Florida Personal Injury Lawyers Blog

The mother of a 4-year-old girl who was struck and killed by an out of control car in Manhattan earlier this month has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming that her daughter’s death could have been avoided if emergency vehicles had not been delayed in their response.

The 26-year-old mother said that while no amount of money can bring her daughter back, she wants the city to be held accountable for their actions so that this tragedy does not happen to anyone else in the future.

The young child was struck by a sport utility vehicle on June 4 as she was walking on the sidewalk with her grandmother on her way to school. The grandmother suffered injuries to her spine and ankle.

The 17-year-old driver of the SUV lost control of his car as he was being chased by police.

According to reports, city officials have admitted that there was a four-minute delay in dispatching an emergency vehicle to the accident site at Amsterdam Avenue and 97th Street. At a recent news conference, the fire commissioner blamed the 911 dispatcher who was sitting at the computer where the message arrived, but failed to respond in time. He rebuffed any suggestions that the mistake was a result of a failure in the city’s new 911 system, an advanced dispatch system that set the city back $2 billion.

However, the president of the union that represents the city’s emergency medical technicians, paramedics and fire inspectors, challenged the fire commissioner’s version of events.

He issued the following statement:

“The commissioner of the Fire Department tried to blame a young lady with an impeccable reputation for not doing her job, when the reality is that the call was never on her screen. I do know that in the weeks leading up to this incident there were many problems with the system.”

The family is apparently seeking $20 million in damages for the death of the young girl. The grandmother is also pursuing $20 million for her injuries. The lawsuit names the city, the Police Department and the Fire Department.

The driver of the SUV, who was allegedly driving without a license, was arrested and charged with manslaughter.

Losing a child is absolutely devastating for any parent. When such a tragedy claims a young life early and unexpectedly, dealing with the situation can be overwhelming. However, when someone else is to blame for a tragedy that could have been avoided, the family of the deceased can file a lawsuit to hold the negligent party accountable. While most people may choose to hold the careless or negligent driver liable in a crash such as this, as this case points out, there can be multiple parties to blame.

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A tourist from Terre Haute, Indiana is recovering after she was struck by a falling tree branch in Manhattan’s Central Park on Tuesday.

The woman’s name has not been released.

According to reports, the branch, about 3 inches around, fell from a tree and hit her at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday. She was conscious after the accident, but confused and bleeding from the head as an ambulance rushed her to a hospital.

This is not the first time someone has been injured by a falling tree branch in New York City.

In June 2010, a 6-month-old baby was killed and her mother was injured when a tree branch fell on them while visiting the Central Park Zoo. In that same year, another man was also killed in the park by a branch that fell due to heavy snow. Finally, in 2009, a branch struck another person in the park leaving them with severe personal injuries.

While you may think that a falling tree branch can do no harm to pedestrians or bystanders, these accidents occur more than you think and can deliver devastating injuries. In fact, there are more than 100 tree and landscape fatalities that happen across the U.S. every year, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. A fully matured tree can weigh as much as 10 tons, possibly more. When a tree of this size falls, the impact is undoubtedly strong enough to crush an automobile, seriously damage a home or building and severely injure or kill innocent onlookers.

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The Town of Chester Police will be hosting a free child safety event Saturday to help parents understand what they must do to keep their kids safe while traveling in an automobile.

The event, funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with a grant from the NYS Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 8 at the Town of Chester highway garage on Laroe Road.
Officers will be demonstrating how to properly install safety seats, as well as inspecting car seats. They will explain the benefits of using rear-facing seats, offer helpful tips and share other useful transportation information.

For more information call the police department at 469-7000 ext. 1.

You may be surprised to hear that car accidents are the number one cause of death in children ages 3-14 in the United States. Car accidents are traumatic, which is why children of all ages need special attention when riding in a car. Most adults fail to realize that it can take up to 12 years for a child to grow out of a car seat and be big enough to use safety belts. It is recommended for children to stand close to 5 feet tall and weigh between 80 and 100 pounds before using a seat belt. Until a child reaches that size and weight, car seats and booster seats need to be used to protect them in case of a collision.

So, just how effective are child safety seats? According to Safe Kids USA, child safety seats can be the difference between life and death should your child be involved in a serious automobile accident. Child safety seats reduce fatal injury by as much as 71 percent in infants and toddlers in passenger cars. When compared to seat belts, child safety seats reduce the risk of injury among young children by as much as 82 percent and fatal injury by 28 percent. The use of booster seats for children ages 4 to 8 reduces the risk of non-fatal injury by 45 percent compared to seat belts.

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A runaway trailer hauling crushed cars in upstate New York slammed into a minivan carrying two families Thursday, killing four young children and three adults in their early 20s.

All seven victims, including four children under the age of 10, were local residents.

Officials believe the trailer detached from the big rig and crashed into the van, basically ripping it apart. Both vehicles came to a halt on the shoulder of the roadway.

The crash occurred along a stretch of the two-lane road in rural Truxton, a town of only 1,100 located a few miles northeast of the city of Cortland.

Police said a few of the victims were trapped under the trailer. It had to be jacked up to get them out.

The collision is still under investigation.

Another man was injured when the van he was travelling in was hit by a trailer that broke away from a truck on Route 13 around 6 p.m. Wednesday in the rural town of Truxton, just 25 miles south of Syracuse.

The injured man was transported to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. No information is available at this time on his current condition.

According to officials, two people in the truck suffered no injuries.

Route 13 was shut down until 1:20 a.m. Thursday while police investigated the cause of the crash and crews removed debris and wreckage from the scene.

Even though officials have yet to determine the exact cause of the accident, it is clear that something made the trailer come loose. Sadly, this tragic accident serves as a reminder to all of us just how important it is to make sure all items you are towing are secured safely, especially now that summer is here and travel season is official underway. It is important to be aware that not just commercial trucks and big rigs can have cargo that can easily detach. Any items being towed, like boats or campers, can come loose if not properly attached and ultimately hold you accountable for injuries, and even deaths.

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An “unusual condition” was observed by the engineer of the commuter train that derailed last week in Connecticut right before the wreck, according to federal officials.
While that condition has yet to be revealed, federal officials did say repair work was done last month in the area of the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board has not yet determined a cause of the May 17 crash that injured 70 people and interrupted service for days on the railroad used by tens of thousands of commuters north of New York City.

However, the NTSB did say that a joint bar, used to hold two sections of rail together, had been damaged and repaired last month. It was also revealed that rail sections in the area of the derailment have been shipped off to Washington for additional inspection.

The NTSB also shared that the Metro-North railroad is conducting an inspection and inventory of all the joint bars on its main tracks.

The eastbound train traveling from New York City derailed during evening rush hour in Bridgeport before coming to a stop and being struck just seconds later by a westbound train. According to reports, the engineer of the westbound train applied the emergency brakes before smashing into the eastbound train.

The eastbound engineer told investigators he saw an unusual condition on the track as he approached the area.

Some of those injured in the crash have filed lawsuits alleging negligence by Metro-North.

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