New York Injury Lawyers Blog

December 8, 2019

New York ‘Tweaks Construction Safety Law

by Law Offices of Thomas L. Gallivan, PLLC

Amid widespread noncompliance and mounting accidents in New York’s most dangerous industry, City Council ‘tweaked’ its construction safety laws last month. The law originally passed in 2017 in the aftermath of several serious and preventable construction accidents has failed to put a dent in the number of construction worker deaths, which continue to increase each year. The law requires all construction workers in the city to receive at least 30 hours of safety training by Dec. 1 2019, according to City & State New York. By Sept. 1, 2010, the number of training hours required increases to 40 hours.

The bold and controversial law has largely languished since it passed, according to the newspaper. The Department of Buildings has pushed back the deadline for worker training several times after failing to implement the standards and programs required by the training courses. The government agency says that the City Council has made the problem worse by continually revising the law since 2017. Allegations of widespread fraud have been reported in the news, describing a black market for safety training certificates and online courses that lack adequate identity verification policies.

December 4, 2019

New York Finally Identifies Hospitals with Antibiotic- Resistant ‘Super Bug’

by Law Offices of Thomas L. Gallivan, PLLC

New York regulators finally released a list of hospitals and nursing homes where a deadly and drug-resistant fungus has been found. The disclosure comes after months of haranguing public health officials who had hoped to remain tight-lipped, fearing that naming facilities with the antibiotic-resistant ‘super bug’ could lead to an exodus of patients and nursing home residents. According to the CDC, the fungus – referred to as C. auris – kills one out of every three people it infects. For those with weak immune systems, such as nursing home residents, the number is even higher. Because the fungus appears to be resistant to antibiotics, the CDC is warning that C. auris poses a “global health threat.”

In general, antibiotic-resistant strains a growing health problem. Public health experts say these so-called ‘superbugs’ infected more than 2.8 million people last year and caused more than 35,000 deaths, reported by LoHud.com. The tri-state area appears to be ground-zero for the problem in America, with its massive population living in close proximity and its status as an international travel hub and destination. The CDC reports that the majority of C. auris infections are at facilities the New York metropolitan area, stretching from New Jersey to Long Island and up into Westchester. After declining to release the list of facilities with the deadly fungus, the New York Department of Health finally relented last month.

Here’s a list of facilities in Westchester and Rockland County which have reported infections of the ‘superbug’ C. auris:

November 25, 2019

New York Hospitals Continue to Rank Poorly for Patient Safety

by Law Offices of Thomas L. Gallivan, PLLC

New York hospitals continue to rank poorly compared to the rest of the country, according to the nonprofit LeapFrog’s rankings released last month. According to Washington D.C. organization, which ranks hospitals on 12 factors related to patient safety and then assigns a letter grade between A and F to each hospital, New York is the 47th worst state for patient safety at hospitals. Just 7.5 percent of New York hospitals received an “A” – a pathetically low percentage compared to states like Maine, Utah and Virginia, which received “A” at 50 to 60 percent of their hospitals.

The Empire State has almost three times as many hospitals with a “D” rating (30) than an “A” rating (11), according to LoHud.com. Unlike the federal government which takes medical outcomes and other indicators of quality into account when assigning its maligned star-rating system, Leapfrog Group focuses on preventable safety issues. Examples include mistakes like leaving sponges or medical equipment in bodies or preventable infections caused by unsanitary conditions. The nonprofit told Lohud.Com that its ranking system provided more helpful information to patients “because it focuses on the most serious life-or-death measures.”

Here are the patient safety rankings for hospitals in the Hudson Valley, published for Fall 2019:

November 20, 2019

NYC Rakes in $28 Million from Speed Cameras in 43 Days

by Law Offices of Thomas L. Gallivan, PLLC

New York City speed cameras are proving to be a lucrative source of income for city coffers. According to Staten Island Live, the expansion of speed cameras around the City is now generating $455 every minute in revenue. While the fines are only $50 per violation, the massive increase in cameras over the summer has already issued more than 500,000 violations to speeding motorists. The tickets are automatically sent to the owner of any vehicle going more than 10 miles per hour above the speed limit.

The speed cameras are clustered around school zones, according to city officials. After a successful trial showed that the cameras changed drivers behavior over time, politicians in Albany expanded the program over the summer. Beginning on July 11, 2019, the number of school zones with cameras increased substantially from 140 to 750. Overall, this amounts to almost 290,000 cameras installed around school zones in the five boroughs. Further, the cameras started issuing tickets all day – from 6 a.m to 10 p.m. on weekdays. Previously, the cameras only operated only during the time period when school began and ended.

November 14, 2019

New York Troopers Pose as ‘Construction Workers’ and Hand out Tickets

by Law Offices of Thomas L. Gallivan, PLLC

New York police went undercover this month to catch speeding drivers in Westchester by posing as highway construction workers. According to CT Post, the police officers disguised themselves and then staked out work zones on I-684 in what they named “Operation Hard Hat.” The ‘operation’ was apparently successful, with almost 50 tickets issued to drivers in just a couple days. The police say the tickets issued to motorists included traffic violations from talking on the phone while driving to speeding. However, the most common citation involved a violation of New York’s “Move Over” law, which requires motorists to either move out of the lane closest to construction workers or, if that is not possible, slow their vehicle down to a crawl while passing through the work zone.

Under New York law, fines are doubled for motorists when their violation occurs in a work zone. The “work zone trap” set up by New York police in disguise is an increasingly popular way of responding to the increase in car accidents occurring in work zones. Last year, more than 700 crashes in New York occurred in a work zone. These crashes led to 329 injuries and 13 fatalities, according to CT Post. The New York Transportation Commissioner applauded the efforts by Westchester police, saying “The Success of Operation Hard Hat is imperative – it protects our transportation workers and raises awareness to the serious issue of work zone safety.”

November 8, 2019

City Revokes Contractors License After Construction Worker’s Death

by Law Offices of Thomas L. Gallivan, PLLC

The Department of Buildings (DOB) is suing to revoke the license of a contractor allegedly responsible for the death of a construction worker earlier this year in Turtle Bay. According to The New York Daily News, Nelson Salinas was working on scaffolding halfway up a 14-story residential building when a coping stone was knocked loose by rigging used to support the scaffolding. The stone hit Salinas in the head and he was rushed to New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center where he died from the injuries.

After a full investigation, the DOB says the fault lies with Wlodzimierz Tomczak and is now attempting to revoke his special rigger license over the incident. According to the DOB, Tomczak “did not take proper precautions” and could not produce “multiple inspection records… related to the scaffold setup.”

November 4, 2019

Study: Driver Assistance Technology Saves Lives, Money

by Law Offices of Thomas L. Gallivan, PLLC

A recent study by Carnegie Mellon University found that “driver-assistance” technology provides substantial and widespread benefits. The study, published in Accident Analysis and Prevention, studied the effect of vehicles with three types of safety technology – blind-spot monitoring, lane-departure warning, and forward-collision warning. Vehicles with these safety options are typically equipped with cameras or radars, which can alert drivers to dangerous conditions.

After extrapolating the data on the effect of these advanced safety technologies, the researchers concluded that if every vehicle in the United States came with these safety features installed then the effects would be enormous. There would be 1.6 million fewer crashes each year and 7,200 fewer fatalities caused by car accidents. The boost in safety is not the only benefit, though. Fewer accidents would lead to less money spent on repairing vehicles and healing injuries, saving drivers money. The study estimated that American drivers would save $20 billion each year if every vehicle on the road were equipped with these safety features.

November 1, 2019

Hudson Valley Hospitals with Lowest Safety Ranking

by Law Offices of Thomas L. Gallivan, PLLC

Every year, hospitals across the United States are graded on their record for patient safety by the federal government and a nonprofit organization, Leapfrog Group. The federal government uses a “star-based” rating system where hospitals receive a grade between one and five stars, with a one-star rating representing a hospital with serious and widespread safety problems. According to LoHud.com, New York had 48 one-star facilities in the state. Six of these unsafe hospitals were in the Hudson Valley.

Leapfrog Group focuses on more “preventable safety issues”, according to the local newspaper. The metrics used in Leapfrog’s calculations focus on the rate of “infections and medical mistakes, like sponges or tools left in bodies” or “complications such as collapsed lungs.” The nonprofit group assigns a letter grade to each major hospital in the country, which range from an “A” to an “F.” The researchers at Leapfrog point to a study by Johns Hopkins University that found 160,000 deaths each year are caused by “hospital-acquired” conditions – such as infections. Of the 30 hospitals receiving a “D” or “F” grade in New York, two are located in the Hudson Valley. According to Leapfrog, only 12 percent of hospitals nationwide receive a letter grade below “C”.

October 3, 2019

Poor Quality of Life Reported at Long-Term Care Hospitals

by Law Offices of Thomas L. Gallivan, PLLC

According to The New York Times, long-term care hospitals continue to provide poor care to elderly Americans. Long-term care hospitals, also called long term acute care hospitals, provide care typically after a person is being discharged from intensive care and is too sick to return to their nursing home. Close to 400 long-term care hospitals exist in the United States, a number that has dipped in the last decade after skyrocketing in the 90s from just 38.

The proliferation of long-term care hospitals during the period is now largely regarded as unnecessary and many elder care advocates say they harmed individuals while enriching their owners. Because patients at these hospitals are so sick, the hospital receives hefty sums performing multiple procedures and diagnostics on their patients. In 2017 alone, Medicare – which pays for two-thirds of all long-term care stays – paid out an eye-wateringly high 4.5 billion to these several hundred hospitals.

September 28, 2019

NYT: How One Doctor Killed 25 Patients

by Law Offices of Thomas L. Gallivan, PLLC

An investigation by The New York Times into Dr. William Hussel, currently accused of killing at least 25 of his patients, reveals glaring missteps by hospital administrators and nurses. According to the criminal complaint against the disgraced doctor, Dr. Hussel routinely administered opioid doses between five and 20 times the recommended amount at the intensive care unit he worked at in Ohio. Given the scope of his alleged crimes, the families who trusted the doctor only to find out that he killed their loved one are outraged and demanding answers. Mount Carmel, the hospital where the doctor is accused of killing his patients, has already paid out more than $13 million in legal settlements.

The investigation by The New York Times shows a hospital with an ineffective administration, insufficient safeguards to prevent prescribing excessive doses, and a hospital staff either too charmed or too intimidated to second-guess the doctors. According to the article, the “red flags” surrounding Dr. Hussel were apparent and ignored from the start of his tenure at the hospital. As a medical student, he pleaded guilty to creating a pipe bomb, which he originally planned on putting underneath the vehicle of another student who told the police he was stealing car stereos. The hospital said they had no knowledge of the criminal incident – even though it was reported to the medical board and available in the public record.