Nassau County Personal Injury Law Blog

Limited service is once again being provided along the rail line between New York City and communities to the east following last week's stunning collision of two Metro-North trains. Regular full-time runs are expected to resume on Wednesday, according to Metro-North officials. Amtrak officials say regular service in the area of the derailment and collision is expected to be restored as of today, as well.

More than 70 people were injured when a New Haven-bound commuter train derailed Friday evening and collided with one coming from the opposite direction. Five individuals were reported to have been injured critically. They were among multitudes that were rushed to hospitals in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 

A lot has been said about distracted driving and the dangers it poses to everyone on the road. So many fatal car accidents occur in New York and the rest of the country because of momentary diversions of attention toward texting, cellphone calling, make-up application or just general rubbernecking.

Safety experts are doing all they can to try to counter such activity. The laws are getting tougher regarding the use of handheld devices while driving and driving drunk. But there’s one thing experts admit they can’t do much about: drowsy driving. 

If there are voices out there opposed to the notion of reducing sports-related traumatic head injuries, they aren’t particularly prevalent. That’s probably just as well. As any Nassau County attorney with experience in personal injury can attest, it doesn’t take much to inflict injury to the brain.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, falls are responsible for more than 35 percent of all head injuries. Motor vehicle wrecks are cited as causing just over 17 percent of traumatic damage to the brain. And that’s nearly matched by head injuries caused when a person collides with either a stationary or moving object, like another human being on a playing field. The CDC says such so-called “struck by/against” events are the second leading cause of TBI in children.

Bicycling as a main mode of transportation has come a long way in the past few years. As the cost of gassing up our motor vehicles has gone up, the appeal of bicycling in the boroughs of New York has increased.

But with that rise has come a corresponding increase in the numbers of accidents between bicyclists and pedestrians and motor vehicles. And, of course, the generally unprotected bikers and walkers are the ones that have suffered the most in terms of injuries, both fatal and non. And statistics from the city's Department of Transportation indicate that Brooklyn is the borough where people tend to fare the worst.