From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Accident Lawyer)

In the early morning hours of September 30, 2010 Benjamin Murray, age 43, of Staten Island was crossing the rain-slicked road at the corner of Port Richmond and Post Avenues when he slipped and fell.

A New York City bus driver did not see Murray, and clipped him with his bus - running him over with the rear wheels of an S57 bus as it made a left turn from Port Richmond Avenue onto Post Avenue - leaving him to die in the street as the bus driver continued his route, unaware he had hit anyone.

Benjamin Murray head was crushed and he died from significant head trauma.

The bus driver continued on his route unaware he had struck Murray, possibly due to the morning's torrential rainstorm, sources added.

The bus driver - whose name is being withheld - does not face any criminal charges, police say.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Injury Lawyer)

In the latest reminder that nothing on the Internet is ever truly secret, a Suffolk County judge has ordered a Long Island woman to open up her private Facebook and MySpace postings to a chair company she is suing in a personal injury lawsuit.

In Kathleen Romano v. Steelcase Inc. and Educational & Institutional Cooperative Services, Inc., on September 21, 2010, State Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Spinner said that Kathleen Romano, who claims she suffered severe back injuries when her chair collapsed while working at Stony Brook University Medical Center, had no expectation of privacy in social media postings that might contradict her injury claims.

"To permit a party claiming very substantial damages for loss of enjoyment of life to hide behind self-set privacy controls on a website, the primary purpose of which is to enable people to share information . . . risks depriving the opposite party of access to material that may be relevant to ensuring a fair trial," Spinner wrote.

The judge said his ruling, issued last week, was the first of its kind by a New York court.

Romano's lawsuit claims that a defective Steelcase office chair collapsed when she sat in it in 2003, leading to herniated discs, neck and back pain, and three spinal surgeries. A married mom, she says it has limited her activities and damaged her "enjoyment of life." But material found on her public MySpace and Facebook pages appeared to contradict those claims, Spinner said - including evidence that she "has traveled to Florida and Pennsylvania" and a picture that shows her "smiling happily . . . outside the confines of her home despite her claim that she . . . is largely confined to her house and bed."

The judge wrote that was sufficient basis to allow Steelcase to roam further. He ordered Romano to authorize MySpace and Facebook to turn over all their historical records of her pages - including nonpublic portions of the Facebook site restricted to "friends" cleared by Romano.

Amid cautions given by the sites that they cannot ensure against prying eyes, Spinner said any expectation of privacy is "wishful thinking."

Comment: Somewhat disturbing is that this is "a case of first impression" in New York, meaning that Judge Spinner is the first New York judge to allow a defendant to walk through an accident victim's personal website records. The judge relied on several court decisions from Canada in making his ruling. Why not just let the defendants invade the accident victim's home and take photo albums?

I've seen this kind of privacy assault coming for a long time. First in my blawg of August 25, 2009, where I wrote about video surveillance and also warned about social websites: "Be especially careful if you're an accident victim. Be wary about posting photographs to a website that are inconsistent with your claims of physical limitation."

Then I again wrote about the danger of posting to social networking sites in my blawg of November 26, 2009 where a Canadian insurance company quit paying disability benefits to a depressed claimant because her Facebook postings showed her having fun.

In Romano, Judge Spinner is even letting the defendant into the private parts of the accident victim's social networking websites.

One last point. Defendant's request to access Ms. Romano's Facebook and MySpace records (called, "a motion") was submitted to the Court on July 7, 2009. As noted in the beginning of this blawg, Judge Spinner didn't issue his decision until more than a year later, on September 21, 2010.

Now by Court rules, judges are supposed to decide motions within 60 days of submission. So why the delay?

Something's not right here.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Brooklyn Accident Lawyer)

On Sunday morning, September 26, 2010, a married Long Island father sped away from a routine traffic stop early today and was killed a mile away in a violent crash.

John Ricciardi, 49, of North Babylon, was pulled over by police for speeding at 4:15 a.m. On Outlook Drive in North Babylon and stopped his 1999 BMW on the side of the road.

But Suffolk cops said that Ricciardi, a father of two children, suddenly hit the gas and sped away when an office approached the car.

Police said that Ricciardi blew through 3 stop signs with the cop on his heels before he slammed into a retaining wall, flipped his car and eventually smashed into a utility pole. He was pronounced dead at the scene, about a mile from the place of the original traffic stop.

Cops are mystified by Ricciardi's sudden flight and said that he had no outstanding warrants or major criminal history.

Investigators spoke with Ricciardi's distraught family members yesterday to try to understand why he might have taken off. His vehicle was impounded for a safety check and the investigation is ongoing.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Manhattan Accident Attorney)

He was a tall, dashing hedge fund executive with a taste for mountain bikes and flashy motorcycles. She was a single mother who had worked as a drugstore cashier and a federal government worker, collecting information for the Census Bureau.

Their lives intersected, fatally, on Sunday afternoon, September 19, 2010, where Canal and West Streets meet.

The hedge fund executive, Ronen Katz, 27, was riding a 2009 Ducati motorcycle north on West, the police said, when the mother, Naisha Sutton, driving a Nissan, made an improper left turn from West onto Canal. The resulting collision knocked Mr. Katz to the ground. Ms. Sutton, 25, stopped for a while and then drove off.

Mr. Katz was taken to Beth Israel Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Three hours later, Ms. Sutton turned herself in at the 75th Precinct stationhouse in Brooklyn, where she was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a license.

On Monday, the accident's toll could be seen at Manhattan Criminal Court, where Ms. Sutton was arraigned, and at Mr. Katz's apartment, where his loved ones gathered.

 
In the courthouse, Judge Frank Nervo ordered Ms. Sutton held on $10,000 bond or $5,000 cash bail. A prosecutor, Jennifer Gaffney, told the judge that Ms. Sutton, who was driving with a learner's permit, had told detectives that she left the scene of the crash when she heard sirens. Fourteen people called 911 to report Ms. Sutton's departure, she said.

Howard Simmons, a court-appointed lawyer for Ms. Sutton, told Judge Nervo that she had been trying to return home to Brooklyn when "she saw a motorcycle speeding toward her." Moments later, he said, the motorcycle hit her front passenger door.

Mr. Simmons said his client got out of her car, spoke to onlookers who said they would call an ambulance and then left in a panicked state. Her car broke down on the Brooklyn Bridge, and she was towed across the East River. When she got home, he said, she went to the nearby 75th Precinct stationhouse with her father and turned herself in. She had never before been in trouble with the law, Mr. Simmons said.

Outside court, Ms. Sutton's father, Bernard Givens, 51, a construction worker, said his daughter was a devoted mother to her two children, ages 6 and 2.
"That's my baby," he said. "She's a sweet lady."

At Mr. Katz's apartment in a townhouse on 12th Street, between Second and Third Avenues, his mother and sister mourned.

Born in Israel, Mr. Katz moved to the United States when he was in his early teens. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with three degrees in five years, two in engineering and one from the Wharton School of Business, his mother, Leora Katz, said.
After college, he moved to New York and began working 15-hour days, starting as an intern at Merrill Lynch before joining the hedge fund Angelo Gordon & Company. Garrett Walls, the managing director of marketing for Angelo Gordon, said Mr. Katz started at the company in 2005 and rose to vice president in the financial division.

Mr. Katz's time away from the office was equally intense. He went mountain biking in Cambodia and snowboarding in Aspen, Colo., said his sister, Tamar Katz. And there was the Ducati, which Mr. Katz bought just a month ago. He took a course in riding safely and carefully selected a helmet and protective clothes, his sister said, but their mother never felt good about the motorcycle.

In recent weeks, Mr. Katz showered attention on his family. He helped moved his sister, an internationally ranked figure skater, into her dorm at his alma mater. He gave his mother a tour of his favorite spots in New York, part of his birthday present to her.
"I told him it was one of the best weeks I ever had," Leora Katz said.

On Oct. 7, Mr. Katz was to receive the Young Business Leadership Award from the Hebrew Academy for Special Children. Rabbi Solomon Stern, the executive director, said Mr. Katz was sure to draw a crowd that would donate money.

"He was a very giving person," Rabbi Stern said.

Tamar Katz recalled how excited her brother had been when he helped close a deal to buy the Helmsley Carlton House.

"He loved New York," she said. "He knew every stone here."

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Brooklyn Injury Lawyer)

The dangers of cell phone use while driving - either talking or texting - has been a topic of several of my previous blawgs. On December 21, 2009 I discussed the dangers of texting while walking. Texters tumbling down and hitting their faces and even tripping on sidewalks and walking into vehicular traffic.  Pretty dumb.　

Dumber still is dopey teen motorist Nechama Rothberger, age19, arrested for slamming her 2005 Toyota Camry into a scooter-riding deliveryman while texting on her cell phone in Brooklyn, police said today.

Nechama Rothberger was driving down Avenue P near East 17th Street around 11:45 p.m. when she slammed into Best China Restaurant deliveryman Tian Sheng Lin, age 53, who was riding a motorized scooter. Rothberger was distracted because she was texting.

Lin suffered severe head trauma and was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he remains in critical condition.

Police busted Rothberger and charged her with reckless driving. She also received a violation for using a mobile phone while driving. 　

Comment: If Lin was driving one of those new popular "electric bicycles" and without wearing a helmet, I don't have much sympathy for him having suffered head trauma in this accident. These scooter/bicycle thingys are a menace, driving the wrong way down streets - often without lights - or being operated on sidewalks. Not cool. Not safe.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Bronx Accident Lawyer)

Please someone explain to me why, with everything we know, back seat passengers still don't wear seatbelts.  It's very simple Dear Readers:  You wear a seatbelt, you don't get ejected onto the roadway in a motor vehicle accident!

 On Saturday September 18. 2010, six members of a Bronx church were killed and eight others injured in a horrific church van crash on the New York Thruway in Orange County today, New York State troopers said. The tragic crash occurred at about 3 p.m. near milepost 50.7 in the Thruway's northbound lane, between exit 16 in Harriman and exit 17 in Newburgh.

The cause seemed to be a rear tire blowout that sent the van careening out of control before it flipped on its side. The impact of the crash flung passengers out of the van, which was carrying 14 people.

Traffic was backed up on the highway for hours as rescuers evacuated the injured and cleared the dead from the scene. Three helicopters were called in to evacuate the most critically injured. Others were taken to hospitals by ambulance.

Four of the injured were taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, and four to Westchester County Medical Center in Valhalla, authorities said. One of the critically injured from Good Samaritan Hospital was later moved to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. All four taken to Good Samaritan were female, two of whom were in critical condition, hospital spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said.

A law-enforcement source said that the passengers of the van were mostly people in the early 20s. Sources say that church members were headed to a banquet upstate when tragedy struck.

Authorities were still trying to identify the passengers.

The Thruway's northbound lanes are expected to be closed much of the night while investigators and rescuers cleaned up the scene, said Thruway Authority spokesman Guy Hulbert. Southbound lanes were partially closed, with crews keeping a separate lane open so emergency crews could get to the scene.

Many rescue vehicles could be seen filling the lanes of the Thruway in TV footage from news helicopters. The accident happened about five miles north of the Woodbury Common shopping mall.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Brooklyn Accident Attorney)

I like blawging about consumer product recalls because I learn stuff I never would have even imagined. The product that is the subject of this recall is a walking stick, used to help you fish! So here goes.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.

Name of Product: Wading Staffs

Units: About 3,000

Importer: Simms Fishing Products, of Bozeman, Mont.

Hazard: The wading staff can collapse posing a fall hazard to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description: The recalled product is a wading staff used to assist in wading rivers and streams. These staffs, offered in two sizes (52" & 56"), are sterling silver in color and are identified by Simms item numbers AWS101152 or AWS101156 (UPC numbers 94264-10102 or 94264-10103). The item number and UPC numbers can be found on the product hang tag attached to the staff at time of purchase. Affected wading staffs are visibly identifiable by a silver cable connector.

Sold by: Authorized dealers nationwide from March 2010 through June 2010 for about $120.

Manufactured in: United States

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled product and contact Simms Fishing Products or an authorized dealer to receive a free replacement staff or a full refund.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Accident Attorney)

On Wednesday, September 15, 2010 an elderly man out buying bread for his family was struck and killed by a van that flipped over at a Queens intersection after a freak accident involving a speeding ambulance and a commercial vehicle, police and witnesses said.

Rajib Mohammed, 75, was wiped out at 76th Street and Woodside Avenue, just two blocks from Elmhurst Hospital, where an FDNY ambulance carrying a patient was heading around 7 a.m. when it broadsided a van that flipped on its side and slid into the intersection's southeast corner.

Investigators believe the FDNY ambulance -which was rushing a stroke patient to Elmhurst General Hospital - had its lights and sirens on as it crashed with a Stuart Dean construction van.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, police said. One witnesses told detectives the ambulance slowly crept past a red light to enter the intersection - only to be hit by the oncoming van.

Mohammed was pronounced dead at the hospital, where two EMS workers and the van driver were also treated for minor injuries. The ambulance patient was transported there in another ambulance.

"I heard the noise and ran over," said Mohammed Rahman, 50, a witness who knew the victim from the neighborhood. Rahman and several other men moved the van far enough to pull Mohammed out.

Rahman then picked the loaf of bread from the sidewalk and delivered it to Mohammed's family, along with the bad news.

"I woke up the family, and I gave them the bread," Rahman said.

Relatives said Mohammed was a retired auto mechanic who began taking early morning walks after his wife died five years ago.

"He always liked to go outside," said Mohammed's granddaughter, Zeenat Waheed, 14. "He liked to walk early in the morning."

A neighbor said Mohammed's family worried about him while he was out.

"He was walking and was hit by a car about a year ago," said Mani Behatia, 18, a neighbor. "But he was okay."

It was not immediately clear if either driver would be cited for any wrongdoing, police said.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Brooklyn Injury Attorney)

A 24-year-old motorist from Staten Island was arrested on Saturday September 11, 2010 after she sparked a chain of events that led to the horrific death of a bicyclist near the corner of Atlantic and Washington Avenues, but then refused to admit her role in the tragedy.

Krystal Francis was getting into her Dodge Stratus parked on the east bound side of Atlantic Avenue at 8:38 pm when she opened her car door, clipping 23-year-old Flatbush resident Jasmine Heron as she passed on her bike -- knocking the woman into the path of a B45 bus making its turn onto Washington Avenue.

The bus struck Heron, who died at the scene, horrified witnesses said.

Francis attempted to drive away, claiming that she had nothing to do with the accident and was running late to a baby shower, but responding officers dragged her back to the scene. She was later charged with driving on a suspended license, police said.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Injury Attorney)

On Monday September 13, 2010, a two-year-old girl, Shamira Zaman, strayed into the street a few feet from her grandmother and aunt--both standing outside of their home on 211th Street between 89th Rd. and 89th Ave., in Bellerose, Queens County, at about 2:22 p.m,

As the little girl walked into the middle of 211th Street, she was knocked down by a silver Toyota Rav-4 driven by a 55-year-old woman, cops said. The girl, Shamira Zaman, died at Queens Hospital Center. She lived with her family steps away from where she was fatally hit.

"Shamira was in the street--my smallest granddaughter--and my wife was outside, when another car came up and hit her," her grief-stricken grandfather said. A retired nurse and next door neighbor Yvonne Mckenzie, 64, called 911 after she saw the child lying motionless and was heard the family's horrific cries.

"We heard screaming, loud screams [and] I thought somebody was getting beat up or something but it was the family, the mom and the grandmother screaming.

"Then they picked her up and put her on the grass. I saw the baby lying there. There was a little blood on her right forearm and right wrist but it wasn't much. Then I ran inside and called 911."

McKenzie said a Good Samaritan rushed to help Shamira.

"[He] came out of nowhere from across the street and started doing CPR," she added.

"He said there was a heartbeat, so she must have been alive."

McKenzie said the hero was clad in blue hospital scrubs and she thought he might have been a doctor.

Emergency responders rushed the victim to nearby Queens General Hospital where she died.

The devastated driver, a 55-year-old woman in a Toyota RAV4 hybrid, stayed at the scene and was not charged with a crime.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Accident Lawyer)

A large double-decker bus driving from Philadelphia to Toronto slammed into a bridge near Syracuse on Saturday, September11, 2010, at about 2:30 AM.

Twenty six passengers were loaded onto a double-decker MegaBus Friday night in Pennsylvania. They were northbound to Syracuse, Buffalo, and eventually Toronto.

A New York City woman, Christine Alderman, age 44, was among those hospitalized Saturday after the Megabus slammed into a bridge outside of Syracuse, New York, and flipped over.

Four people were killed and more than 20 others injured.

Bus driver John Tomaszewski had a bus full of sleepy passengers just before 2:30 a.m. Saturday when he missed the turn for the Regional Transportation Center on Park Street after exiting Interstate 81 North.

Tomaszewski headed down Onondaga Lake Parkway looking for a way back to the station -- unaware that his double-decker Megabus was too tall for the bridge that it was about to hit.

Tomaszewski, 59, who received his commercial driver's license in December and began driving

for Megabus in the spring, has not told sheriff's investigators why he missed several warning signs before hitting the bridge.

Tomaszewski said he was driving slowly through the early morning darkness, going about 35 mph in a 55 mph zone, and using a global positioning satellite unit to find his way.

Sheriff's investigators do not believe Tomaszewski tried to brake before hitting the 10-foot, 9-inch CSX railroad bridge over the parkway, Walsh said.

"He never saw the bridge," a spokesman said. "He just hit the bridge."

About 75 firefighters and ambulance workers from many fire departments responded.

Bus driver Tomaszewski was conscious and talking after the crash, "but not making a lot of sense."

By mid morning on Saturday, the bus was being hauled away. Investigators were still on scene working to piece this case together. One main question was how and why was the driver travelling off his designated route, down the Onondaga Lake Parkway?

Officials for Coach USA say they don't know why the driver, who is also in the hospital, took a different route -- one with vehicle height restrictions and warning signs. Megabus officials told sheriff's investigators Tomaszewski had driven the usual route about eight to 10 times; Tomaszewski told investigators he'd driven it about 20 times.

"He had some large cuts on him, down the side of his face. He was bleeding pretty good," a witness said.

Tomaszewski, of Yardville, N.J., was released Sunday from Upstate University Hospital.

The Sheriff's department is investigating what led to the crash and if any criminal charges will be filed.

Matter of William B. Caits

First Dept.

Admitted to Bar: 1975

Discipline imposed: public censure

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From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Injury Lawyer)

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Interesting decision reported on August 31, 2010 coming from the Appellate Division, First Department - which covers Manhattan and the Bronx. But this lawyer's bad act happened in a restaurant in Queens. The Court's decision does not give the name of the restaurant.

You know, for a while now I've been writing these blawgs on naughty things lawyers do to get into disciplinary trouble. What badness did the lawyer engage in that got them caught, and put at risk their law license - their means of earning a living?

Sometimes the stories are sad. A drug-addicted lawyer steals from a client. Or greed made them steal. But it's not only stealing that can lose a lawyer his or her license in disbarment. Any felony conviction means automatic disbarment, and misdemeanor convictions can lead to disbarment, to, or lesser penalties such as a law license suspension for months or years, or a slap on the risk, such as with a public or private censure.

Some of my fellow lawyers I feel sorry for, like the drunk driver lawyer who doesn't hurt anyone but is convicted and pays a criminal penalty, and then, maybe, receives a law license suspension and can't support a family.

But one constant applies to me across the universe of disciplinary cases and stupid stuff lawyers do. I never see myself in those decisions or, more specifically, I don't see myself doing the dumb stuff that jeopardizes some lawyers' license to practice law. Oh, maybe I could misplace a file and mess up by blowing a client's case deadline - a rather forgivable disciplinary offense; because it's stealing client money that is the great disciplinary no-no. And that is guaranteed to cost a lawyer his or her law license 100% of the time.

Now to the attorney disciplinary case that is today's subject: William B. Caits. Caits was admitted to the Bar in 1975, so if he was, for argument's sake, 25 years-old when he became a lawyer, today he's about 60 years-old.

So attorney Caits, who's around 60 years-old, walks into a Queens restaurant. Maybe a diner or what have you. And he's with his wife and child. So far, so good.

Caits is disturbed by noise emanating from a portable DVD player in a nearby booth, occupied by a female patron and her father. So Caits asks the girl to turn down the music. She doesn't turn the music down low enough to suit Caits, who next complains to the restaurant manager.

The manager suggests that Caits and his family sit somewhere else in the restaurant.

No maybe Caits was less than thrilled with that suggestion and maybe not. Perhaps the manager offered Cats and his family some free dessert items, or maybe the manager didn't do so, but should have.

We're not sure exactly what happened next, but the decision says, "the verbal altercation escalated, culminating with respondent [Caits] punching the victim." What really happened? I bet that the girl got "mouthy" with Caits in front of his wife and child. Maybe the girl's father did nothing or got mouthy too. Maybe Caits was subjected to insults. Caits appeared to have an attack of Machismo. So he slugged the girl.

Here's what's disturbing to me, Dear Readers. If I was in a restaurant with my family and some "girl" wouldn't lower her music so as not to disturb my family meal, and if she got "mouthy,' I would have hit her too. Or took the music machine and thrown it and, maybe, also jumped up and down on it. Or something. But man, I would have lost it!  So, there but for the Grace of God, go I.

On April 6, 2007, following a bench trial in Queens County Criminal Court, Caits was convicted of attempted assault in the third degree (Penal Law § 110/120.00[1] [intent to cause physical injury] ) and harassment in the second degree (Penal Law § 240.26). Both crimes are misdemeanors. The court sentenced Caits to a conditional discharge, $300 fine, and 12-week anger management program. Caits did not appeal, and satisfied all the terms of his sentence.

Whenever a lawyer is convicted of a crime, the disciplinary authorities have to consider disciplinary punishment.

The Appellate Division is not too happy with lawyer Caits, noting that he lied during both his criminal trial and disciplinary hearing testimony: when he said that he did not strike the woman twice and that he did not intend to cause injury.

On the "plus" side, Caits has a record of practicing law for 38 years with an unblemished disciplinary record, presented numerous attestations as to his integrity and good character, and served in the armed forces.

The Appellate Division concluded, "we find the mitigating factors vastly more compelling insofar as the instant misconduct was aberrational and was not indicative of his interpersonal relationship in the course of legal representation."

The penalty: Caits was publicly censured. Which is the Court's way of saying, "Don't do that again."

Caits got lucky. He probably should have just changed his table or left the restaurant. Or just grabbed and "beat up" the music player and not the person operating it.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Manhattan Injury Lawyer)

On Sunday, September 5, 2010, at about 1:30 AM, a taxi cab driven by Syed Nazir, age 49, was traveling north on First Avenue when it swerved to avoid a black Jeep Cherokee SUV, driven by Robert Batista, age 19, that may have run a red light at First Avenue and East 3rd Street. The taxi jumped the curb and slammed into a crowd of people in front of an East Village (Manhattan) coffee shop.

The cab then hit two bicyclists and crashed into the Bean Coffee Shop, where it mowed down another man who was inside the coffee shop.

Three people were injured, including one seriously. The three injured pedestrians hit by the cab were taken to Bellevue Hospital along with the cab driver and his passenger.

Police say none of the injuries are life threatening, although the condition of one pedestrian - who suffered injuries to his head, neck and hip - is described as critical but stable. The two bicyclists - men ages 28 and 29 - were both in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital with neck and back injuries, police said. Nazir of Brooklyn, was in stable condition at the same hospital, as was his passenger, a 30-year-old woman. The taxi driver suffered neck and back injuries; his passenger had an injury to her mouth.

One of the victims, "was run over completely," while another one went "head-on into the bean," said the doorman working at club Karma next door.

An area resident, who said the crash "sounded like an explosion," claimed that a man who was struck by the cab was bleeding from the face.

Jordyn Thiessen, who lives across the street, tried to help one of the bicyclists. "I was holding his head. He was on his side, bleeding profusely from his head."

Another witness from across the street said the man in the coffee shop "looked totally out of it, but he was still breathing."

"You really didn't hear the skid from the car; [just] people screaming and all of a sudden, glass hit," said Derreck Alexander, who works one door down from the site of the accident.

The front of the cab was damaged from the accident. The SUV, meanwhile, kept going and then stopped, with the driver emerging dazed, one spectator said.

Several witnesses noted that the area had been rife with accidents, with one claiming at least four had occurred in the past month because of a new street configuration.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Accident Attorney)

On Saturday, September 4, 2010 a race on a dangerous Staten Island street known as "dead man's curve" ended with a fiery crash Saturday that decapitated one of the drivers, police said.

Philip Boney-Scrivano was speeding in a 2009 Honda sedan he bought this week for his 20th birthday. He raced along at about 100 mph with another car in hot pursuit about 2 a.m. When the speeding cars reached a bend on Bay St. where two lanes merge into one - tragedy struck.

Boney-Scrivano, whose friend sat beside him as he tore down the quiet street, lost control of his car, which skidded wildly for more than 100 feet before it jumped a curb, plowed into a parking meter and them slammed into a utility pole, police said.

Boney-Scrivano was thrown from the vehicle; and his body was cut in half when he hit the pole, police and witnesses said.

"The boom was so loud it sounded like it happened in my house," said Jorge Vendrell, 40, who lives a few doors down from the gruesome wreck.

His out-of-control car - with pal Jean Carlos, age 25, still strapped in the front seat - smashed into a gas pump at the Citgo station at the corner of Hannah St. The pump exploded and searing flames quickly engulfed the Honda and Boney-Scrivano's body.

Remarkably, firefighters managed to pull Carlos - who suffered severe burns and cuts to his head - from the burning, mangled car. He was rushed to Richmond University Medical Center and is expected to survive, police said. Firefighters were able to contain and extinguish the flames.

"The car isn't even a car anymore," said one witness too shaken to give his name. "It's a f---ing miracle anyone survived that."

The driver of the other car in the race - Korey Swat, age 33 - stopped a short distance from the accident and was arrested as he gaped at the flames, authorities and witnesses said.

Swatz, who lives on Staten Island, was charged with driving while intoxicated, police said. Staten Island prosecutors say he could face other charges directly related to the crash that killed Scrivano.

The stretch of Bay St. where Boney-Scrivano died is notorious as a popular spot for drag racers, complained rattled residents.

"They call it dead man's curve," said John Encarnacion, assistant manger at the Rent-a-Center next door to the Citgo.

"Drag racing and betting - it's dangerous," said Encarnacion, 21. "It gets very [busy] out here, especially in the summer. This road's a killer."

Co-worker Steven Kupseta agreed.

"People try to race and figure they can have fun, but this is what happens," Kupseta said.

Boney-Scrivano, a hockey player at Susan E. Wagner High School, bought the Honda five days ago, distraught neighbors said.

Investigators suspect Boney-Scrivano was drinking before the crash. His MySpace page is full of references to marijuana and his most recent Facebook posting was Wednesday when he asked "Anyone down to blaze?"

The grisly wreck comes just days after two young Staten Island men were killed when their car flipped over after hitting a telephone pole.

Daniel Peluso, 19 and Jeff Capretta, 20, died after their Nissan Altima was nearly cut in half in the Sunday morning crash. Investigators believe alcohol played a role in that accident.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Injury Attorney)

A new case is reported from New York State's Appellate Division on an appeal from a Manhattan case; and boy, am I angry! I've seen this sort of thing time after time.

Of what do I speak?

New York State's No-Fault "serious injury" requirement. This dumb technicality is used time and again to throw accident victims out of court and onto their posteriors.

Basically a car accident victim must suffer one of nine different types of injury to have an accident case heard in court. The kicker is that whether or not the injury qualifies can be hard to figure out.

Some are easy. Like "death." Or a "fracture." But other categories make less sense, like "significant limitation of use of a body function or system," etc. For more on this, see my FREE Special Report at:

http://www.garyrosenberg-law.com/documents/Reports/Report_10.PDF

On to the personal injury case at hand, Travis v. Batchi, which was decided by the Appellate Division, First Department, on July 1, 2010 and is reported at 905 N.Y.S.2d 66.

The holding of Travis is that the accident victim did not suffer a serious injury within the meaning of the No-Fault law. So what happened?

The injured plaintiff made a mess of her right knee, requiring major surgery, including reconstruction of her anterior cruciate ligament, partial medial and lateral meniscectomy and chrondroplasty. This is pretty serious stuff.

However, like many surgeons in love with their own results, the injured plaintiff's orthopedist

reported in his records that his patient made a great recovery after the accident, and that the knee regained full strength and range of motion. Also, Ms. Travis worked from home beginning two months after the accident through her return to her office five months after the accident.

In opposition to the defense motion, plaintiff's knucklehead lawyer went back to the same orthopedist and got him to sign an affidavit saying that there was NOT a full recovery of that rascally ol' knee; without performing any testing to show any range-of-motion impairment.

It was not lost on the Court that this affidavit contradicted the doctor's own office records!

This is an on-going problem: surgeons who love their own results. In 25+ years I have yet to see a surgeon's records that say something like, "I did the best I could, but the result - after surgery - is pretty good but just not perfect." So, if you, Mr. or Ms. Plaintiff's Personal Injury Lawyer, find yourself in this situation, don't be lazy and don't be cheap. Send your client to a doctor other than the surgeon, who can more easily criticize the surgeon's result.

The problem with losing these motions is that it encourages the defense to keep making them. As long as some of us plaintiff's injury lawyers keep getting our butts kicked on New York's No-Fault "serious injury" threshold, we'll have to keep fighting. Hard.

See, also, my FREE book: WARNING! THINGS THAT CAN DESTROY YOUR CAR ACCIDENT CASE (And the Insurance Companies Already Know These Things).