Dangerous NYC Trash Trucks Targeted By NYPD Crackdown

NEW YORK — The NYPD announced a weeklong crackdown Monday on New York City's private waste-hauling industry, which police officials say has killed 20 people in the past three years.

The Police Department and the Business Integrity Commission, which regulates the industry, will have at least one vehicle in every police command this week in an effort to ticket trash trucks for traffic violations and inspect them for defective equipment, officials said.

The enforcement initiative began Sunday night after spot inspections in Manhattan's 19th Precinct and Brooklyn's 62nd Precinct found trucks with faulty brakes and broken fuel lines and caught them running red lights and driving in the wrong direction, the NYPD said.

"Today the NYPD is taking aim at the private carting industry, an industry that has been operating recklessly in New York city and whose constant disregard for the law has proven fatal," NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said.

In addition to issuing summonses, police this week will take out of service and tow any truck found to have a serious equipment violations, officials said.

The city's private carters pick up trash from businesses and haul away construction debris, said BIC Commissioner Daniel Brownell. Fatigued drivers operate the massive trucks under pressure from their bosses to finish their routes as quickly as possible, making them a threat to others on city streets, he said. A ProPublica investigation published in January detailed such conditions.

Police have linked 20 traffic fatalities to the private carting industry since 2016 and have issued 1,826 summonses so far this year, an increase of 182 percent from 2017, Chief of Transportation Thomas Chan said. An NYPD employee was killed on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in August when a tire flew off one truck and smashed into his car.

"The size, the height, the weight of a private sanitation vehicle, combined with the hours of operation — often dusk and darkness — can be a deadly combination to our walking, biking and driving public," Chan said.

The industry has also proven fatal for workers. Some 82 percent of waste-worker deaths nationwide in 2016 occurred in the private sector, according to ProPublica. Mouctar Diallo, a worker in The Bronx, was reportedly run over and killed after falling off a truck in November 2017.

Monahan said the temporary crackdown should push carting companies to shape up.

"I expect the owners of these businesses will move quickly to ensure that not only their vehicles are brought up to code, but also that their drivers are properly trained in obeying the law," he said.

Two commercial waste trade groups — New Yorkers for Responsible Waste Management and the National Waste & Recycling Association — said they welcomed the NYPD's enforcement initiative. They touted efforts to improve safety, including better training for workers and the fact that most large-fleet trucks now have cameras, sideguards and other safety measures.

"Overall, we’re constantly building a culture of safety," Kendall Christiansen, NYRWM's executive director, and Steve Changaris, northeast chapter manager for the NWRA, said in a joint statement. "We look forward to reviewing the results of the NYPD’s initiative with the industry and agency representatives."

(Lead image: A private sanitation truck is pictured in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in 2005. AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)