Staten Island Injury Law : New York Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Frank Dito : Decker, Decker, Dito & Internicola Law Firm : Traffic Accidents, Transportation Safety

With Halloween right around the corner, I am taking this time to urge Staten Island driver's to be extra careful this weekend. As a driver, expect the unexpected on Sunday. Young children, excited about endless bags of candy, have a tendency to forget about everything else, including how to safely cross the street. We need to be vigilant, especially as the sun sets and darkness prevents driver's from seeing trick-or-treaters, especially those wearing dark costumes. As a homeowner, we also need to make sure that our homes are safe for the little visitors who will anxiously run to our doors to yell "trick-or-treat." As parents, we need to make sure that our children are safe by making sure that their costumes fit properly, are reflective and flame retardant. I have include a list of tips to make this Halloween safe. Please follow them. Please have fun and be safe!

10 Tips to Make Your Halloween Safe!

1. Swords, knives, and similar costume accessories should be short, soft, and flexible and not easily mistaken for the real thing.

2. Avoid trick-or-treating alone. Walk in groups or with a trusted adult. Enter homes only if you're with a trusted adult. Otherwise, stay outside.

3. Fasten reflective tape to costumes or use reflective trick or treat bags to help drivers see you at night.

4. Examine all treats for choking hazards and tampering before eating them. Limit the amount of treats you children eat. Remind your children not to eat any treats until they get home.

5. Host a Trick-or-Treat party at your home. Plan games for the adults and children to play and ask each family invited to the party bring along a different bag of candy to share with your guests.

6. Hold a flashlight or glow stick while trick-or-treating to help others see you at night.

7. Look both ways before crossing the street. Use crosswalks wherever possible. Only walk on sidewalks and not in the street to stay safe.

8. Wear well-fitting masks, costumes, and shoes to avoid blocked vision, trips, and falls. Instead of a mask, wear face makeup. If masks are worn, make sure that they have nose and mouth openings and large eye holes.

9. Eat only factory-wrapped treats. Avoid eating homemade treats unless you know the person who gave them to you.

10. Never walk near lit candles or jack-o’-lanterns. Be sure to wear flame-resistant costumes. Although flame-resistant does not mean these items won't catch fire, it does mean the items will resist burning and should go out quickly once removed from the flame. Remember, flame-resistant doesn't’t mean fire-proof!

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The temperature is dropping and its starting to get dark by 6:30 which means that fall is upon us. Along with the changing of seasons, a new danger is presented to Staten Island drivers: falling leaves. Leaves on a roadway normally present little problem. However, add a little rain to those leaves and driving may becomes somewhat more of a challenge. Wet leaves can make steering, stopping and braking very difficult, especially when approaching an intersection or stop sign. Add an incline and it is even difficult to accelerate away from a stop sign without skidding. I know many auto body repair shops that look forward to this time of year and the accidents that the falling leaves cause.

To help make your fall driving safer, make sure that you change your wiper blades and check your tires and brakes. Falling wet leaves can stick to your windshield and old blades may not sufficiently clear the glass, obstructing your vision. Also, a check of your tires will ensure that they have enough tread on them to keep in contact with he pavement. When approaching an intersection, start to slow down well before you need to stop if you see leaves on the ground. When pulling away from a stop sign, be cautious as you may lose traction, compromising your ability to merge into approaching traffic.

With most cars on the road today being equipped with anti-lock brakes, it is important that you don't pump the brake pedal when you are on a slippery surface. Pumping the brakes will only reduce traction as the car's computer system will automatically adjust the braking pressure to compensate for the slippery surface. Anti-lock braking systems also allow you to steer while you are braking, enabling you to steer around a potential accident. 

Even without rain, leaves can obscure potholes, curbs and other street markings from view. Fall is a difficult time for driving as earlier sunsets make seeing pedestrians much more difficult at twilight, especially children who are coming home from after-school events. Please be careful and make sure that your car is properly maintained. The few dollars that you spend in buying new wiper blades may prevent a serious accident.

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The Staten Island Advance has reported that police recently arrested a 31-year old Staten Island resident for discharging a firearm. Although I cannot and do not condone such behavior, what is unique (although become less so) is how the police caught the alleged shooter. Tipped off by a 911 call, the police uncovered his Facebook boast of a night of drinking followed by the brilliant idea to fire his father's handgun into the neighboring swamp land. Now its easy to see that this person had what can be best described as less than average intelligence, but many people are still hurt by social networks.

When injured client's come into my office, especially younger clients that have Facebook right on their smart-phones, they leave my office with a copy of my report, The Dangers of Social Networking Sites, which informs them of the real dangers that these sites pose. All too often, people are quick to post the details of their accident to their Facebook or My Space pages. Sometimes, although seemingly innocent, the posts can compromise your claim for personal injuries. Its very easy for an insurance adjuster to search the Internet and find out vast amounts of information. They are able to find out your friend's names, your likes and dislikes, activities that you participate in and even possibly see some pictures. You can bet that this information "can and will be used against you in a court of law", without any warnings.

The posts can also lead to your house being robbed. People were instantly posting information on-line, providing their "friends" with almost real-time location information. Others would post about their wonderful vacation plans, detailing when they would be leaving and when they would be coming home. With a little bit of research, a thief would be able to gain entry into your home without any fear of being surprised and take their time to thoroughly search your home, possibly even returning on multiple occasions.  

Be careful with the information you share, who you accept as friends and continually check the security settings on your social network accounts. Besides the possibility of your personal information being shared with the wrong people, some of your quotes or posts may lead to an unwanted situation. So if you hesitate before you post, maybe you shouldn't have posted it after all.

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The Appellate Division has ruled that the family of a 17-year old Elm Park resident killed in a January 9, 2005 car crash can continue with their lawsuit against the City of New York for keeping their son's brain, without notifying the family, after the autopsy. The City Medical Examiner performed an autopsy on Jesse Shipley, at the family's request, and determined that the cause of death was the result of multiple blunt impacts to the head. The brain was removed from the body and placed in a jar preserved in a formaldehyde solution for further testing. Unbeknownst to the family, when the Jesse's body was returned for burial, the medical examiner withheld the brain. After a wake and a funeral, the family buried Jesse on January 13, 2005, without his brain.

In early March, more than 2 months after the autopsy report was signed, students from Jesse's school, Port Richmond High School, went on a field trip to the Richmond County Mortuary. During their tour of the Mortuary, some of the students observed a human brain held in a formaldehyde solution. In a surreal coincidence, the students realized that Jesse's name was on the jar. Word quickly spread upon the student's return to school and eventually, Jesse's sister, also a student and was also in the car crash that killed him, found out that Jesse's brain was still in the Mortuary and informed her parents.

A lawsuit seeking recover for damages for emotional injuries that the family suffered as the result of the mishandling of Jesse's remains under the right of sepulcher. Sepulcher is the right of decedent's next of kin to bury the remains of their decedent. The Coroner's failure to return the brain or to inform the family that he was holding the brain pending further testing necessitated a second funeral and burial. The City of New York moved to dismiss, arguing that the medical examiner's actions were immune from liability as they involved a discretionary act.

The Appellate Court held that the although the Medical Examiner has a right to perform an autopsy and to remove and retain body parts for further testing, they also have the obligation to turn over the decedent's remains to his next of kin for proper burial once the further testing has concluded. If the medical examiner had informed Jesse's family that his office was retaining the brain for further testing, the right of sepulcher would have been satisfied as the family could have made a decision as to postpone the burial until the remains could have been buried completely.

The result of this decision is that the lawsuit will continue and be resolved at an eventual trial. Damages differ under this theory as the likelihood of emotional injury is deemed so inherently genuine that neither proof of the plaintiff's accompanying physical harm nor of a specific medical diagnosis is necessary to a successful prosecution of a claim. In an ordinary personal injury action, the plaintiff is required to prove their injury by medical evidence and treatment.

Unfortunately, besides a lack of common sense and courtesy,  this terrible situation resulted from the City's budget cuts and Staten Island's continued reduction in services. The pathologist that performed the examinations on the preserved brains wasn't called until there were six brains, which could take months to accumulate. Again, Staten Island doesn't rate the same service as the other boroughs, allowing something as terrible as this to happen.

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