One of New York’s Finest, Omar J. Edwards, was killed in a tragic accident on May 28, 2009.
Many of the clients whom we serve live and work in the same New York City neighborhoods where Officer Edwards lived and worked. His passing is a great loss for the community.
We appreciate the contributions this gentleman made, and extend our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.
Today’s online version of the Wall Street Journal, in it’s coverage of yesterday’s crash landing of a U.S. Airways jet in the Hudson River in New York, offered this:
“Lieutenant Thomas Mirante, a New York City firefighter, was among the rescuers who responded to the crash. He says he helped about 20 of the plane’s passengers get off a life raft at the West Side Midtown Ferry Terminal, which is located at the 40th Street pier in Manhattan. Lieutenant Mirante said the passengers were very cold but in pretty good spirits. “They were happy to be alive. They weren’t in too much shock because they were happy to be alive,” he said. Lieutenant Mirante said the passengers told him they heard a loud boom shortly after takeoff. They told him the pilot had managed to crash-land the plane on the water well, he said. After the plane came to a stop on the water, the life rafts deployed and the passengers got into them. He said they were soaked from the waist down when he helped them out of their life raft.”
Wars, terrorism and financial upheaval have filled the papers and digital media with an abundance of bad news over the past few months. Here at the RealAccidentCases.com/blog we are used to seeing the tragic aftermath of accidents and injuries on a daily basis.
It is deeply moving to witness an event of this magnitude, a plane crash into frigid water, with the wonderful outcome of everyone surviving the crash and rescue. We are delighted and grateful to know that all are safe.
During the winter months, “Slipped on ice…badly hurt,” is a message that callers to our office frequently communicate to the Client Care Coordinators that monitor our phone lines. During the winter season when the weather forecasters use terms such as, “arctic blast,” “arctic express,” “black ice,” “frigid”, “frosty,” “below freezing,” and “bitter cold,” I know that, sadly, many people will likely end up in hospital emergency rooms, requiring treatment for severe orthopedic trauma.
In the City of New York, the law imposes liability upon certain property owners that fail to take steps to reduce the likelihood of injury to others as a result of ice and snow on the sidewalk adjacent to their property: ( Here is an edited excerpt from the applicable provision of the New York City Administrative Code, § 7-210. Liability of real property owner for failure to maintain sidewalk in a reasonably safe condition.)
“… The owner of real property abutting any sidewalk… shall be liable for any injury to property or personal injury, including death, proximately caused by the failure of such owner to maintain such sidewalk in a reasonably safe condition… Failure to maintain such sidewalk in a reasonably safe condition shall include, but not be limited to… the negligent failure to remove snow, ice, dirt or other material from the sidewalk.”
( As I was writing this entry, one of the secretaries in our office knocked on my office door and asked to speak with me, telling me she needed my help. She went on to tell me that because of the “cheap landlord, who never spends any money,” to safely and properly maintain the building where her brother lives, her brother, just this morning slipped on ice on the steps in front of the apartment building, and suffered serious injuries in the fall that resulted. After wishing him a speedy recovery and offering suggestions about how he should best proceed, I resumed writing this post.)
A theme of this blog is the obvious point that preventing an injury is infinitely preferable to recovering from one. Along those lines, this piece from the Canada Safety Council may be helpful. Our neighbors to the north certainly know a great deal about navigating the danger that snow and ice covered walking areas present.
If you have questions pertaining to an injury suffered in a fall on the ice or snow, we invite you to call us. We will welcome your call and the opportunity to assist you.
Stay safe !
Reuters reported today that, “Last month Dave Strayer of the University of Utah and colleagues demonstrated that drivers using a hands-free device drifted out of their lanes and missed exits more frequently than drivers talking to a passenger…Strayer’s team has also shown that drivers using mobile telephones are as impaired as drivers who are legally drunk.”
As a result of findings of this sort, the National Safety Council has launched a new initiative to ban cell phone use while driving. Read more here.
Over the past few years, cell phone use while driving has become a routine part of life for motorists. I think many people would find it hard to imagine driving without using the phone. The idea of pulling over to make a phone call is “so 20th century.”
It will be interesting to see if this initiative is successful and leads to changes in the driving laws. Whether such laws are enacted or not, I confess, I’d feel safer knowing those I care about were not talking on the cell phone while driving.
Our office receives many calls from parents involving a child that was injured while in school or summer camp or in some other program, such as a sport team or a dance class. Interestingly, while the parent is almost always saddened by the injury to their child, they are often angry about the lack of proper care provided to the child after the injury was suffered.
For example, I recently spoke with a parent who told me that her son got off the school bus complaining that his arm had been hurting since he fell in school earlier that day. When her son had presented himself to the School Nurse, she said that he “was fine” and sent him on his way. The school never called the mother to tell her that her son had been hurt. At home, when the boy’s complaints of pain persisted, his mother took him to the Emergency Room, where an X-ray revealed that his arm had been broken.
The Mother was furious with the School Nurse and administration and wanted to know what, if anything, she could do legally.
Schools and similar facilities are held to be In Loco Parentis, a latin term meaning, “in the place of the parent.” In other words, the school is obligated to provide that level of care and supervision that a reasonable parent would provide under the same or similar circumstances.
Aside from determinations as to:
A) Was the school negligent ? ;
and
B) Was such negligence the cause of the boy’s injury ?
with respect to any civil liability on the part of the school (as employer of the nurse,) a determination must be made as to whether the claimed post-injury lack of proper care caused further injury or worsened the subject injury.
In the example discussed, did the nurse’s failure to have the boy’s fracture diagnosed promptly, (ie; sending him to the Emergency Room a few hours sooner than his mother ultimately did,) cause additional harm ? Did the nurse’s and the school’s not having called the mother to inform her of what had happened cause injury or worsen the subject injury? ( Aside from the mother’s emotional harm of experiencing shock and outrage that her son stepped off the bus with a broken arm that was not properly treated sooner, and that she had not been called.)
In those cases where the answer to these questions is in the negative, that is, the post-accident lack of care did not cause new injury or worsen the subject injury, notification or complaint to the school administration is most likely the best course of action. I say “best” in the sense that these parents, who realize there may not be liability for the cause of the injury, are nevertheless, often justifiably outraged at the lack of “after-care” and want to constructively channel those feelings. For example, many such parents have told me, “I want to make sure this does not happen again”, or “I want to make sure this does not happen to someone else’s child”.
It has been my experience most often that when such parents learn what elements are necessary to support a claim on behalf of their injured child, even if there is no liability on the part of the school, they feel relieved to know they can at the very least voice a complaint about the post-injury lack of proper care. (eg; communicating with school administrators, elected officials, the op-ed page of the local newspaper, etc.)
Of course, this post is not intended to provide legal counsel/advice for a particular situation. If a child has been injured, that child’s parent(s) or legal guardian should speak to a qualified personal injury lawyer promptly so as to protect any and all legal rights that child may have.
In closing, I would like to acknowledge the many school nurses, teachers, coaches and administrators who do such fine work every day caring for the young people in their care.
The title of this post is known as the number one rule of boxing. It is also prudent advice to members of society generally, and in the current especially challenging economic climate, it is essential advice to motorists.
This article in the Wall Street Journal discusses a disturbing trend. Many automobile owners are allowing their coverage to lapse, presumably because they lack the funds to pay the premiums. While allowing coverage to lapse is against the law in a number of states, such as New York, that require automobiles operated on the roadways to be insured, such laws are cold comfort to a person injured as a result of an offending, uninsured vehicle’s negligent operation.
All New York State automobile insurance policies contain mandatory coverage for occupants of the insured vehicle who are injured by uninsured motorists. The minimum mandatory coverage afforded is “$25,000.00/$50,000.00,” meaning a maximum of $25,000.00 coverage per claimant, up to a total maximum of $50,000.00 for all claimants.
If you are carrying the minimum uninsured coverage, you may wish to consider increasing these limits on your uninsured coverage. I suggest that you speak with your insurance company representative, ( or shop around,) to find out the cost of increasing your uninsured coverage. If someone in your car is injured, you may be relieved that you protected yourself, and them, by making sure to carry adequate uninsured motorist coverage. Remember, the liability insurance you carry is a source of money recovery for someone making a claim against you. Carrying adequate uninsured coverage insures that there will be a sufficient source of money recovery for you and/or occupants of a vehicle you own, if you and/or they are the victims of another driver’s negligence.
Friedman & Simon, L.L.P., Attorneys at Law carefully reviews every personal injury claim for every potentially available source of money recovery. This includes: Investigating if the vehicle was being operated in the course of business of a person or entity other than the registered owner; Investigating the extent to which the negligence of additional potential defendants contributed to the happening of the accident; ( Such as, for example, the potential liability of a municipality for faulty road design, the potential liability of a manufacturer for an automobile product defect or the potential liability of a bar for improperly serving an already intoxicated patron who then causes a car accident, and;) Investigating any and all other potential sources of recovery.
Proper analysis and prosecution of a claim requires such careful review to consider every potential source of money recovery. Still, especially in these times, it is most prudent to, and we hope that you will, “protect yourself at all times,” and review your uninsured motorist coverage.
Many people get hurt doing simple things that people do often. For example, an accident while driving a car or a trip and fall while walking. However, some catastrophic injuries happen in ways that most people are not commonly aware of.
For example, many people have never heard of “Gadolinium”. Nor have many people heard of the great harm attributed to Gadolinium.
Gadolinium has been used as a contrast agent in MRI studies. Use of Gadolinium has been linked to a terrible disease, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF).
Here is information from the FDA about Gadolinium.
When someone has a significant change in health, even if it is not brought on by something as obvious as a car accident or an unfortunate encounter with a tripping hazard, it is an excellent idea to speak with an experienced personal injury lawyer.
From time to time, there have been reports of cases which have a seemingly absurd quality.
For example, a man sued 1-800-FLOWERS claiming they wrongly sent flowers to his wife, instead of the intended recipient, his girlfriend.
A while back, the $54 million dollar lawsuit over lost pants at the dry cleaner got a lot of attention.
Some media outlets and special interest groups use headlines and sound bites pertaining to such cases to demean trial lawyers and the work we do.
Without addressing the merits or lack of merits of the cases mentioned above, I respectfully offer to you some thoughts I’ve had reading such stories while representing real accident victims over the past two decades.
The reason I get to sleep soundly at night is that we represent real people who have had real accidents. We never have to worry that our badly injured clients are being “frivolous” by seeking simple fairness.
A person paralyzed from the waist down or a person who breaks a leg and has a metal rod surgically installed, because someone else was careless, is not initiating a frivolous claim. Even a person who “only” has terrible pain every time they turn their head for half a year, because someone else crashed into the rear of their stopped car, has a serious claim.
One of the most well known “sound bite / headline” attacks by the anti-injured people special interest groups is the case of the spilled hot coffee at McDonalds. The most important thing I’ve learned in analyzing any case, and it very much applies to the McDonalds coffee case, is the foolishness of judging the case by a mere (potentially and/or intentionally,) misleading headline or sound bite.
A more careful examination of the McDonalds hot coffee case is instructive. (If you follow the link, please scroll down to the paragraph titled: “Myth: Lawsuits are out of control. Someone even sued because they spilled hot coffee on their lap!” )
Special interest groups like the insurance industry may want to portray injured plaintiffs as greedy fakers, and characterize members of the community who want to set things right with a fair outcome as mindless, “runaway juries.” That is why it is so important that we keep up the fight for those who have suffered real injuries.
“Ghost Rider” is a comic book and movie character. “Ghost Riding” is a terribly dangerous activity. If you have any teens or young adults in your life, please speak with them about this “craze” and how crazy it is.
From time to time, surgeons make the terrible mistake of operating on a part of their patient’s body which is not the intended site for the procedure. The “Suture for a Living” blog, by a plastic surgeon, does a good job describing this nightmare, here.
This site offers some excellent information for patients in general, and to prevent wrong site surgery errors in particular.
If you or someone you care about needs or elects to undergo surgery, choosing the best medical care is, of course, a critical decision. At the same time, taking precautions to protect oneself from the potentially devastating effects of medical malpractice in this tragic form of human error, is a most prudent course of action.