An 81-year-old woman is recovering in the hospital after being hit by a Sanitation Department garbage truck in Bensonhurst Thursday morning.
Police say the truck operator was making a left turn onto 15th Avenue at the intersection with 85th Street, when they struck the woman in the crosswalk as she traversed the avenue. The truck driver remained on the scene.
Cops and paramedics responded to a 911 call a little after 8:30 a.m. and found the woman in the roadway with a leg injury, but conscious and alert. She was taken to NYU Langone-Brooklyn in Sunset Park in stable condition, and is recovering from her injuries.
“This incident is under investigation. The pedestrian was taken to a medical center for treatment of injuries,” said DSNY spokesperson Vincent Gragnani. “Our thoughts are with her and her family at this time.”
The incident comes just under a year after a woman was critically injured by a DSNY truck driver about a mile away, at 73rd Street and 11th Avenue in Dyker Heights. Earlier this year, a moped rider was killed by a DSNY truck driver in Brownsville.
DSNY trucks pick up residential garbage, but the private trash haulers that collect commercial trash have a long and sordid history of collisions. Earlier this year, a pedestrian was killed by a private garbage truck driver as they crossed the road near the harrowing intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, near the Barclays Center.
Following a spate of deaths and injuries connected to the sparsely-regulated industry, the city passed significant reforms aimed at mitigating cutthroat competitive practices by companies, assigning set numbers of private carters in municipally-designated waste districts. But the plan’s implementation has been exceptionally slow, owing to the pandemic, budget cuts, and industry lobbying.
