Articles Posted in Accidents, Personal Injury and Wrongful Death

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Following a 2002 accident in which the driver of a car committed suicide by pulling the car into oncoming traffic and directly into the front of a Volvo tractor trailer, the tractor trailer company has filed a property damage lawsuit seeking nearly $88,000 in damages. The car driver left a suicide note. The St. Lawrence County Coroner determined that the accident – which occurred on Route 37, near County Route 14 – was a suicide.
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It is well known that car accidents are the single greatest cause of death in young adults age 16 to 24. To combat motor vehicle deaths, six Syracuse-area high schools received traffic safety lessons today at Onondaga Community College. This is third year that the one-day session has been held to teach Syracuse teenagers about driver safety and the consequences of speeding, drinking while driving, and not wearing a seatbelt. The session included an a mock DWI accident, a mock rollover accident, and a mock accident in which a severely injured driver and passenger were airlifted for medical care.
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Defense medical examinations, also known as IMEs, performed by Central New York doctors working for insurance companies are were recently the subject of a statewide investigation conducted by the New York Times.

According to a New York Times review of workers’ compensation case files, medical records, and patient interviews, “independent medical examinations” and the reports that follow are are frequently conducted or prepared in a fashion that benefits insurers by minimizing injuries or by attributing injuries to some other cause or event. Unlike a visit to a treating physician, an IME physician may meet with an injured worker for less than ten minutes. During that ten minute period, the IME doctor may take an abbreviated history, skim medical records, perform a very limited physical examination and send the patient on his or her way without an ounce of compassion. After that examination, the majority of IME reports conclude that the patient is not injured or, if injured, is not disabled.

Many refer to Syracuse-area IME doctors as “Dr. No” or “Dr. Says-No,” because no matter how badly injured, certain doctors will consistently find no injury or no disability. The New York Times interviewed Dr. Alan Zimmerman, an orthopedic surgeon practicing in Queens, New York. According to Dr. Zimmerman, “[b]asically, if you haven’t murdered anyone and you have a medical license, you get certified.” Dr. Zimmerman added that its “clearly a nice was to semi-retire.” Dr. Zimmerman, 75, conducts orthopedic IMEs.

IME examinations are very profitable for doctors (some earning nearly $1,000,000 per year performing examinations and testifying in court), and were poorly regulated until 2001. In 2000, a Long Island doctor conducted five IMEs in a Long Island bar. Some examiners, of course, do furnish honest examinations.

A small study conducted a few years ago at the Central New York Occupational Health Clinical Center in Syracuse, New York, revealed that the clinic’s treating physicians and local independent medical examiners almost always disagreed on whether an injured worker was disabled.
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A portion of the New York State Thruway was closed earlier this week following a UPS trandem tractor trailer accident in which the UPS big rig crashed in the Town of Catskill, south of Albany, New York. The New York State Thruway was closed for several hours from exit 20 to exit 21. The cause of the accident, which occurred around 4:20 a.m., is under investigation. The driver of the UPS 18 wheeler was injured in the accident to Albany Medical Center for medical care. No other drivers were injured.
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Earlier today, a Syracuse area teenager was hospitalized after rear-ending a school bus on Kasson Road in the County of Onondaga. According to the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office, the school bus was stopped with red lights flashing when a seventeen (17) year old drove into the back of the bus. The 17 year old struck the bus with enough force to wedge his car underneath the rear bumper of the bus. Rescue crews were called to the scene to pull the negligent driver from the wreckage.

As many as 500,000 school buses transport newarly 24,000,000 children to and from school each day. While school bus accidents are common, the damage is usually minor and where there are injuries, they usually are to the driver of a car that came into contact with the bus (67%) or with a pedestrian (25%), and not to school bus passengers (9%).
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Earlier today, a plane crashed within Madison County, just off of Wescott Road in the Town of Eaton, New York. The crash occurred near Hatch Lake. One person was killed in the accident. Damage to the plane was significant. The aviation accident is under investigation.
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According to Dr. Elizabeth Murray, of the Golisano Children’s Hospital, soon coming to Syracuse, New York, children are safer in rear-facing car seats, even after they are old enough or large enough to ride in forward-facing car seats.

It was once thought that children should be turned-around or moved into a forward-facing car seat when they are 12 months old, or weigh more than twenty pounds. Recent studies suggest that children should stay in a rear-facing car seat for as long as possible. The American Academy of Pediatrics is on the verge of releasing new recommendations that would urge parents to keep children in rear-facing car seats until age two in order to prevent neck injuries, such as cervical fractures (i.e., a broken neck).

In order for a car seat to be effective in preventing injury, it must be installed properly. Remember that rear-facing car seats are installed tightly and are not placed in the front seat of a car with an active passenger air bag. Also make sure that car seat harnesses are at baby shoulder level, that a car set is installed at the correct angle, and that seatbelts are buckled correctly. Use the LATCH system were possible.
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A portion of the facade of The Warehouse building collapsed today, leading to the closing of West Fayette Street, from West Street to Frankling Streets, in downtown Syracuse, New York. At one point in time, The Warehouse building housed the Syracuse University School of Architecture. It now houses departments for the University’s School of Visual and Performing Arts.

The building collapse cause rubble to fall onto the sidewalk and street below. Fortunately, no Syracuse University students or any others were injured.

The block remains closed until construction workers have an opportunity to remove additional portions of the building’s southwest exterior which appear unstable. The loose exterior is approximately eighty-five feet off the ground, so laborers will have to use a lift to perform repairs to the building. According to the Syracuse Fire Department, the building failure was not structural.
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According to the Utica Regional Director for the New York State Department of Transportation, motorists should travel through roadway construction sites with care. Due to an increase in funding secondary to the economic recovery package, there will be more construction sites than usual during the Summer of 2009.

The New York State Department of Transportation has asked drivers to obey posted signage, obey flagpersons, maintain a safe distance between you and the car in front of you and, most importantly, slow down. After speeding, most roadway construction accidents are due to driver negligence, such as inattention due to conversations with passengers, or talking on a cellular telephone.
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At 3:00 p.m. today four Ogdensburg Railway freight cars carrying salt derailed approximately one mile off of Buck Road, on the New York and Ogdensburg Railway line. The train cars were carrying more than 800,000 pounds of salt from the CSX Interchange to the Port of Ogdensburg.

According to investigators, the accident was caused by “sun-kinks,” which are warped or buckled sections of track caused by cold-to-warm temperature changes associated with the change of seasons. Fortunately, there were no injuries and no salt was spilled. There was minor damage to the tracks and rail cars.
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