found that maple bats were three times as likely to break in multiple places as traditional ash bats. The league has since set new production standards for bats.

I hear Falzon’s complaint and certainly feel for him, and his son.  But, this is one call the courts shouldn’t have to make.

I would be interested in getting opinions from some New York personal injury lawyers on this issue.

Here’s a story about a potential personal injury problem where the sharks definitely outman the, well, sharks.

According to The New York Daily News today, lifeguards cleared the water at Coney Island for about 45 minutes Saturday after sharks were spotted.

There was a girl on a surfboard and the shark was tugging at her leg, her (leg)strap.  She was out with her father, and when she looked down the shark was circling her board.

The girl’s father told lifeguards he saw three small sharks.  The girl said, “It was a little freaky when everyone got back into the water to surf after waiting nearly an hour. Everytime a seagull dives in the water everyone’s looking around for a shark.”

After a while, everyone seemed to forget about sharks and enjoy the waves.

A Parks Department spokeswoman didn’t have information about the incident but said the beach was also closed briefly Friday after a possible shark sighting.

The Parks Department is in charge of providing beach protection for bathers, like lifeguards.  When accidents happened, the city often finds itself on the receiving end of a personal injury lawsuit.  But shark bites are not one of the things that anyone can do anything about.  They are the kings of the ocean.

Another tragic accident in New York City involving a tractor trailer truck ended the life of a 13-year-old boy who was struck and killed yesterday as he tried to cross a busy Queens street on his bicycle, according to The New York Post.

The boy, Ferderich Endre, was knocked over by the truck at the intersection of Eliot Avenue and Fresh Pond Road in Maspeth at around 1:30 p.m.and  crushed under the back wheels. He died at Wyckoff Heights Hospital.

The driver did not see the boy crossing, and stopped immediately, witnesses said.

These tragic accidents happen in our traffic congested city every day.  Not even the best personal injury lawyers in New York can help prevent human error.

However, according to the Post, truck driver Michael Ryner, 43, was arrested yesterday.