New York Personal Injury News & NYC Legal Current Events

Unfortunately, accidents and injuries happen every day in New York City and the surrounding area. Keep up to date with the latest news and information regarding accidents, injuries, and injury lawsuits in New York by reading our regularly updated NYC legal news items.

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Construction Accidents

• Low-Wage Workers Are Often Cheated, Study Says
  Sep 02, 2009

  Low-wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage, according to a new study based on a survey of workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

  The study, the most comprehensive examination of wage-law violations in a decade, also found that 68 percent of the workers interviewed had experienced at least one pay-related violation in the previous work week.

  “We were all surprised by the high prevalence rate,” said Ruth Milkman, one of the study’s authors and a sociology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the City University of New York. The study, to be released on Wednesday, was financed by the Ford, Joyce, Haynes and Russell Sage Foundations.

  In surveying 4,387 workers in various low-wage industries, including apparel manufacturing, child care and discount retailing, the researchers found that the typical worker had lost $51 the previous week through wage violations, out of average weekly earnings of $339. That translates into a 15 percent loss in pay.

  The researchers said one of the most surprising findings was how successful low-wage employers were in pressuring workers not to file for workers’ compensation. Only 8 percent of those who suffered serious injuries on the job filed for compensation to pay for medical care and missed days at work stemming from those injuries.

  “The conventional wisdom has been that to the extent there were violations, it was confined to a few rogue employers or to especially disadvantaged workers, like undocumented immigrants,” said Nik Theodore, an author of the study and a professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois, Chicago. “What our study shows is that this is a widespread phenomenon across the low-wage labor market in the United States.”

  According to the study, 39 percent of those surveyed were illegal immigrants, 31 percent legal immigrants and 30 percent native-born Americans.

  The study found that 26 percent of the workers had been paid less than the minimum wage the week before being surveyed and that one in seven had worked off the clock the previous week. In addition, 76 percent of those who had worked overtime the week before were not paid their proper overtime, the researchers found.

  The new study, “Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers,” was conducted in the first half of 2008, before the brunt of the recession hit. The median wage of the workers surveyed was $8.02 an hour — supervisors were not surveyed — with more than three-quarters of those interviewed earning less than $10 an hour. When the survey was conducted, the minimum wage was $7.15 in New York State, $7.50 in Illinois and $8 in California.

  Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis responded to the report with an e-mail statement, saying, “There is no excuse for the disregard of federal labor standards — especially those designed to protect the neediest among us.” Ms. Solis said she was in the process of hiring 250 more wage-and-hour investigators. “Today’s report clearly shows we still have a major task before us,” she said.

  The study’s authors noted that many low-wage employers comply with wage and labor laws. The National Federation of Independent Business, which represents small-business owners, said it encouraged members “to stay in compliance with state and federal labor laws.”

  In instances when workers’ compensation should have been used, the study found, one third of workers injured on the job paid the bills for treatment out of their own pocket and 22 percent used their health insurance. Workers’ compensation insurance paid medical expenses for only 6 percent of the injured workers surveyed, the researchers found.

   

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• Construction Worker Dies In New York City Bridge Accident
  Aug 26, 2009

  The New York Times reports that a construction worker died on the job on a New York City bridge after the boom of a crane fell and hit the man. The electrical worker was 48-year-old William Barnes of Port Washington, New York. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the NYC construction accident.
  
  "He was controlling the boom on the side of the truck and for some reason, the boom fell," said FDNY Battalion Chief Joe Downey. "It was pinned right behind his head and his neck."
  
  The accident, which happened on Throgs Neck Bridge between Queens and the Bronx, took place when a cable on the hydraulic boom that Barnes was operating snapped. The boom fell onto Barnes, pinning him against the machinery. He died on blunt force trauma. The accident took place at half past ten on Tuesday morning.
  
  Barnes was an employee of Tri-State Electric Contracting Inc. in Haverstraw, N.Y., a company that was working on repairing a ramp connected to the bridge. Although Barnes was not specially trained to operate the boom truck, he did have the valid driver's license needed to use it legally. Barnes had been employed by Tri-State for just under half a year.
  
  In the Past, Tri-State has been involved in other New York construction accidents. Just last month, the company took responsibility for a fire on the bridge that caused significant property damage. The fatal NY construction worker accident is still under investigation.
  
  Barnes leaves a wife, Maritone, and a son, William, 11, behind.
  
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• Two NYC Road Workers Injured In Car Accident While On The Job
  Aug 26, 2009

  Two New York City road construction workers were hit by a woman driving under the influence last week, according to reports. In a heroic act of friendship, one man pushed his coworker out of the path of the car, which had careened into their road construction site.
  
  The New York Daily News reports that 35-year-old Michael Hudson and 33-year-old Bobby Keller were at work on Rockaway Boulevard in Queens near the Kennedy airport when a car crashed into their site. The workers, one a flagman and the other an equipment operator, barely had time to react to the car. New York Police believe the car was traveling at 60 miles per hour.
  
  Hudson, who was turned toward the car, pushed his friend out of the way - but lost his leg in the process. Keller suffered a shattered ankle, but could have very well been killed if not for his construction buddy. Hudson was just recently left the ICU of Jamaica Hospital, where his leg was amputated following the NYC construction site accident.  
  
  The woman driving the car, Yolanda Silvera, was high crack according to police reports. NYC police also say she was arguing with a passenger and distracted at the time of the car wreck. She is being held on $250,000 bond in the wake of the accident. She could serve up to seven years in prison on charges of second-degree assault, second-degree vehicular assault, second-degree reckless endangerment, and driving under the influence.
  
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• Crane Rigger To Face Manslaughter Charges In NYC Crane Accident
  Aug 14, 2009

  This week the New York Supreme Court judge denied a motion to throw out the manslaughter case filed against New York City crane rigger William Rapetti. Rapetti is facing seven counts of manslaughter after the fatal crane accident in NYC last year in the grand jury case.  The next court date in the trial has been set for October 8, 2009.
  
  The crane accident took place in mid-March of 2008, when a 20-foot tall construction crane collapsed, crushing an apartment building and damaging several other properties. Seven people were killed in the NYC crane accident, including six construction workers and one tourist. The apartment building under construction had been cited for 13 safety violations at the time of the accident, five of which had not been resolved.
  
  A few weeks after the construction accident, the Manhattan district attorney's office began a criminal investigation into the crane collapse. Some believe that the crane was put together incorrectly after it was damaged last year. Others believe the blame should be put on William Rapetti, the master crane rigger who did not use the required equipment before the collaps. Rapetti used four slings to help raise the crane instead of the required eight just hours before the fatal NYC accident took place.
  
  Rapetti's lawyer argues that his client did nothing to contribute in the fatal New York crane collapse, and that the fatal NY construction accident was just that - a tragic accident.
  
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• Staten Island Construction Accident Injures Two Workers
  Jul 29, 2009

  According to the Staten Island Advance newspaper and ForConstructionPros.com, a New York Construction accident injured two construction workers on Tuesday, July 28.
  
  The NYC construction accident took place when an asphalt milling machine tipped over while on a steep hill where workers were repairing and resurfacing the road at Cunard Place and Ridgefield Avenue. The heavy machinery, which is owned by Perfetto Contracting Co., of Brooklyn. Both the milling machine operator and a fellow worker were taken to Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze with minor on-the-job injuries. The machine came to rest on its side in the middle of the intersection where work was being done.
  
  Initial reports say the machine was made off balance by the boom, flipping the equipment, spilling about 30 gallons of fuel, missing a great deal of valuable property, and luckily not seriously injuring any construction workers. The equipment also leaked hydraulic fluid, some of which spilled into a nearby drain. Firefighters from Hazardous Materials Co. 1 as well as other emergency workers cleaned up the mess and siphoned the rest of the potentially dangerous substances from the toppled machine.
  
  An industrial tow truck will be used to move the machine back into an upright position. The asphalt milling machine weighs around 45 tons - and many from the accident scene were simply relieved that the construction accident did not cause any more damage than it did.
  
  Traffic was temporarily stopped on Richmond Road as the road job accident was dealt with by officials.
  
  To visit ForConstructionPros.com, click here.
  
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• New York Crane Database: Will It Prevent Crane Accidents?
  Jul 07, 2009

  Following two deadly crane accidents in New York City last year that took the lives of nine construction workers, the city has agreed to create a crane database that tracks vital crane information and that will hopefully curb crane accidents and crane accident injuries in the future.
  
  However, some, such as the Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association (SC&RA) believe that the crane database is not answering the pertinent questions surrounding crane accidents and their causes. According to the SC&RA, most crane accidents are not caused by component failure - a problem that could be reduced through the crane-tracking database - but rather by human error, poor ground conditions, power lines, and errors during assembly or disassembly.
  
  In a letter to Mayor Bloomberg, executive vice president of SC&RA Joel Dandrea stated that the new crane database will be ineffective, impractical, and unnecessary since such a small percentage of crane accidents will be stopped because of the database.
  
  The letter went on to explain that many crane parts are interchangeable - and that even more crane parts are without serial numbers, making accurate and helpful crane tracking impossible.
  
  Instead of supporting a crane database, Dandrea suggested working on other issues that could improve crane safety and reduce the number of construction site accidents in New York City.
  
  Proponents of the new crane database point to the fact that a crane tracking system was one of the recommendations from the High Risk Construction Oversight study, which the Department of Buildings launched in July, 2008, after the second crane accident took place in New York. In the past year, 26 construction workers have died in New York City.
  
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Slip and Fall

• Long Island Village Bans Pit Bulls And Rottweillers Despite NY Dog Bit
  Jul 13, 2010

  The small Long Island village of Rockville Centre has gone against New York state laws and banned pit bulls and Rottweillers, beginning on June 8. While all owners of the banned dog breeds can keep their pets, no new adoptions can be made, say government authorities. At the same time, those who do own the two newly illegal dogs must spay or neuter their pet, must get $100,000 in insurance coverage, and must leash and/or muzzle their dog when in public.
  
  These new breed-specific dog laws did not come after a dog bite incident, dog attack, or aggressive dog report – though a village spokesperson claimed that there were incidents that led to the ban and that city officers wanted to address the issue before someone was harmed. Also, town officials admit that their new law is in conflict with a ten-year-old New York law that makes it unlawful to ban specific breeds of dogs from municipalities.
  
  While the new breed-specific dog ban has only been in effect for several weeks, the Board of Trustees is already under pressure to reexamine the issue. Pressure from animal advocates, pet owners, and those familiar with New York laws has lead to a new hearing that will be held this week.
  
  Dangerous dog bans are becoming more common around the country, especially after statistics showed that pit bulls and other select dog breeds are responsible for the majority of dog bite injuries and dog attack fatalities. However, some argue that the laws are unfair to dogs  and pet lovers – and that bad owners create dangerous dogs, not genetics.
  
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• New York City Toddler Loses Finger In Macy’s Escalator Accident
  Jul 08, 2010

  A four-year-old boy was maimed at Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square in New York City. Though doctors managed to reattach the toddler’s finger in an emergency surgery, they are not sure how much function the boy’s finger will now have.
  
  The boy, Maxlee, was with his mother, Natalia Gell-Tejada, and his father on the escalator when he bent down to pick up a bottle of water that he had dropped. His finger became trapped in the old wooden escalator. His mother said that the boy was holding his father’s hand at the time of the accident.
  
  While the finger was put on ice and transported with the boy to the hospital, surgeons were not able to fully reattach all of the necessary blood vessels and are not yet sure how successful the reattachment surgery was. The New York City Building Department issued Macy’s a violation and ordered the escalator to be turned off until further notice. Many believe the escalators in the building are old and unsafe – the wooden machines have been in operation since 1927.
  
  There have been two other similar incidents on Macy’s escalators in the last five years – both involving children losing fingers while riding the machines.
  
  Maxlee will remain in the hospital for a few more days under observation, while his mother says she will work to have the out-of-date escalators removed from the store. She has not yet filed a premises liability lawsuit and did not comment on the possibility.
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• Brooklyn Partygoer Seriously Injured In Fall From Balcony
  Jun 27, 2010

  A drummer from Williamsburg, Brooklyn had his head impaled by a steel fence rod after he fell from a balcony during a party in an apartment above the fence. He is recovering from his serious head injury in Bellevue Hospital’s ICU, where doctors say he will spend at least a week.
  
  According to the New York Daily News, 21-year-old Nicholas Blossom, a rock and roll drummer from the bank Alaska Alaska who resides in Brooklyn, was attending a party in Chelsea on Friday night when he fell from the apartment’s balcony and onto the sharp, steel fence below. Rescue workers cut the young man from the fence on early Saturday morning with an electric saw but did not remove the rod from the man’s head until later that day. After the head injury, Blossom was not allowed to sleep for quite some time until doctors deemed it safe. He is now communicating and should make a good recovery.
  
  Blossom was drinking on the night of the party and fell from a third-floor balcony onto the fenced railing of a second-floor balcony. The accident took place at around four in the morning. The rooftop party took place at Sixth Avenue, near 26th Street, in New York City.
  
  Blossom had been sitting alone on a ledge, screaming that he "hated everybody" before falling – and the New York City Police Department received calls from neighbors about the disturbance before the fall took place.
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• Bronx Landlord Sued By Tenets For Neglecting To Make Apartment Repairs
  Apr 11, 2010

  When your landlord doesn’t make needed repairs to your building or apartment, he’s not just being a bad landlord, he is breaking the law. This week a number of tenants in a Bronx apartment building took their landlord to court after suffering from years of both inconvenient and dangerous conditions in their building.
  
  The New York City building, located at 2710 Bainbridge Avenue, has violated an estimated 1,000 city codes while management company Semper Fi and landlord Frank Palazzolo have done little to return their apartments into safe and operational living spaces. Now 24 tenets in the 56-unit apartment building are suing to have Palazzolo removed and replaced with a more responsible party.
  
  Families living in the apartment building have complained about leaky roofs, broken windows, lockless doors, uneven floors, mold, broken pipes, and clogged drains for years without relief. These apartment building problems aren’t just annoying – they can lead to serious accidents and injuries that could have been prevented if only Palazzolo took the time to keep up his building - such as slip and fall injuries.
  
  Almost two years ago, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development named the building one of the worst in the city and began modest repairs that it charged to Palazzolo. In the last month, since being granted better access to the building, the group has done over $150,000 in repairs. They hope to rid the building of rodents, fix the sewer lines, and repair the roof among hundreds of other requests.
  
  The tenants hope to take advantage of the New York law that allows tenants to request new management if one third of a build’s residents agree.
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