New York Injury Lawyers Blog

On August 4, 2010, two New York City police officers on motorcycles acting as escorts for Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. were involved in a minor accident. The Vice President was on his way to JFK Airport. Mr. Biden's vehicle was not involved, and no officers were seriously injured. The Vice President was in New York for a meeting at Gracie Mansion with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

This is the last in a string of accidents involving motorcades of politicians. Last November, a New York Police Department car driving ahead of Mr. Biden's motorcade on the West Side of Manhattan collided with a cab while Mr. Biden was on his way to appear on "The Daily Show."

In October 2008, a policeman escorting Sarah Palin to the St. Louis airport injured his back and leg in a motorcycle collision. Ms. Palin was in St. Louis for a vice-presidential debate with Mr. Biden.

In previous years, there were fatal accidents involving motorcades for President George W. Bush in Albuquerque and Honolulu.

Website Resource:

Escorting Biden, 2 Motorcyclists Crash, New York Times, Associated Press, August 5, 2010.

A Bronx, NY jury recently awarded $20 million in a medical malpractice case to a 43 year-old unemployed man whose colon was damaged during a colonoscopy. However, due to a high/low agreement entered into by the parties, plaintiff will receive $850,000. Plaintiff Edgar Gonzalez developed peritonitis that necessitated removal of some of his colon and the temporary creation of an ileostomy.

Gonzalez contended that the peritonitis was a result of perforations in the colon caused by his gatroenterologist's neglect during the colonoscopy. Gonzalez claimed that the perforations were a result of excessive insufflation of his colon. He further claimed that the perforations should have been detected and repaired before the colonoscopy was completed. The doctor claimed that blood clots caused the injury.

Website Resource:

VerdictSearch, August 26, 2010.

Injuries from car accidents among New York children ages 4 to 6 have declined since the implementation of a law requiring them to be strapped into car booster seats, researchers recently reported. Most U.S. states now require that children who have outgrown traditional car seats use a car booster seat, which raises a child high enough so that the car seatbelts can be positioned properly -- with the shoulder strap across the shoulder and not the neck, and the lap belt across the hips.

The new study conducted by the journal, Pediatrics, is the first to compare injury rates before and after the 2005 New York law mandating booster seats. Researchers with the state health department compared traffic injury rates among children in that age group during the two years before the law was implemented with rates across the three years after the law took hold. They found that traffic injury rates among 4- to 6-year-olds decreased 18 percent between the two time periods -- from an average of 29 per 10,000 children to 25 per 10,000.

Website Resource:

Child injuries drop after N.Y. booster seat law, MSNBC (Reuters), August 9, 2010.

Please click here for a well-done video produced by the Consumer Attorneys of California.

The video considers a world without lawyers.