New York City 190 articles

An investigation into the brutal elevator death of a New York City advertising executive “starkly showed safety protocols were ignored,” according to the city’s Department of Investigation Commissioner. Suzanne Hart, 41, was killed December 14 after the office elevator she was stepping into suddenly shot upward, trapping her by the leg and crushing her between the car and shaft. The horrific incident occurred in the Madison Avenue office building of Young & Rubicam, where Ms. Hart was director of new business. Video surveillance recordings show two workers of Transel Elevator, an elevator maintenance and repair company, leaving the Young & Rubicam ... Read More

NEW YORK CITY — A criminal investigation into the horrific elevator death of Suzanne Hart, a 41-year-old advertising executive with the Manhattan advertising firm Young and Rubicam, is underway. Ms. Hart was killed December 14 when she was stepping onto an elevator at her firm’s Madison Avenue office building. Responders and witnesses, including two other people who entered the elevator ahead of Ms. Hart, said that the elevator suddenly shot upward with the door open, catching Ms. Hart by the leg and crushing her between floors. A joint investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the New York City Buildings ... Read More

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued an immediate cease and desist order against a Pennsylvania bus company that federal inspectors ordered off the road in December after deeming it to be an “immediate hazard” to public safety. Double Happyness (sic) Travel Inc. of Huntingdon Valley, Penn., was found to be selling passenger tickets in violation of the agency’s December 23 order to “immediately cease all intrastate and interstate passenger service.” An extensive review of the company’s operations turned up multiple serious violations concerning hours-of-service, vehicle maintenance, driver qualification, records of duty, and drug and alcohol testing violations. ... Read More

An Atlanta-bound single-engine airplane carrying five people and a dog spiraled out of control in the air above northern New Jersey and crashed onto a busy highway Tuesday, killing all of the plane’s occupants. The airplane, a Socata TBM-700 turboprop, plunged into the wooded median on Interstate 287 in Morris Township, New Jersey approximately 14 minutes after taking off from Teterboro Airport near Hackensack, NJ. Aboard the plane were two New York City Investment bankers, Jeffrey Buckalew, 45, and Rakesh Chawla, 36, both managing directors at the Manhattan-based firm Greenhill & Co. Accompanying them were Mr. Buckalew’s wife Corinne, their ... Read More

The long list of occupational hazards that threaten to injure or even kill employees on the job usually doesn’t include elevators, but that is what made Suzanne Hart’s death so unexpected and shocking. Ms. Hart, a 41-year-old ad executive at Young & Rubicam, one of New York City’s leading advertising agencies, was stepping into an elevator a week ago Wednesday morning as she had done for years in her home office. But without warning, the elevator jolted upward, catching Ms. Hart and dragging her until she was pinned in the elevator shaft between the first and second floors. Emergency responders ... Read More

A romantic twilight helicopter tour over the glittery Las Vegas strip and surrounding attractions turned deadly Wednesday after the aircraft plunged to the bottom of a canyon, killing all five people aboard. Pilot Landon Nield, 31, worked for Sundance Helicopters, a Las Vegas-based tour operator for approximately 3 years. Aboard the helicopter with him were Delwin and Tamara Chapman, both 49, of Utica, Kansas, who went to Las Vegas to renew their wedding vows after 25 years of marriage; and newlyweds Anupama Bhola, 26, and Lovish Bhanot, 28, residents of New Delhi, India. The Clark County Coroner’s Office said that ... Read More

Amateur soccer players who “head” the ball frequently while playing and practicing the no-arms-allowed sport are likely to damage their brains and develop subtle but serious declines in thinking and coordination, a new study has found. Researchers from New York City’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine presented findings November 29 at the Radiological Society of North America’s annual meeting showing microscopic changes in brain matter among a group of amateur soccer players who played the sport since childhood. The average age of the soccer players was 31. The researchers used an advanced MRI technique to detect changes in the white ... Read More

When orthopedic device manufacturers conceived all-metal hip implants a decade ago, their intention was to provide patients with a more durable and longer lasting alternative to traditional devices, which incorporate plastic or ceramic components. But according to a new report published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal, that plan appears to have backfired. According to Reuters, the new report’s findings “could hurt orthopedic companies that make the devices and accelerate lawsuits.” Instead of less pain and greater mobility, many recipients of all-metal hip devices, including the ASR implants manufactured by DePuy Orthopaedics and recalled last year, experience acute pain and ... Read More

What happens when patients with implanted cardiac defibrillators die? Their heart can receive shock after shock from the devices intended to jolt the heart back to a normal rhythm. This can make otherwise peaceful dying processes painful for the patient and horrifying for family standing by. That’s the findings of a new report published in the American Journal of Nursing, gathered by Jim Russo, a registered nurse who works at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New York City. Russo read a report describing the death of a hospice patient who “suffered 33 shocks as he lay dying ... Read More

The Whole Foods grocery chain has reportedly yanked Skinnygirl Margaritas, bottled cocktails concocted by Bethenny Frankel of Real Housewives of New York City fame, off its shelves after discovering it contained an ingredient that has been linked to leukemia and other forms of cancer. On the Skinnygirl website, Frankel calls the drink “the margarita you can trust” for its “all natural ingredients” and “no preservatives,” when actually the drink contains sodium benzoate – a preservative that becomes carcinogenic when combined with vitamin C (ascorbic acid). The Whole Foods grocery chain, which specializes in selling only natural and organic products, said ... Read More