Thanksgiving is officially behind us and holiday shopping hitting this peak only means one thing: Christmas is coming and it’s coming fast. Compared to last year, this Christmas opens a lot more opportunities for families despite the pandemic not being over. There is much less risk of contracting the virus for those who are vaccinated, so we are seeing a lot more events on Long Island this year.
However, families should still have some caution and think about what they are comfortable participating in. With the omicron variant reaching New York, there is still uncertainty and potential risk of contracting the virus. We always recommend following the CDC guidelines when going out.
Without further ado, here are some Christmas events to look forward to this holiday season.
The Riverhead Holiday Light Show is the East End’s newest seasonal tradition. Visitors enjoy an incredible drive through more than 1 1/2 miles of holiday light displays. The show is about 20-25 minutes long. You can purchase tickets for $23/car in advance or $25/car at the gate. The show starts the 19th and runs until December 30th on weekdays and Sundays from 5pm-9pm or Fridays and Saturdays from 5pm-11pm. You can purchase tickets here.
The Magic of Lights drive-thru spectacular returns to Jones Beach and Nassau County’s South Shore this holiday season. The display is stacked with new themed LED lighting displays and digital animations, plus plenty of returning favorites. A special feature of the 2020 Magic of Lights at Jones Beach is the all-new illuminating mega tree spectacular.
The Magic of Lights runs Sunday-Thursday, 5-10 pm; Friday and Saturday 5-11 pm from the 19th to January 2nd. Tickets purchased online can be redeemed for any show date.
Become captivated and charmed by the magical light displays set along Old Westbury Garden’s paths and grounds. The show is especially designed for Old Westbury Gardens by Lightswitch, a collective of internationally recognized lighting, media, and visual designers. Show dates are between November 20, 2021, and January 9, 2022 with entry every 15 minutes from 5:30 to 9:30pm.
Tickets can be reserved tickets here.
Long Island’s winter holiday park is back for another year. Enjoy a ton of over-the-top holiday fun, including Santa’s Toy Factory Funhouse, a holiday train ride, an ice skating rink, rock climbing, character meet and greets, holiday stories, build-a-bear experiences, ax throwing, and more. Runs: Dec. 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 26-Jan. 2. Fridays 6-10pm. Saturdays 3-10pm and Sundays 3-9pm. They have miniature golf and ropes courses available. Add a magical Santa experience for $15 per family (up to 6 people). More information can be found at their website.
Christmas House Long Island is an indoor, one-of-a-kind, fully immersive Christmas experience. Take a wondrous walk through all things Christmas, followed by a glorious gift shop and sweets wonderland.
Experience everything you love about Christmas, all in one place. All of your favorite Christmas sights, sounds, and smells come to life at Christmas House Long Island. More than 10 rooms are featured, including the Christmas Cake Walk, the Gingerbread Room, the Christmas Eve Room, and the snow-filled Christmas Forest. Located in Westbury tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for kids.
Steven Palermo is the managing partner for Palermo Law, Long Island’s Personal Injury Law Firm. He has been helping people receive compensation for their injuries for over 21 years. He focuses on cases involving car accidents, truck accidents, construction accidents and slip and fall injuries.
His book The Ultimate Guide to Handling New York Car Accident Claims details the ins and outs of a car accident claim in a simple, easy-to-read manner.
One of the most dangerous driving conditions a person can face is when driving on roads affected by winter weather. As a personal injury law firm, we’ve seen firsthand the effects winter weather can affect a person’s life. Whether someone slips and falls on ice or gets in a car accident from black ice or snow on the road, the injuries can be devastating and long lasting.
The scariest part about driving in ice is that it is so unexpected, meaning even if you are a safe and defensive driver you could easily fall victim to the slippery roads. However, there are some steps you can take to make you better equipped to handle the icy roads. Here’s how you can drive safe in snow and ice to prevent injury for yourself or someone else.
Prepare your car in advance for winter. Make sure your vehicle’s maintenance is up to date. You especially want to keep an eye on your battery; no one wants a dead battery in the freezing cold. You always want to check your wipers and wiper fluid to make sure your windshield stays clear of road salt and dirt.
Check your tires to make sure they are properly inflated, and the tread depth is acceptable. If you’re planning on using snow tires, you want to get them installed before the snow begins to fall.
Before you head out on an unusually snowy day, remember to clean off your vehicle’s roof. Not only is flying snow from your car a distraction to you and other drivers, but failure to remove snow and ice on your vehicle could result in a hefty fine in the state of New York.
By checking the winter road conditions before heading out, you’ll have an idea of what you’ll be facing on the roads. Remember, your vehicle handles each road condition differently; even with four-wheel or all-wheel drive, icy roads are still dangerous!
Ultimately, if there is dangerous winter weather approaching, try to avoid the roads as much as possible. Sometimes this is not an option, but if it is possible, it would be best to avoid the roads altogether.
If you are going to be driving in the snow and ice, give yourself plenty of time to get to your destination. Most of the time, driving accidents where the driver loses control can be prevented if the driver slowed down and increased the braking distance.
Distracted driving has been steadily increasing over the past decade. In 2016 alone, 3,450 people lost their lives in distracted driving accidents. 391,000 people were injured in distracted driving accidents in 2015. It’s a severe problem in the best of road conditions – throw snow into the mix, and you have a recipe for disaster.
When you face ice or snow on the road, your tires can easily skid due to the lack of friction. This is what often causes accidents, because the driver loses control and the brakes don’t work as they should. We have a more in depth blog on how to get out of a skid found here.
To summarize, here are 5 types of skids and how to get out of them:
If your wheels start spinning but you’re not moving, take your foot off the accelerator, and retry accelerating with a much lighter foot. Slowly and cautiously accelerate until your tires regain traction. You might have to give this a couple of tries if your wheels are stuck in snow. Driving slow on the road reduces your chances of having a wheel spin.
If your car is still moving while your wheels are braking, pulsate your brakes. Release them and softly/progressively brake again until you feel your wheels turn with your steering wheel toward a safe zone. Repeat this rapidly over and again until you come to a full stop in a safe area. To avoid this from happening, increase your braking distance and brake slowly.
An understeer skid is when you aren’t able to turn enough around a corner. Don’t turn your wheels further in that direction, this will not help. It will likely make it worse. Your best bet is to try to regain traction. Jerking your wheels straight and then slowly turning them in the direction you want to go can help your wheels gain traction so you avoid skidding off the road.
The “Oversteer Skid” happens when your rear tires lose traction on the road and propels your car into a slide, usually caused by a wheel spin in rear-wheel drive vehicles. The solution to an Oversteer Skid depends on whether you’re driving a rear-wheel drive car or a front-wheel drive car. If you’re driving a rear-wheel drive car, your first step should be to take your foot off the gas. If you’re driving a front-wheel drive car, take your foot off the brakes and gently apply gas. Then, slightly steer into a safe direction. If you jerk your steering wheel too quickly, you won’t gain any traction and thus continue to keep skidding. Progressively turning will help your wheels gain traction. To avoid this, try to slow down before approaching a turn.
If your car is skidding back and forth like a pendulum, you’re fishtailing. If you’re in a car with rear-wheel drive, your first step is to take your foot off the gas. If you’re in a car with front-wheel drive, take your foot off the brakes and gently accelerate. With each swing, slightly turn your wheel toward the direction you want to go. Again, if you turn your wheel too far, you won’t gain traction and you’ll continue to skid. So, remain calm, and continue to slightly turn your wheel in the direction your rear-end is fishtailing toward (likely the direction you were heading) until you gain complete traction back and can recover your trajectory.
Steven Palermo is the managing partner for Palermo Law, Long Island’s Personal Injury Law Firm. He has been helping people receive compensation for their injuries for over 21 years. He focuses on cases involving car accidents, truck accidents, construction accidents and slip and fall injuries.
His book The Ultimate Guide to Handling New York Car Accident Claims details the ins and outs of a car accident claim in a simple, easy-to-read manner.
When filing a personal injury claim to gain full compensation for your accident, your case is likely going to be against an insurance company for that compensation. Those insurance companies are going to do what they can to avoid having to pay out as much as possible. The main way they do this is to try and minimize the seriousness of your injuries so they can claim you don’t need the full compensation owed to you.
One thing insurance companies will definitely take advantage of is the social media account of the injured victim. Insurance companies will be keeping track of all of your social media trying to gather as much information as possible to use against you. Even if you are private or think you have the correct accounts blocked from your social media, there really is nothing stopping them from being able to see anything you post…even if you delete it. It is actually possible for the judge to allow all of your post history (including deleted posts) to be provided if the insurance company requests it. Therefore, here are the biggest Do’s and Don’ts with your social media accounts when pursuing a personal injury claim.
While it is very important to document as many details surrounding your injury, that should not be posted online. It’s important to not show your cards when it comes to your personal injury case. Any evidence you have, big or small, should only be shared between you and your attorney. So when you are in a personal injury lawsuit, it is imperative that you don’t post any photo or video evidence of the scene of the accident, or any pictures of your injury. Since your recovery will be greatly discussed during your case, it is also really important that you don’t document your road to recovery.
Everyone wants to share their sweet Instagram shots while they are on vacation. However, this is a very bad idea. You are trying to prove that your injuries have diminished your abilities and quality of life. Obviously, just because you are injured doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy yourself and have some leisure time. But it is a bad look in court, so keep your vacation private and post them online after your case is closed.
Additionally, really anything or any activity that shows any kind of semblance of what you’re able to do should not be posted. Social media posts can inadvertently show the other side what you’re physically capable of doing after your injury. If you post a picture of your children on the ski hill, the other side might ask who took the picture. If the answer is you, they’ll have proof that you’re on a ski hill. What you post can call your case into question in ways you may not be able to predict.
Even if you don’t post anything, pictures and comments from family and friends can also be used against you in your case. Therefore, it’s a good idea to tell them to not make comments about your injury or your case online. Additionally, they should avoid posting pictures of you and especially avoid tagging you in photos. This is just as risky as if you were posting them yourself.
With so many different things that you need to keep in mind in order to avoid harming your case, it might just be easier to pause your social media accounts. When we are on social media, it’s easy to feel compelled to participate and to share more about what’s going on in our lives. During a personal injury case, it’s very risky. Temporarily pausing or deactivating your accounts so that you don’t feel obligated to post might make it easier, as well as eliminate the risk of others being able to tag you in their posts or photos. Once the case is settled, you can resume posting to your heart’s content.
If this is not possible, it is very important that you are super careful with how you use your social media accounts. Avoid sharing your personal life and stick to liking others posts.
Steven Palermo is the managing partner for Palermo Law, Long Island’s Personal Injury Law Firm. He has been helping people receive compensation for their injuries for over 21 years. He focuses on cases involving car accidents, truck accidents, construction accidents and slip and fall injuries.
His book The Ultimate Guide to Handling New York Car Accident Claims details the ins and outs of a car accident claim in a simple, easy-to-read manner.
The holiday season is soon approaching. Decorations are coming out of the attic, students have booked their trips home, and Thanksgiving preparations are being made. This time of year, high commerce areas have increased traffic due to all of the holiday shopping. Whether you are getting gifts for Christmas, groceries for Thanksgiving, or just a really good Black Friday deal everyone is out shopping, and will be for some time.
That being said, this presents a greater risk for accident and injury, as hectic parking lots can mean lots of blind spots, unexpected pedestrians, and many impatient drivers. Here are some crucial tips to avoid an accident so you can avoid a dent in your holiday spirit as well as your car.
With the sun going down very early, there’s a good chance you’ll have to park your car in darkness. Sometimes parking in the closest spot isn’t the best spot. Parking in a well-lit spot with ample room is the safest place to park your car. You can much more easily navigate your surroundings because you can better see where you are going and you have more space to pull out of your spot. It is better to be in an open well-lit spot that is further away rather than be in a difficult and tight spot and risk getting your car hit.
It is very important that you pay lots of attention to your surroundings. Look out for cars backing up, and be careful at intersections. Even if there are stop signs, drivers sometimes do not take them as seriously in parking lots. Anticipate the actions of other drivers and be prepared to use your horn if another car does not seem to see you, especially if they are backing up and getting too close.
It is also important to drive slow as there could be shoppers walking all over the place. You do not want to be liable for a pedestrian accident. Pay special attention when backing out, or driving near the storefronts. Although they are helpful, don’t rely fully on your backup camera. Slow down at crosswalks, but be aware that many shoppers with cross the street without using a marked crosswalk.
It’s easy to get distracted by technology like your phone or GPS when you’re driving in a parking lot. You might be tempted to roll through the parking lot while scrolling on your phone, but this causes you to lose focus on the area around you. Be sure to set up all of your technology needs — like GPS directions or a text to let a friend know you’re on your way — before putting the car in gear. This reduces your distractions and allows you to pay more attention to what’s going on around you in the parking facility.
This is important to mention because studies show that 66% of drivers nationwide said they would make phone calls while driving in a parking lot. Other distractions include looking for something like your wallet, eating, or getting distracted by loud music.
Parking lots can be especially hazardous during snowy or icy weather. Oftentimes it takes a longer time for parking lots to get plowed than the main roads. Additionally, sometimes parking lots are not snow plowed as well as main roads.
Even if you are driving an all-wheel-drive vehicle, be aware of its limitations. Many people are under the impression that if their vehicle is equipped with this function they are invincible in snowy weather. All-wheel-drive will help your vehicle travel up that snowy hill or move through a snow covered road, but it will not help you stop. That’s why it’s important to always drive slowly on snowy or icy roads. Accelerate slowly, brake slowly over a longer distance, turn slowly. Although these are always good practices when driving on slippery roads, this is especially important in a parking lot, when many other cars are also maneuvering.
If you are walking in a parking lot, it’s important to be aware that other drivers may not be driving as defensively as you would like. Many drivers ignore normal traffic laws when driving in parking lots, such as ignoring stop signs and failing to use their blinkers. Additionally, at night it can be difficult for drivers to see you. Therefore, make yourself as visible as possible. Don’t weave in and out of cars. Use sidewalks and crosswalks where available. Pay attention to the brake lights of cars, knowing that they are trying to back out.
Steven Palermo is the managing partner for Palermo Law, Long Island’s Personal Injury Law Firm. He has been helping people receive compensation for their injuries for over 21 years. He focuses on cases involving car accidents, truck accidents, construction accidents and slip and fall injuries.
His book The Ultimate Guide to Handling New York Car Accident Claims details the ins and outs of a car accident claim in a simple, easy-to-read manner.
Alcohol-related accidents are often the most devastating. The blatant impairment a driver has while under the influence of alcohol can lead to severe life-changing injuries or even death for themselves and those they share the road with. Even though it might seem like an open and shut case for financial compensation, it’s not always clear who is responsible for those injuries. There are a few factors that are taken into account in a personal injury claim when these types of accidents occur.
According to the CDC, alcohol use has been a factor in over a quarter of all fatal car crashes. This statistic is only referring to accidents resulting in death, so the amount of people affected by serious injury is even higher. Allowing someone to drive while their judgment is impaired creates a dangerous environment for everyone on the road.
In the United States and its territories it is illegal to drive while drunk. Being “legally drunk” has been quantified by the NHTSA into the amount of alcohol present in the bloodstream, which in turn can determine how much someone is affected by alcohol. In most of the country, New York included, having a BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) of .08 (g/dL) is considered drunk. Additionally, in the state of New York, you can be charged for being impaired if your BAC is over .05.
Despite legislation to keep drunk drivers off the roads, people still make the dangerous and reckless choice of getting behind the wheel while under the influence of alcohol. A person with a blood alcohol level close to the legal limit is six times more likely to die in a car crash than an unimpaired driver. And when that person is on the road, they share that risk with everyone else on the road, even though they are driving responsibly.
Victims of crashes that involve drunk driving have legal recourse. As mentioned earlier, there are multiple factors that may come into play when alcohol is involved in a motor vehicle accident. For example, if the drunk driver came from a bar or restaurant, it is possible that they overserved someone who is visibly intoxicated, and may be partially liable for the damages.
There’s a chance that had that establishment not over-served said individual, they may have chosen not to drive drunk. So, if you are seriously injured in the accident and the drunk driver does not have sufficient automobile insurance to cover your damages (medical bills, pain and suffering, etc.), you may be able to collect from the establishment’s liquor liability insurance if they have it. If the establishment does not have liquor liability insurance, you may be able to collect from the establishment’s assets.
Obviously, no one ever expects to be in a car accident, let alone one involving a drunk driver. With all the factors that come into play regarding compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and emotional damages as well as the different insurance coverages involved in repaying those damages; it’s a good idea to contact a personal injury attorney who is experienced in helping victims from liquor liability accidents to help ensure that all the losses from the accident are accounted for and compensated.
Steven Palermo is the managing partner for Palermo Law, Long Island’s Personal Injury Law Firm. He has been helping people receive compensation for their injuries for over 21 years. He focuses on cases involving car accidents, truck accidents, construction accidents and slip and fall injuries.
His book The Ultimate Guide to Handling New York Car Accident Claims details the ins and outs of a car accident claim in a simple, easy-to-read manner.