Garbage Truck Accident Feared In E Village After Brooklyn Crash

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Residents of an East Village block plagued by garbage trucks are on edge after the driver of a city-owned sanitation truck recently ran over and killed a pedestrian in Crown Heights, say locals and elected officials.

The 33-year-old Department of Sanitation worker, Aaron Gilchrist, was arrested and charged for plowing into 37-year-old Alberto Leal on Oct. 11 while turning against traffic onto a one-way street. Now that the city's Department of Sanitation has begun parking garbage trucks on E. 10th Street between First and Second avenues, and two other East Side streets, locals fear that it is only a matter of time before an accident occurs.

One block local witnessed a close call on the street's bike lane and says an accident is inevitable.

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"I saw a cyclist nearly get crushed against a car by one of these trucks — there are too many of them, the streets too narrow for all this traffic. Someone is going to get hurt," said Melissa Arroyo, 39, who lives in an apartment overlooking the impromptu parking lot.

"I don't feel particularly confident in the Department of Sanitation after what happened in Crown Heights and I just hope it doesn't take someone getting killed for the city to see reason that these trucks must be moved now."

In a recent letter to the Mayor's office, Councilwoman Carlina Rivera noted that the Crowns Height crash "heightened residents' sensitivity about the issue."

"They note that this highly trafficked part of the East Village, which sees pedestrian activity late into the evening due to a robust nightlife culture, is primed for a similar tragedy," Rivera's letter continues.

"We need to work together to relieve the burden on these constituents and move the sanitation vehicles off this narrow side street."

State Senator Brad Hoylman also noted that the trucks are "endangering cyclists" in a recent letter demanding an alternative solution to Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.

Sanitation officials began parking vehicles on E. 10th Street, Mt. Carmel Place and York Avenue in mid-September after the agency's lease at a 606 W. 30th St. garage expired. The department is also parking at least a dozen trucks at Pier 36 in the Lower East Side.

City officials have long known that it would need to seek new space to store the trucks, but has yet to find a suitable alternative. As a "last resort" the city peppered the vehicles across the East Side because they are near stations where sanitation workers receive orders and use the restroom, according to Department of Sanitation spokeswoman Belinda Mager.

City sanitation and transit officials "continue to evaluate the potential of suggested alternative parking locations" by local officials and community members, said Mager.

Fed up residents and small business owners have slammed the city for the move, citing public health, safety and accessibility issues. The wall of 12-foot high trucks has blocked visibility of the street and caused an uptick in buzzed bar-goers taking advantage of the cover to relieve themselves — it has also become a boon to criminals.

On Oct. 11, a man menaced a Department of Sanitation worker with a gravity knife in front of E. 10th Street bar Pinks, police said. The bar itself has suffered a sharp decline in weekend business since the trucks began parking in front of the watering hole.

The complaints are piling up, but they're falling on deaf ears, said one E. 10th Street resident who worries the situation will get worse before it gets better.

“The city is throwing residents under the bus here, or under the garbage truck, really," said Andrew Secular, 58, who has lived on the block for 16 years with his wife. "I truly honestly believe in my heart of hearts that someone is going to get hurt."

Photo courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch