The Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge's recently renovated off-ramp has claimed another life: Beatriz Rodriguez, who was a passenger in a car that crashed into a Long Island City beauty salon after careening from the bridge on Wednesday, died yesterday. Last week, a 68-year-old pedestrian standing in front of the salon was killed when a car, also careening from the off-ramp, slammed into him. Rodriguez's sister-in-law told the Post, "They should definitely fix that bridge exit. I think she would be alive today if they would have fixed it." more ›

Early yesterday morning, a car careened off an Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge ramp and into a Long Island City building, resulting in injuries for the driver and passenger. This was the second accident off the ramp in nine days—and the car hit the same store, a beauty salon. Business owners declared the recently-renovated ramp a "death trap" as cops arrested the driver for aggravated unlicensed driving. more ›

A week after a car careened off the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge and barreled into a strip of Long Island City stores, it's happened again this morning. The car careened off the bridge into the same group of stores. The crash occurred around 4:30 a.m. and MyFoxNY reports, "The driver of a 2006 Volkswagen Jetta driving Queens-bound on the lower level of the Queensboro Bridge lost control and crashed into a building at Crescent Street and Queens Plaza." more ›

Yesterday we reported that an elderly man suffered an amputation after falling into the subway tracks at 14th Street and Broadway, and today more upsetting details have emerged. The victim was actually 84-year-old Anatoliy Zilberman, a partially-blind resident of an assisted-living facility on 23rd Street who suffered from Alzheimer's. He lost several toes on his left foot and suffered severe bruising after wandering onto the the 4 train tracks yesterday afternoon. more ›

A 70-year-old man reportedly suffered an amputated leg and severe head trauma after being struck by a subway on 14th street and Broadway. He is currently conscious and being transported to Bellevue Hospital. The NYPD said they had no further details at this time. more ›

It's a tough day for Dustin Dibble, who says he was so drunk he doesn't remember being run over by an N train in the Union Square subway station in April of 2006. A jury awarded him $2.3 million last year, deciding that the motorman had plenty of time to stop the train when he spotted Dibble, 25, lying on the tracks 180 feet away, but kept moving because "he thought it was garbage." Well, today's verdict from the state Appellate Division rips that theory to shreds. more ›

In what's being considered a successful operation, doctors amputated a woman's big toe to replace her left thumb. Long Island woman Shannon Elliott lost three fingers in November after picking up an M80 firework that had been thrown at her leg, which then exploded in her hand. Doctors at Stony Brook University suggested replacing her thumb with her big toe, saying she would gain use of her hand will little change to her ability to walk or run. She told reporters the decision was a "no brainer." more ›

The 31-year-old West Hartford resident who nearly sawed off his left arm while trapped in a boiler told reporters that he first screamed for 12 hours while in his basement. When it became clear no one was coming, Jonathan Metz realized he started to smell his arm rotting, "At that point, I had a decision to make" about cutting his arm off. "I definitely dithered for a few hours after coming up with the initial idea," he said. "I thought there must be some other way, so I kind of started looking around my surroundings again. Maybe there was something I missed. You know, what would MacGyver do if he were here?" (Video of his press conference below.) more ›

Jonathan Metz, the 31-year-old West Hartford, Connecticut resident who sawed off most of his left arm that was trapped in his boiler, is expected to give a press conference at 2 p.m. Metz decided on the drastic measure because, as he was stuck for two days, his arm started to decay and Metz's doctors praised his decision, saying his arm was gangrenous and could have killed him. more ›

A 31-year-old man was trapped in his Hartford, Connecticut basement for days when his arm became trapped in a furnace. Jonathan Metz was trying to fix the furnace on Sunday when he got stuck. His calls for help were unanswered and two days later, the Hartford Courant reports, "He was in and out of consciousness, but Metz, 31, knew what he had to do. He had to cut his arm off." more ›

At least twelve children had fingers cut off by Maclaren strollers before the company announced in November a "voluntary recall" of all their strollers sold since 1999. None of those 12 were in NYC, but earlier this month it was revealed that a Brooklyn child has joined their unhappy ranks. The parents of Shannon Windram, who was 2½ at the time of the accident in March 2004, have filed the first NYC lawsuit against Maclaren. And now the Sunset Park family has shared their traumatic experience with the media. more ›

For at least five years, popular stroller company Maclaren knew that children had been losing fingers in their stroller hinges, but the UK-based company did not inform the public or issue a recall until federal regulators all but forced it to do so. At least twelve children have had fingers cut off by Maclaren strollers, and earlier this week the company announced a "voluntary recall" of all their strollers sold since 1999. But the Consumer Products Safety Commission [CPSC] may still come down hard on the company. more ›

As if the story of the woman who lost all of her limbs and went blind in one eye due to a missed diagnosis could not get any more tragic, today we learn that Tabitha Mullings is on her second pair of prosthetic legs and is awaiting a new set of robotic hands—because the original ones were stolen out of her car. Mullings is the 33-year-old Brooklyn woman who made headlines last year when when she was diagnosed at Brooklyn Hospital Center for a kidney stone, but it turned out that she had an infection that put her into a coma and forced her to have all four limbs amputated. Mullings is suing the hospital and the city for $100 million. The News checks in with the East New York woman, who tells them about the car being stolen since they last heard from her. She says, "My legs were still there in the trunk," but also adds, "It was only my hands and feet that were taken, not my heart and soul." The News says that Mullings's new robotic hands will be considerably more high-tech than the stolen pair, costing $70,000. more ›

Brooklyn Heights construction worker Robert Keller appeared to be as dead when an out-of-control, drugged-up driver came heading straight for him at 60 mph while at his Far Rockaway work site last Friday. But his life was saved by Ossining's Michael Hudson, the flagman on his crew, who shoved Keller, took the blow of the speeding vehicle along with him and ended up losing a leg in the process. Hudson still has internal bleeding and has just been released from intensive care. Keller tells the Daily News his co-worker was his "guardian angel." Hudson's girlfriend said, "He looked awful, and I didn't know if he was going to make it. I didn't know if he would live to hear me say 'I love you' one last time." As for the woman who admitted to cops that she had smoked crack and was arguing with her passenger before plowing into the construction site near JFK, she is in jail with bail set at $250,000. Yolanda Silvera of Long Island has been charged with second-degree assault, second-degree vehicular assault, second degree reckless endangerment, DWI and other violations. more ›

The narcotics officer who lost his leg below the knee after getting pinned by a crashed car got a much-needed boost from a fellow NYPD amputee. Officer Eric Grimes was leading drug suspects into a police van in Brooklyn on Tuesday when two cars collided and jumped the curb, crushing his lower left leg and foot. When he awoke from surgery at Kings County Hospital later that night, a surprise visitor was waiting for him: Officer Rachid Elkadi, whose right leg was amputated below the knee in May 2006 after an off-duty motorcycle accident. Elkadi spent an hour with Grimes to show him that his amputation didn't have to be a career ender; Elkadi himself returned to work a year after his accident. Now a "field intelligence officer" in Queens, Elkadi spoke with the Daily News about his bedside visit: "[Grimes] let out a sigh of relief and said, 'You are a breath of fresh air. I needed to see you.' He asked me how my life has changed. I said, 'You are not limited to anything.'" more ›

An unidentified NYPD narcotics officer had one of his legs amputated below the calf last night after getting pinned by a car that jumped the curb during an accident in Brooklyn. The plainclothes officer, a five and a half year NYPD veteran, was loading drug bust prisoners into a van at about 5 p.m. at the intersection of Avenue U and East 34th Street in Marine Park, when two vehicles traveling opposite directions slammed into each other and jumped the curb. The cop was rushed to Kings County Hospital and is listed in serious but stable condition. No one else was hurt in the incident, and according to 1010 WINS, neither of the drivers have been charged and police have ruled this an accident. more ›

Doctors are trying to reattach a Brooklyn man's leg after a terrible crash in Mill Basin last night. 1010 WINS reports that a livery "cab traveling on E57th Street south of Avenue L around 7:45 p.m. swerved to avoid a car pulling out from a driveway on the right side of the road and slammed into the man who was across the street putting his child in a car-seat." A neighbor told the Post, "I saw the cab swerve and the next thing you know his leg was down the street. He was on the ground totally quiet." Neighbors apparently helped by putting the leg on ice and the man was taken to Bellevue Hospital. The baby was slightly injured. more ›

Tabitha Mullings, who claims that Brooklyn Hospital Center ignored a condition that led to the amputation of her hands and legs, expressed her optimism as she headed to the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation yesterday. She said, "I know this is the place that is going to get me back on my feet... I want to thank God for giving me a chance to live through this. My goal is to walk out of this hospital with my hands and legs before Christmas so I can spend it with my family and friends. The first thing I will do is hug my kids as tight as possible." more ›

Taryn Kapronica, stage name Bettie B. Goode, may be the sickest air guitarist in the region, but the Brooklynite's title has come with a hefty price: her toe. The Daily News says the winner rocked her U.S. Air Guitar Championships Brooklyn Regional performance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg so hard that her toe bent backwards and was later amputated! She told the paper that: "By the time I hit the ground and looked down, my toe was pretty much gone and just hanging from a thread." Blood dripping across the stage, she continued to play finish her air cover of Scorpion's "Rock You Like a Hurricane," saying "I just kept on air guitaring". The U.S. Air Guitar blog has an account of the incident, which took place on July 9th:

Then, it happened. Bettie B. Goode started her routine by jumping off the stairs you take to get from backstage to on-stage. She promptly ran up to the balcony, climbed over the railing, onto the plexi-glass awning above the soundbooth that is, presumably, there to prevent drinks from the balcony falling on the sound equipment – that is to say, not meant to support the weight of a full-grown human being, no matter how slight or dainty her build. Bettie then ran over to the judge’s table where we all got a good look at her toe, which by then, was broken in half, bleeding, with white bone showing. She beat out the two technically superior contestants, but I mean... Bone was showing. She was declared the winner and promptly whisked away to the emergency room. Which just goes to show... In Air Guitar, sometimes when you win, you actually... are insane.

The 90-year-old man mauled by a neighbor's pit bulls yesterday morning had his left leg amputated. Henry Piotrowski's niece said he will probably lose one of his arms. more ›

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