Mary's Blog I Love You

The uptick in electric scooter riding in New York City has come with a slew of complications, including a rising number of scooter-related injuries . New York City leaders and scooter company officials alike are weighing their options for creating a safer transit environment for these e-scooters. One recent report suggests that the most promising option is to create more third-lane, or bike lane, options for electric scooters. This report, compiled by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), found that most people who are injured in scooter accidents were riding on a sidewalk at the time of their accident. Their research suggests that scooter riders often do not feel safe enough to share the road with cars, so they opt for using sidewalks when bike lanes are not available. While this may keep scooter riders safe from colliding with vehicles, it puts pedestrians who use sidewalks at a greater risk. The data show that three out of every five scooter riders who were injured s...

Riding a bicycle in the city is one of the best ways to get around. It’s free, it’s good exercise, and it gives you a close-up look at your surroundings. However, the lack of a protective barrier usually provided by a car necessitates some extra safety precautions. In New York State, everyone under the age of 14 is required by law to wear a helmet while riding on a bicycle, even as a passenger. Children younger than one year of age are not allowed to ride as passengers on a bicycle. There are no explicit laws requiring adults to wear helmets while riding a bike in New York State, but some counties like Rockland and Erie counties have passed laws requiring anyone riding within the county to wear a helmet. Even though there is no law specifically requiring adults to wear a helmet while bike riding, a helmet could be the difference between life and death in a serious accident . According to a report from CBS 2, helmets reduce the risk of serious injury in a bicycle accident by up to 85...

Our injured client, a 61-year old female home attendant, tripped and fell , when an employee at the St. Barnabas Hospital Occupational Therapy Department unthinkingly placed a step stool directly behind our client’s feet, just as our client’s back was turned to help her own patient get ready for occupational therapy. Our client took one step back and tumbled right over the step stool.  Due to the clear severity of our client’s injuries, she was immediately taken to St. Barnabas’s Emergency Room with excruciating pain in her left leg. In fact, she had suffered a fracture of the left femur, a broken thighbone. The thighbone is one of the strongest bones in the body, but the fall was so forceful and broke the bone so badly, the doctors at St. Barnabas told our client only surgery could repair it.   The doctors however would not perform the surgery, because our client’s leg was severely swollen around the fracture site.  As a result, her fracture did not heal properly and s...

Another Romaine lettuce E coli outbreak?  Tanimura & Antle Romaine Lettuce has been linked to two cases of E. coli O157:H7 in Michigan.  A routine sample of the lettuce collected at a Walmart in Comstock Park, MI, and tested by MDARD’s Laboratory Division confirmed positive for  E. coli  0157:H7. Further analysis conducted by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services laboratory determined that the strain of  E. coli  recovered from the product sample is highly related genetically to  E. coli  causing two recent illnesses in Michigan.   The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) is advising consumers not to eat Tanimura & Antle brand romaine lettuce packed as single heads due to food safety concerns.   The lettuce was sold in a zip-top clear plastic bag with a blue label and white lettering. It has the UPC number 0-27918-20314-9 and a white sticker indicating it was packed in Salinas, Calif...