Central New York Injury Lawyer Blog

Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Delivers Good News / Bad News about 2009 Decline in Mortorcycle Deaths In Central New York and U.S.A.

April 23, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

So what do you want to hear first, the good news or the bad news?

The good news came out just the other day from the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) about Motorcycle deaths in Central New York and, in fact, all over the nation. For more than a decade, motorcycle accident deaths had been climbing steadily, year after year. Then suddenly, in 2009, motorcycle deaths plummeted throughout the U.S by a total of 16%, which saved a total of 530 lives. The highest motorcycle accident death toll ever was the prior year, 2008, which took 5,290 lives.

Why? To what do the experts attribute such a dramatic decline? Are motorists finally SEEING motorcycles? Are motorcycle safety campaigns finally working? Are bikes just safer?

Central New York Pedestrian Accidents and Lawsuits May Be Avoided by “Complete Streets Week” Survey.

April 22, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that “Complete Streets Week: Making New York Walkable for All Generations”, begins today. What is it? It is a volunteer-led survey of pedestrian safety throughout Central New York, focusing on walking conditions in downtown Syracuse. Volunteers will look at the adequacy of traffic signals in allowing people with disabilities to cross, whether crosswalks are properly marked, the condition of sidewalks and the legibility of signs. The survey will serve as raw material for a “walkability” report to be published this fall on walking conditions all over Central New York, and in other areas of New York State. The report will bolster legislation pending in Albany called the “Complete Streets” law, which would direct transportation planners to design roads, sidewalks and streets with pedestrians in mind. Sponsors of the project include city and county governments as well as AARP, with volunteers doing most of the leg-work.

This study will, we hope, get our State and local governments to focus on preventing pedestrian accidents, injuries and lawsuits by fixing and preventing sidewalk and crossing defects and dangers. With an aging population, and with more of us disabled, “walkable” cities are crucial for the future of Central New York. Shamefully, New York State ranked third nationwide for elderly pedestrian deaths last year. But walkable cities are equally important for parents with small children, with strollers, and for everyone.

The lawyers at Michaels Bersani Kalabanka, as Central New York pedestrian injury lawyers, know first-hand how dangerous the sidewalks, crosswalks and intersections can be in Central New York, including in Syracuse, Auburn, Skaneateles and Geneva where we live and work. Every year we file Central New York pedestrian injury lawsuits on behalf of those who trip and fall on cracked or broken sidewalks, or are hit by cars in poorly controlled intersections and dangerous cross walks. Sometimes they trip and fall on a broken, cracked, or heaved up sidewalk slabs. Sometimes they get hit by cars as they attempt to cross at dangerous crosswalks or traffic intersections. Very often they are old, or disabled, or are children. Therefore, we applaud “Complete Streets Week: Making New York Walkable for All Generations”, and all the volunteers who are making it a success!

Central New York Hunting Accident Lawyer Explains Unfairness of Insurance Rule

April 19, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

If you’re a Central New York hunter and you accidently shoot a fellow hunter, you sure would feel bad, right? I mean Central New York shooting accidents, like hunting accidents everywhere, can kill, seriously injure and maim. But there’s insurance for that, right? I mean, if you are a hunter, and you own a home, your homeowner’s insurance will protect you if you accidently shoot another hunter, right?

Think again. Here’s a true story. A Central New York deer hunter goes out hunting in the hours where night is turning to day. He is in his tree stand waiting. He sees a deer. He aims, shoots, fires and — hears a man scream. He just shot another hunter! The deer wasn’t a deer, it was a hunter whom he mistook for a deer.

When he calms down, and he is assured that his victim is not going to die, but is seriously hurt, he thanks his lucky stars that at least he has homeowner’s insurance. He realizes that homeowner’s insurance covers accidents like this, so the poor guy he shot will at least get his medical bills and lost wages paid, and maybe even some compensation for any pain and suffering.

Central New New York Injury Lawyer asks, Will Catholic Church Bring to Justice “Those Responsible for Child Sexual Abuse”?

April 18, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

Today I received an email with the photograph depicted here as a “joke”. It is clever for sure, but no laughing matter for those who have been victimized by Catholic priest sexual abuse.

I also read in several media reports today that Pope Benedict XVI met with Catholic Church sex-abuse victims on the island of Malta and promised them, tearfully, that the Catholic Church would “seek justice for pedophile priests” and take “effective measures” to protect kids from future abuse. The Pope prayed with these abused children-turned-adults and assured them that the Church was doing, and will do, “all in its power to investigate allegations, to “BRING TO JUSTICE THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR ABUSE”. The Vatican offered no details of what measures it would take to carry this out.

But here’s the key question in my mind: Will the Vatican bring ITSELF to “justice”? After all, who are those most “responsible for abuse”, the priests with unfortunate pedophilic desires so strong that recidivism is almost a given, or the passionless Church hierarchy who knowingly, deliberately, and cold-heartedly covered all this abuse up, shuffling sexual predators from parish to parish, and even from country to country, where they could resume their violence upon innocent children?

Syracuse New York Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Lawyer on How to Change the Law

April 18, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

The other day a fellow Central New York injury lawyer congratulated me on a recent Court victory I had, which changed the law throughout New York State, and helped him, and other New York personal injury and medical malpractice lawyers, better represent their clients. The case he was referring to was Thompson v Mather, which I have already blogged about. He pointed out to me that this was the second time he had seen me change the law for the better in New York State by winning a key appellate argument for New York personal injury and medical malpractice victims. He remembered that I had, a few years ago, stopped no-fault insurance companies from denying coverage for medical bills when the insured had reached “maximum medical improvement” in a case called Hobby v CNA. The lawyer wanted to know how I was able to effect such big changes in the law with my cases.

My response was simple: I read the statutes. And I read them carefully. And I read them over and over again, word for word, looking for hidden or perhaps even obvious meanings that everyone else has been overlooking. In both cases this lawyer was referring to, all the case law generated by other lawyers had overlooked the fact that the controlling statutes just did not allow insurance companies to do what they had been doing. In Thompson v Mather, the statute, CPLR 3113, when read carefully, just did not allow a non-party witness to bring in a lawyer (usually an insurance company lawyer) to object to questioning at a deposition. It said that deposition questioning was to proceed just like at trial, and at trial non-party witnesses’ lawyers can’t object or talk at all. And in Hobby v CNA, the statute at issue, New York Insurance Law 5102, just did not allow a no-fault insurance carrier to cut off an insured’s medical treatment based on a finding of “maximum medical improvement”. It only allowed them to cut an insured off if the treatment was not “reasonable and necessary”, which is not quite the same thing.

So while other lawyers had, for decades, overlooked these nuances, and just assumed that the common practice of insurance carriers and other lawyers comported with the law, I actually READ THE LAW, and found out that everyone else was wrong!

Syracuse and Central New York Bicycle Accident Injury Lawyer: Is Bicycling Too Dangerous?

April 18, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just like to hunt around on the internet for neat sites to reference about my hobbies and passions. Since I am an avid bicyclist, as well as a bicycle accident injury lawyer, I was hunting around today for cites with information on bicycles and bicycling and even bicycle accidents and how to avoid them. I found a great bicycle site. This cite has just about everything you want to know (example: how to make sure your bike fits right), some things you didn’t know you wanted to know (example: unusual bike models), and some things you DON”T want to know (statistics for bicycling accidents and fatalities). The stats are pretty dismal. Here’s a sampling:

• One in every 20 cyclists is injured annually.

• A bicyclist on average has a minor injury every three years and a more serious every fifteen years.

Albany New York Medical Malpractice Settlement Is Unusual and Refreshing

April 10, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

“Help, this woman is bleeding to death! Is there a doctor in the house?”

But no doctor intervened, and poor Diane McCabe died a slow death. In fact, it took her 15 hours to bleed to death. Why couldn’t they stop the bleeding? Was she in some remote location with no access to a hospital? Nope. In fact she bled to death in an Albany Medical Center Hospital in New York State where she had undergone a C-section. After the surgeon finished the Cesarean procedure, and stitched McCabe back up, he left to attend to other patients. A physician attending to McCabe then called him several times to report that McCabe appeared to be bleeding internally, and asked the surgeon to open her back up. Despite these calls to action, the surgeon refused to intervene until it was too late. McCabe had lost too much blood.

Diane McCabe’s family settled her Albany New York medical malpractice claim last week for $5.2M against the (ir)responsible surgeon and Albany Medical Center Hospital. Since Diane left behind two small children and a grieving husband, this does not seem like too much money. In fact, it seems a little light. But her family got something much more important than money to them, something very unusual in an upstate New York medical malpractice case (or in any malpractice case anywhere): They got the Hospital to agree to implement safety improvements to make it unlikely the same thing would happen again. And they got the Hospital to agree to fund, for the next 20 years, a Diane McCabe Memorial Quality (patient safety) Lecture series. In other words, they got what amounts to an apology, some remorse, and some assurance that the Hospital would learn from its mistake.

Cell-Phone-While-Driving Crackdown in Syracuse May Reduce Car Accidents, Says Central New York Injuy Lawyer

April 8, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

It’s no secret that cell-phoning and texting while driving cause many car accidents in Syracuse, New York (and elsewhere). Just read any newspaper; many Syracuse and Central New York auto crash injuries are caused by cell-phone use and texting. But would an aggressive cell-phone driver crackdown by police help cure Syracuse drivers’ bad habits?

We’ll soon find out. U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Gov. David Paterson, speaking at Syracuse University campus, announced that Syracuse will receive a $300,000 grant for cracking down on distracted drivers using cell phones. With this grant money, police will aggressively seek out and ticket hand-held cell-phone users. If they are seen with a cell phone in one hand, they’ll get a ticket in the other! The grant will pay for local law enforcement agents to work overtime, targeting distracted drivers. The money will also be used for a paid advertising campaign on radio, TV and in print ads.

This distracted-driver crackdown program is modeled on past programs to curb drunk driving and to convince people to wear seat belts, Those campaigns worked; they resulted in fewer drunk drivers and greater seatbelt use.

Central New York Injury Lawyer: More on The New York State Thruway Dump Truck Crash

April 8, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

I blogged yesterday about a horrendous New York State Thruway accident near Manchester, New York injuring 17 people, most of them children. Here’s a brief recap: A dump truck driver tried to drive under the County Route 7 overpass with his truck box raised, causing the top of the truck box to strike the overpass, which in turn caused the box to dislodge from the truck, and land on the Thruway, where two vehicles full of people, mostly children, crashed into it. I said then that the dump truck driver was obviously at fault because he either “drove the truck without noticing that his truck box was raised, or else he thought he could pass through the underpass with it raised” and that either way he was liable.

I was right. Today the State Police issued the driver a ticket for driving the dump truck without a tilt-bed warning light that would have alerted the driver that his box was raised. Apparently, he did not realize it was raised. The warning light would have warned him. He broke the law by driving a dump truck without the warning light. He appears, therefore, to be at fault for this multi-car accident..

As I said in yesterday’s blog post, this is good news for all the very injured, some very young, car accident victims because the construction company the dump truck driver was working for will also be held liable for the car crash injuries he caused. The construction company will likely have a big insurance policy to compensate these serious car crash injuries.

Manchester, Ontario County New York State Thruway Auto Accident Victims Will Likely Have Plenty of Insurance Coverage

April 7, 2010 | by Michael Bersani

When I read about the terrible New York State Thruway multi-vehicle accident at 5:00 a.m. this morning in Manchester, Ontario County, New York, near my home in Geneva, New York, the human injury toll shocked and saddened me.

Here’s how it happened: A dump truck driver, who was performing some construction work on the Thruway, tried to drive under the County Route 7 overpass eastbound with his truck box raised. Unfortunately, the top of the truck box was higher than the overpass, so it struck the overpass, dislodged from the truck, and landed on the roadway.

A few minutes later, a passenger van, carrying two adults and eight children, tried to avoid the box, but sideswiped it instead, causing an accident. Moments later, an SUV, carrying three adults and four children, ran over the box, causing a second accident. It was still dark out, so apparently the box lying in the roadway was not very visible. Two of the children were airlifted to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, and the others were brought by ambulance to other nearby hospitals.