Personal injury from construction accidents can multiply in scope when mixed with speeding cars. And so, New York City Department of Transportation is launching a week dedicated to public awareness regarding work zone safety. Road maintenance aims to make roads safer for cars. But careless attention to work zones, creates dangerous conditions for workers. General guidelines include: slow down, respect the rules, give ample braking space, and staying alert. Read more safety recommendations here.

Toyota knew it had a problem but waited, says the US government. Product safety laws require manufacturers to notify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration within five days of discovery of a product safety problem. Toyota discovered its floor-pedal accelerator problem, but waited on going public. The US government fined Toyota $16.4 Million for its delay. But the fine is just the tip of the iceberg. Personal injury lawsuits will likely cost Toyota another $4 Billion. Full story here.

New York injury lawyers are joining nationwide hopes for West Virgina’s four missing coal miners. Workers at the coal plant contend that dangerous work conditions, including poor ventilation, led to a dangerous buildup of methane gas. The gas allegedly prompted an explosion which has so claimed at least twenty-five lives. The last major coal mining accident occurred in 1984, and claimed 34 wrongful death victims as well as other work injuries. Construction and mining are generally regarded as dangerous work areas. Even so, employers bear responsibility for maintaining safe environments, as reasonably possible. This demands adequate ventilation and rescue provisions. If West Virginia employees are correct, than New York accident and injury lawyers expect a suit against plant owners for failure to maintain safe work conditions. The damages claims may reach high levels due to the magnitude of the dangerous conditions, the work injuries and high number of wrongful deaths. In the meantime, we hope that the remaining missing mine personnel will be found safe and sound.

NY Personal injury lawyers stand up for the rights of their injured clients. Injuries include pain and wrongful death due to negligent production, maintenance or care of consumer products. This are is commonly known, as product liability. We recently covered the Toyota product safety recall. Now, we want to turn head toward another U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission headline. Infantino announced a mass recall of over one million baby slings. According to the US News & World Report, selected lines of Infantino carriers have a thick fabric that can obstruct the breathing of infants, particularly those under four months of age. Sold between 2003 and 2010, the units have caused at least three wrongful deaths, and possibly eleven others. To prevent any further personal injury, the company is freely replacing and/or correcting the product. Customers are encouraged to call 1-866-860-1361 for further information, and visit the company’s Recall Web site. If you or a loved one got hurt from an Infantino product, or any other faulty product, contact New York personal injury lawyers committed to winning your case.

We blogged about Toyota’s gas pedal shortly after Toyota’s January 21 recall announcement. As expected the numbers are pouring in. Recently, a NY woman claimed her Prius unexpectedly accelerated down a Westchester driveway, crossed the road, and smashed into a stone wall, crushing in the front body of the car. The Catch: the car was fixed already fixed by Toyota. The driver-side floor mat had been secured by both a hook and plastic cable. Police and company officials are all asking: What happened? Personal injury lawyer’s analysis is that one of two things transpired. Either 1) The scope of the Toyota problem is larger than originally reported. This means more dangerous cars on the road, more injury, and further-tanking sales; or 2) The woman is falsely blaming Toyota for something beyond its responsibility. Such a bogus claim underscores the downside of announcing a full scale product recall. It invites mass numbers of bogus injury claims from people falsely blaming the company for creating dangerous conditions. Toyota will probably fight hard to establish the latter. The consequences of the first possibility go beyond compensating this particular injury victim for her damages. It could cost the company hundreds of millions if not more in lawsuits, additional recalls, brand-name damage and loss of public confidence. Toyota will presumably do its best to put the brakes on this one.

Imagine a dangerous dog that without any provocation, brutally killed two humans. Would the State law allow the creature to continue to roam? Not in Florida, says David Horowitz. According to Florida law, an animal’s owner bears responsibility to put a dangerous pet to sleep once it exhibits aggressive, severely injurious behavior. But Shamu is apparently different, and not subject to the same laws of public safety. Sea World’s star recently killed a second trainer, showing its true colors as a, Killer Whale, rather than a pleasant performer. Despite the wrongful death, Sea World plans on continuing its Shamu Believe show and the dangerous condition it creates. Personal injury and public advocates point out the apparent determination of Sea World to keep its star attraction and profiteer. Shamu brings in millions of visitors year, each paying as much as $80. We would like to think this is the last wrongful death that will occur at Sea World. But it most probably is not.

Pretty much any New York injury lawyer knows that snow and ice can create dangerous conditions. Cars and pedestrians can slip on the ice, lose orientation and hit the ground. On the other hand, says the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), shoveling the snow can be dangerous too. New York personal injury lawyer lifts its snow-cap in gratitude to the AAOS for posting this important guide to preventing a snow injury. Snow shoveling can lead to body injury and even fatalities, if not done properly. Here are some tips that we found helpful;: 1) Warm up before shoveling. It’s harder than it looks and requires proper physical preparation. 2) Don’t shovel if you are over age 45 or not accustomed to exercise. Shoveling puts significant strain on the heart. 3) Do not overwork it. Take breaks and drink lots of water. Dehydration can occur even while standing in foot-deep snow. Please be careful out there this Winter.

According to Hudson Valley NY’s Daily Freeman, 1,000 pedestrians got injured in the USA in 2008 due to text-message distractions while walking. The high injury rate is double the 2007 figures, and quadruple the 2006 figures. This confirms a basic premise that NY personal injury lawyers have articulated: More Technology = More Distractions = More Injuries. We asked a a number of text-walkers to account for the phenomenon. The interviewee simply replied, “I am basically offloading my brain to all my gadgets.” The approach seems to be  widespread relaity. GPS tells a driver where to turn. Car-mounted safety systems, such as AWAX, tell drivers to be careful of nearby vehicles. MP3 stereos pump tunes into pedestrian ears, and cellphones and PDA stream one-liners among social networks of friends. Bottom line: People pay less attention to others within close proxmity, and more to distant virtual connections. Pardon our techno-cynicism, but we just want to prevent unnecesary personal injuries such as slip and falls and car accidents. So, please put down that cell phone while walking.

Consumers beware. On January 21, Toyota announced a recall of 2.3 Million cars and SUVs in the USA, plus millions more overseas. The cause: A faulty accelerator pedal that gets stuck in a floored position. NY personal injury lawyers point out that the Toyota pedal, if unfixed, creates a significant dangerous condition for drivers, pedestrian and other vehicles on the road. Personal injury attorneys have seen a wide range of road-related personal injuries and helped pedestrian injury victims recover maximum compensation for their pain, suffering and injuries. This NY City bus hit an elderly woman, who then recovered $1.9 Million in damages. Critics of Toyota contend that the company was negligent in addressing the product liability within a reasonable period of time. Two Congressional committee hearings plan on addressing the very point. If negligence is established, compensation claims may be very high. Personal Injury lawyers in NY successfully won $4.5 Million for a trip and fall due to a dangerous condition in her NY apartment. If you get hurt from a faulty product, contact New York’s best personal injury lawyers right away. We can help.

New York personal injury attorneys help injury victims get compensation for pain, suffering, and humiliation by others. Sometimes even NYPD police officers are at fault for making false arrests or using excessive force. But sometimes cops are the ones getting hurt while enforcing the law. And so, NY personal injury lawyer turns its eyes to  an interesting story in a recent Pittsburgh paper. Pittsburgh’s undercover police set-up a sting to catch a 19-year-old drug dealer. Police bought the drugs, declared themselves, and ordered the man under arrest. Then, the cops ran for their lives. The defiant drug dealer floored the gas pedal of his SUV, pinning the two officers against a chain fence. The two police pulled their weapons and began shooting, nearly hitting an infant and an 18-year-old babysitter sitting in the jeep’s back seat. Imagine the wrongful death that could have occurred from the botched arrest. Recall this $1.3 Million wrongful death case won by NY injury lawyer. Fortunately, Pittsburgh police survived the dangerous condition, as did the vehicle’s innocent passengers. But the offender got away. The incident underscores the tough balance that police must face in: a) apprehending guilty offenders; b) recognizing people’s presumption of innocence; c) granting dignity, respect and protection for innocent pedestrians and other civilians; d) avoiding a wrongful or unnecessarily injurious arrest. It’s tough balance. In short, even wrongful arrests have their flip sides.